MELBOURNE, (Reuters) – Since playing his sole test for Australia in 2013, every so often a wistful James Faulkner has pulled out his baggy green test cap to stoke the aspirations for a career yet to bloom.
The 25-year-old all-rounder now hopes to give the cap a proper dusting off on tour in Bangladesh after replacing injured team mate Pat Cummins in the 15-man squad. Like fellow one-test wonder Cummins, who took seven wickets on debut against South Africa in 2011, Faulkner also made a splash in his only start for Australia, bagging six wickets against England in a dead rubber at The Oval.
While Cummins’ ambitions have been thwarted by injuries, Faulkner has been frustrated mainly by selectors, who have preferred Mitchell Marsh as a back-up all-rounder to veteran Shane Watson, now recently retired.
With Watson gone and Cummins sidelined with a lower back fracture, the door has creaked open a little for Faulkner, though he may well end up carrying the drinks for the tests in Chittagong and Dhaka.
“I get (my Baggy Green) out every now and again and have a look at it but there might be a little bit of dust on it because it’s been a good couple of years,” he said at Cricket Tasmania’s season launch in Hobart yesterday.
“It’s a different feeling and I’ve only got the taste once, but it was enough to keep driving me to get back into the squad and hopefully I can get an opportunity again and do well.”
A handy left-arm paceman and a dashing lower-order batsman, Faulkner has been a fixture in Australia’s limited overs sides since the start of 2013. He underlined his quality with a man-of-the-match performance against New Zealand in Australia’s victorious World Cup final in March.