Ashton Agar eyes return for another spell in county cricket
A fixture in Australia’s T20 sides, spinner Ashton Agar hopes his form and experience will serve him well when Australia’s Test team needs a second spinner. Ashton Agar believes an extended, consistent run in Australia’s limited-overs teams remains his best chance of adding to his four Test caps as Nathan Lyon’s understudy on overseas tours. Agar is among a band of spinners vying to be top of the pecking order to partner Lyon on Australia’s foreign Test tours, competing with Mitchell Swepson, Jon Holland, and fellow limited-overs tweaker Adam Zampa. Australia is expected to play Test series away from home against Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and India as well as the rescheduled Bangladesh tour over the next two years.
Ashton Agar said: It’s been tough being in and out, in and out, that’s how my journey has felt like in white-ball cricket for Australia. I feel like I keep bouncing back and I keep improving every time I come back. Hopefully, I get a good run at it like I am at the moment, keep putting the performances on the board. It can be difficult (to get opportunities) especially when there is a lot of white-ball cricket on. It comes down to your preparation; a really solid base gets you through in red-ball cricket. You can do that when training and playing white-ball cricket. You’re under pressure to bowl in the right spot in white-ball cricket otherwise it gets banged back over your head for six, a lot more than it does in Test cricket. My game is in a really good place, I finished the season really strongly with the T20s over in South Africa. I felt really consistent. To play consistent Test cricket you need to have a really good idea about how you go about your bowling for a long period of time. You have to practice that in games day in day out in Shield cricket, take wickets, put yourself in the best position you can to be the second spinner. It’s hard to predict anything in this climate but in terms of preparation, it’s really simple: you just have to stay ready. Your job as a professional international cricketer is you always have to be ready because opportunities come and go and you really need to take them when they present because it’s a really tough environment to stay in if you’re not performing.
