Two years ago Sean Abbott was struggling to find any motivation to take his batting seriously.
Arriving on the home scene as a big-hitting lower order player who was good at batting ahead of Mitchell Johnson in his ODI debut, Abbott himself went as low as No. 11 for the NSW, even a one-time bowling all-rounder was lumped. With night watchman duties for the blues.
The dramatic fall in the order definitely stopped and when Abbott never stopped working on his game, his enthusiasm for batting was appreciably weakened.
“I don’t like to lose, so whenever I go out there and pick up a gun or not score big, it really hurts,” he says.
“Work was always done (but) if I say motivation was always there.
“When I was told to be a nightwatchman and bat at nine and ten o’clock you almost feel like going there and start slogging so you can reach the bow gender.”
Then his rise as a batsman was as fast as his fall.
Abbott was asked today if he could see himself batting at number or at the Australian Test team this summer, less than a week after his first Best Century batting average in the early round of the March Sheffield Shield reached 1,130. Second after Pukowski.
While this summer’s Test debut comes as more realistically as a bowler, but how far Abbott’s batting has come in two years is a measure that he is part of Australia’s all-rounder conversation.
Batting No. 10 in the Shield game in November 2018, behind Trent Copeland and ahead of Nathan Lyon, Abbott averaged 47 in 20 first-class innings, including five fifties and a memorable century. .
Over the past four years, his average was 15 and he was out without scoring almost every third time he went to the crease.
Once advancing the batting order, he is now a certified all-rounder for the Blues, batting at No. 7 ahead of the other four bowlers, giving them a team balance and an unbeaten start to the season.
“I definitely don’t think I’ll be batting at seven o’clock when (a few years ago) I was stepping out as a Knight Watchman and working for Nathan Lyon,” he said with a smile. “And not very good, I can add.
“It just kind of happened; I worked on my batting, I got better, I got some chances to get the order back and scored some runs. I’m so lucky that he worked this way … training the way they saw it Batted on and they supported me and trusted my ability to back up the order.
“I always thought I had hundreds at the first class level.
“I’m 28 now; I’ve got a lot of opportunities with the bat, and I’ve lost a lot of them. He’s just (almost) enjoying a little more competition and realizing that those opportunities don’t come around. All the time and most of it. To use. “
He acknowledged that most of his runs this summer have been pretty “divine” against some boring attacks, and believes his best chance of a Test match against India this summer comes as a bowler batting at No. 8, possibly the country’s frontline. Injures one or two of the quicks.
But if Australia are faced with the kind of lifeless pitches the Indian batsmen landed on two years ago, and the selectors decide that a radical team needs to be shaken, Abbott is ready.
“If the order has a chance to bat high and the selectors and Penn think I can do it, I won’t even think twice about it,” he said.
“I would say for sure … if a bowling spot came up, I would be more in favor of someone who could bat six or seven.
“But we have to wait and see.”
20 Australia 2020-21 India tour
Australia Australia Test Team: Tim Penn (C), Sean Abbott, JB Burns, Pat Cummins, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Marnus Lubschen, Nathan Lyon, Michael Nazer, James Pattinson, Will Pukowski, Steve Smith, Mitchell Stuart, Mitchell Wade, David Warner
Australia in ODI and T20 squads: Aaron Finch (C), Sean Abbott, Ashton Agar, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins (VC), Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Moises Henriques, Marnus Lebushgan, Glenn Maxwell, Daniel Samms, Ken Richardson, Steven Smithk, Minnie , Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa
India Test team: Virat Kohli (C) (First Test only), Ajinkya Rahane (Vice-Captain), Rohit Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Shubhaman Gill, Vriddhiman Saha (WK), Hab Shabh Pant (Double) )), Jaspreet Bumrah, Mohammad Shami, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammad Siraj
In India’s ODI team: Virat Kohli (C), Shikhar Dhawan, Shubman Gill, KL Rahul (WK), Sanju Samson (W), Shreyas Yer Yer, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Mayank Agarwal, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Jaspam Baham , Navdeep Saini, Shardul Thakur.
In the India T20I team: Virat Kohli (C), Shikhar Dhawan, Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul (Wicketkeeper), Shreyas Yer Yer, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Sanju Samson (W), Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jaspreet Bumrah, , Deepak Chahar, T Natarajan
Date ODI Series vs India
First ODI: November 27, SCG, 2.40 pm AEDT
Second ODI: November 29, SCG, 2.40 pm AEDT
Third ODI: Dec. 2, Manuka Oval, 2.40pm A.E.D.T.
Dettol T20 INTL Series vs India
First T20: December 4, Manuka Oval, 7.10pm A.E.D.T.
Second T20: December 6, SCG, AEDD at 7.10 p.m.
Third T20: Dec. 8, SCG, 7.10 p.m.
Tour match
Australia Australia A vs India A, December 6-8, Drummoyen Oval
Australia Australia vs Indian, 11 December, SCG (Day and night)
Vodafone Test Series vs India
First test: December 17-21, Adelaide Oval, 3 pm AEDD (day-night)
Second test: December 26-30, MCG, 10.30am AADT
Third Test: January 7-11, SCG, 10.30 a.m. A.E.D.T.
Fourth Test: January 15-19, Gabba, 11 a.m. A.E.D.T.
* Matches and travel are subject to any relevant government restrictions or requirements.
Total coffee specialist. Hardcore reader. Incurable music scholar. Web guru. Freelance troublemaker. Problem solver. Travel trailblazer.
