WA and Sydney Sixers wicketkeeper Josh Philippe on COVID, contracts, technical changes and career-best year

Josh Philippe expects contract talks to start ramping up “pretty soon” but right now is focussed on making runs for WA and continuing a career-best campaign. The prolific wicketkeeper-batter will naturally be linked to New South Wales because of his involvement with Big Bash League outfit Sydney Sixers, where he signed on for another two years, but said there had been no discussions about swapping the baggy black cap for a baggy blue. Initial talks have begun between Philippe, his management and WA Cricket, but aren’t likely to progress until after the season. “I re-signed at the Sixers before the start of the season so I’ve got another couple of years there at least,” Philippe told The West Australian. “I’m out of contract at WA at the end of the season but I’m sure those conversations will start happening pretty soon I reckon. “There’s been nothing as of yet (from New South Wales), I just wanted to get through this season and I wanted to try and make as many runs as I can and then go from there.” Philippe has made the most of his chance with the gloves for WA this summer with Josh Inglis away on T20 World Cup duties before the BBL break, sitting third in the Marsh One-Day Cup runs with 253 at 50.6 and fourth in the Sheffield Shield with 434 at 54.25, scoring a century in each format to go with three half-centuries. He felt it had been his best domestic season “by a country mile”, putting it down to work with State batting coach Beau Casson, some technical changes and being settled behind the stumps. With Inglis part of Australia’s drought-breaking tour of Pakistan, Philippe will once again be the main man for WA when their season resumes in the 50-over arena against Victoria in St Kilda on Tuesday. “I’ve had a big focus on Shield cricket and one-day cricket and trying to be influential there and been really enjoying my cricket,” Philippe said. “I’ve been working really hard with Beau Casson on a few technical things and I feel like it’s definitely been my best domestic season by a country mile so far. “I’ve loved the chance to keep regularly, I’ve always thought to myself that when I’m keeping it definitely adds another string to my bow and I’ve always felt like I just seem to make more runs when I’m keeping. “It looks like I’m going to get the opportunity to do it a bit more at the back-end of the season with Ingo likely to go on the Pakistan tour so I’m ready to go for that and I feel like I’ve been keeping nicely as well. “Fingers crossed once we get out of this quarantine we can get back to playing some games, wherever they might be and hopefully make some finals for WA. “I had a very pronounced trigger for probably the last three seasons and I just really wanted to make that a lot more fine-tuned and get a lot more side-on because I felt like I was limited where I could score a lot of the time and I was very leg-side dominant. “When I line myself up a bit better and I’m not triggering as big, my balance has been a lot better which has helped me play a lot better through the off-side and make better decisions outside off stump which is probably the most important thing when you’re playing four-day cricket.” Sitting in a hotel room after getting struck down by COVID-19, Philippe naturally felt a bit helpless watching his Sixers get beaten by Perth in last month’s BBL decider. He was the Sixers’ leading run-scorer heading into finals, with 429 at 33 including a career-best 99 not out and three more half-centuries, but missed their last two games after returning a positive PCR test. “I guess it’s really disappointing, missing the last two finals, but something that I couldn’t control,” Philippe said. “It was quite strange watching my team play on the TV as I’ve never really done that before.” Unlike a lot of other BBL players who caught the virus during a tournament like no other, Philippe still felt 100 per cent without any of the usual symptoms which made the situation even more frustrating. “Not at all to be honest,” Philippe responded when asked about how hard COVID hit him. “I hardly had a symptom. I had to really look back and try to pinpoint if I noticed anything different. “So for me to watch the finals and watch a few of the boys play with little niggles while I was sitting on the couch feeling 100 per cent was probably the hardest part. “It was certainly another challenging year but you can’t take anything away from the Scorchers, they were the best team all year and ended up winning 13 of their 16 games. “It was disappointing to be struck by COVID at the back-end of the competition when we were going for a three-peat which no team has done, but we’ll be back and be stronger next year.”