By Jesse Hogan
Rob Quiney is not one for sugarcoating. He knows the only reason he is getting a game for Melbourne Stars on Sunday night in Brisbane is because Kevin Pietersen is having a white Christmas back in England.
"I know I'm a bits-and-pieces player – and so I should be," the affable 32-year-old said, based on his middling Twenty20 record and the Stars' peerless depth.
Rob Quiney's primary concern is his team's record of losing their first two matches.Credit: Sebastian Costanzo
Rather being perturbed at being outside the Stars' first-choice team Quiney's primary concern is his team's record of losing their first two matches, and that a third would leave them probably needing to win all five of their remaining matches to quality for the Big Bash League semifinals.
"We've actually sneaked home quite a few times up here [at the Gabba] … we seem to just sort of fall over the line. We don't care how we do it [win] from now on … maybe we've got to do a different route than the past three years: be the underdog, come from behind and sneak into the four like some other teams have, and then give it a shake from there.
"That's our only option at the moment … and we've got ourselves to blame."
Quiney is one of two inclusions for the Stars, alongside wily paceman Clint Mckay. They replace Pietersen and Daniel Worrall.
The Heat have lost Joe Burns to Test duty but regained fast bowler and pinch-hitter Ben Cutting from the groin injury that sidelined him from the team's only match so far this season, away to Sydney Thunder last week.
Left-handed Quiney is in his second season of being a depth player at the Stars, having played only two matches last season. He, nevertheless, remains influential because of his popularity and upbeat presence in the dressing room, which even he admitted was extremely sombre after the Stars' home loss to Hobart last week.
Quiney has cause to be facing Brisbane at the Gabba, a venue at which he averages 53.23 across his six domestic one-dayers, including his career-best 119 two years ago.
"I like to come back to the Gabba. It's a nice place to play cricket, and bat especially. I'm not sure where I'm batting yet, but if I bat up the order hopefully I can take my opportunity, before KP comes back," he said.
"I've just got to do it to the best of my ability and take the chances when they come and make it hard for selectors to drop me."
Quiney predicted Worrall would not be burdened by his nightmare end to the Hobart match in which he finished with 0-60, the worst ever in the BBL or its state-based predecessor competition.
"He headbutts that situation, he understands what happened. It's given him a bit of grief but he's copped it. Hopefully he's had a bit of a laugh about it and moved on," he said.
Quiney said emerging paceman Scott Boland was capable of thriving if given an opportunity against the Heat, in place of Worrall.
"He's silent but violent … he doesn't speak very loudly so we tell him to use his outside voice," he said of the 25-year-old. "He's definitely got the burning desire to do well, and he's improving every year, which is awesome. Hopefully he can take the white-ball game on as well; his red-ball game has been fantastic."
BRISBANE (from): James Hopes(c), Daniel Christian, Ben Cutting, Ryan Duffield, Andrew Flintoff, Jason Floros, Cameron Gannon, Chris Lynn, Simon Milenko, Jimmy Peirson, Nathan Reardon, Mark Steketee, Dan Vettori.
STARS (from): Cameron White (c), Michael Beer, Jackson Bird, Scott Boland, James Faulkner, John Hastings, David Hussey, Alex Keath, Clint Mckay, Glenn Maxwell, Rob Quiney, Tom Triffitt, Luke Wright.