The shock retirement of James Pattinson has put the focus on Australia’s fast bowling stocks, and there were some good signs in Western Australia.
West Australian fast bowler Jhye Richardson is hoping to avoid “another hiccup” ahead of a possible Ashes call-up after the shock retirement of fast bowler James Pattinson put a focus on the next in line.
Struggling to overcome a knee injury ahead of the domestic season start for Victoria, 31-year-old Pattinson made the decision to rule himself out of Test selection and “focus more on Victoria”.
Richardson, who has played two Tests, both against Sri Lanka in 2019, overcame early back spasms in his Sheffield Shield return for WA this week to take two second innings wickets in the loss to Tasmania.
The 25-year-old would be in a group that includes Queensland’s Michael Neser and NSW’s Sean Abbott as potential inclusions for the Ashes squad to join frontline quicks Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc.
Richardson, who has battled shoulder injuries in recent years and has only played 18 first-class games in five years, said he felt “pretty sad” when back spasms laid him out before the second day of the game.
But after medical staff threw “everything at it”, Richardson returned to the field and is eyeing off back-to-back games to try to stake an Ashes claim.
“It was literally just walking back to my mark, and it just seized up and I couldn’t move,” Richardson said of the spasms that forced him to miss a day’s play.
“I was downstairs for a couple of hours on the bed not really moving and looking pretty sad, but thankfully I could get back out there.
“It’s happened before in juniors but not any time recently. This was the worst one I’ve had.”
Richardson said his shoulder, after two operations, was “not an issue” for bowling but was still impacting his ability in the field.
The speedster now has his focus on WA’s next Shield match, which will begin next Wednesday against South Australia, knowing more solid performances could put him in the Ashes frame.
“It’s great to think about, but I need to just concentrate on the games coming up because if I don’t perform, then I’m not going to get picked anyway,” Richardson said after the loss to Tasmania.
“So having fun out there and getting back into the swing of things is the focus at the moment, and just putting consecutive games together, that’s the biggest one for me at the moment is to try to play back-to-back games without having another unlucky little hiccup.”
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