Tasmania admit their top order – Ed Cowan apart – are under pressure going into their Sheffield Shield clash with NSW.

Fourth-placed NSW go into the Bellerive Oval match on Saturday minus eight stars on World Cup squad duty but still boast a formidable attack including young cricketer of the year Sean Abbott, Gurinder Sandhu, Doug Bollinger and spinners Nathan Lyon and Stephen O’Keefe.

While opener Cowan has notched up four centuries to be the leading run scorer this season, batting has been third-placed Tasmania’s weakness.

Fellow ex-Test batsman Alex Doolan has managed a top score of just 38 from his seven innings this Shield season for third-placed Tasmania.

Tigers coach Dan Marsh said improved batting had been a major focus.

“We want all our batters scoring runs and that’s the challenge,” said Marsh.

“We’re working on it on a daily basis to get them in the right place to score the big scores that we need.”

He said the defending champion Blues’ depleted line up had his team on the alert.

“They’ve got Test players … they’ve got a really strong bowling attack,” he said.

With the ball, Tasmania boasts talent of its own, including NSW-born Jackson Bird who announced on Friday he has signed with the Tigers for another three seasons.

The 28-year-old former Test paceman said: “I had the opportunity to go elsewhere, but in the end it was a pretty easy decision to stay.”

The hosts will look to Bird and fellow paceman Andrew Fekete who tops the shield wicket count this season with 22-419.

Tasmanian squad: Alex Doolan (capt), Jordan Silk, Jackson Bird, Luke Butterworth, Ed Cowan, Ben Dunk, Andrew Fekete, Ben Hilfenhaus, Dominic Michael, Sam Rainbird, Clive Rose, Jon Wells.

NSW squad: Moises Henriques (capt), Nic Maddinson, Ryan Carters, Scott Henry, Nick Larkin, Kurtis Patterson, Peter Nevill, Sean Abbott, Stephen O’Keefe, Doug Bollinger, Nathan Lyon, Gurinder Sandhu.