Two-Test seamer Michael Neser has made a stunning start to the Sheffield Shield season, and a calf injury while at Hampshire may have played a handy role.
Neser snared the scalps of Cameron Bancroft and Jayden Goodwin with his first two balls on Tuesday on the way to figures of 5-48 in Queensland’s Shield clash with WA at the WACA Ground.
The hot display comes at a good time for Neser, who despite not being offered a Cricket Australia contract remains in the frame to be a back-up option for the five-Test series against India this summer.
Neser has played plenty of cricket in recent years, but a calf injury suffered while at Hampshire meant his stint overseas this off-season was a shorter and less draining one.
The rest – both mentally and physically – has proven to be an important tonic for Neser.
“I had a shorter season in the UK … I just thought it would be the best thing for the body,” Neser said.
“And unfortunately, I did my calf. But to be honest, it was probably a blessing in disguise,
“I didn’t play much cricket on the off season, and just got to go in the gym and get strong again.
“I played a lot of back-to-back seasons over in county cricket, and then we had the Ashes the previous year, so I played a lot of cricket in probably 24 months.
“To have that little stint at home with the family kind of refreshed me a bit, and I’m ready to go now.”
Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins remain Australia’s go-to pace trio for Test matches.
Neser has played just two Tests, the last being against the West Indies in Adelaide almost two years ago.
But the 34-year-old bowling all-rounder remains firmly in the Test frame, despite being surprisingly overlooked for a CA contract.
Neser would love to earn a Test recall during the series against India, and he knows his path to get there is by performing well in Shield cricket.
“I think every bowler in the country would say that they’ve got their eye on that (India series),” Neser said.
“There’s not much you can do apart from putting performances on the board. It’s handy that I just (got five wickets) first game.
“Hopefully I can carry this momentum throughout the season.”
WA wicketkeeper Josh Inglis also boosted his chances by cracking 122 off 117 balls to help the Warriors recover from Neser’s early onslaught.
Inglis is now considered to be Australia’s go-to wicketkeeper in white-ball cricket, but he still sits behind Alex Carey in the Test format.
That could change if Inglis keeps his hot form going and Carey struggles this summer.
Not that Inglis is burning too much energy thinking about it.
“That’s not something I think about. I’ll leave that to the big dogs,” Inglis said.
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