UNITED'S bowling stocks will be depleted for tomorrow's Mid North Coast Premier League T20 cricket clash against Port Pirates at Port Macquarie tomorrow.
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Strike bowler Sam Whitbread, all-rounders Danial Stone and Tom Burley and opening bowler Nathan Ballard are all sidelined.
Skipper Ricky Campbell will check with his third grade counterpart to see who can fill the gaps.
"But our third grade's coming second so we don't want to take too many of their players,'' Campbell said.
Campbell revealed that Josh Hyde, who lives in Port Macquarie, could make an earlier-than-expected debut for the club.
"He's going to come to practice this week and see how he pulls up,'' Campbell said.
The former Macquarie all-rounder is recovering from neck and shoulder injuries sustained during the rugby league season.
"It will be up to Josh,'' Campbell said.
"If he's not right then we won't risk him. We'll wait until after Christmas when we'll have him fulltime.''
Campbell admits he has 'no idea' who will open the bowling although he suggested Murray McCartney would be in the mix.
"We'll be putting him in cotton wool on Friday night,'' he laughed.
"He'll be bowling his four overs on Saturday for sure.''
Campbell added that T20 cricket gives him an option to experiment with his attack.
The absence of Stone and Burley means Campbell will also have to re-work his top order batting. Campbell missed last week's games so he'll take one of the spots and he said experienced Josh Ferris is likely to be promoted.
United has the bye in the opening game and will pick up three points from that.
"And if we lose the second game we'll still get a point. So the worst we can do from the weekend is get four out of six points,'' he said.
United won both games last Saturday and now lead the competition by four points.
"That's given us a bit of a cushion, so we'll still be in the lead whatever happens,'' Campbell pointed out.
