Xavier Bartlett’s ‘surreal few months’ leaves him eager for more

by Admin
August 16, 2024

Having not played the first half of the Australian domestic season due to a back injury, in late January the fast bowler helped seal the BBL title for Brisbane Heat, his two wickets to close out the final leaving him top of the tournament tally.

A little over a week later he made his Australia debut in an ODI against West Indies. In the space of five days took consecutive four-wicket hauls in Melbourne and Canberra, earning Player of the Match on both occasions and Player of the Series. A week later he made his T20I debut and was in the wickets again. By the end of March, he had been handed a Cricket Australia contract.

“It was a very surreal few months,” Bartlett told ESPNcricinfo. “To get the CA contract and even just playing the one-day series and then the T20s, it happened very fast and something I wasn’t expecting. Very thankful and it definitely instils you with a lot of confidence that a lot of people see a future in you. Hopefully, I can go out there and repay the faith.”

His winter has not played out to be quite as busy as initially planned with a County Championship stint with Kent pulled as CA manages Bartlett carefully. “With my injury history, we had to make a decision there and I was comfortable with that,” he said.

But he was still able to play eight T20 Blast matches for the county where he collected nine wickets, and he now hopes to use some of the lessons learnt when he returns to the UK as part of Australia’s T20I squad for the matches against Scotland and England next month.

“Probably my length was the main thing I found in England compared to Australia where the wickets are bouncier,” he said. “A bit of a difference with the boundary dimensions and working out the slower wickets, maybe having fielders a bit squarer than you would in Australia.”

Significant parts of Bartlett’s BBL success and the early hauls in international cricket have come from sharp new-ball movement – he dismantled Hobart Hurricanes’ middle order in a memorable display at the Gabba while his first Australia wicket of Justin Greaves at the MCG was a wonderful delivery that started to shape in then moved away late – and he doesn’t look to change much between formats early in an innings.

“At the start, I try and swing it in all formats…just have to adjust a little quicker in white-ball cricket if someone is trying to line me up,” he said. “If you slightly miss [the batters] definitely put your bad ball away, and sometimes your good ball goes for four or six which is just T20.”

It’s no easy feat to break into Australia’s fast-bowling ranks. Behind the big three of Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood there’s a list that includes Lance Morris, Michael Neser and Scott Boland, while Jhye Richardson retains a contract and will return to the mix if he can stay injury-fee. Then there is also Nathan Ellis, Spencer Johnson (who has been ruled out of the UK tour) and Sean Abbott in white-ball cricket. Now it includes Bartlett as well.

“Could sit here and talk for hours about how many great fast bowlers we have so it’s just [about] trying and break through and if you do get an opportunity, it’s about trying to take it with both hands,” he said. “Now hopefully rubbing shoulders with those sorts of blokes, learning off them, will hold me in good stead in years to come.

“You watch our big three – Starc, Hazlewood and Cummins – they’ve been amazing for such a long time and it’s a testament to their skill but also probably how many sacrifices they have made to keep themselves at such a high level for such a long period of time.”

“It [CA contract] definitely instils you with a lot of confidence that a lot of people see a future in you. Hopefully, I can go out there and repay the faith.”

Xavier Bartlett

At Queensland and Brisbane Heat he has leant heavily on bowling coach Andy Bichel. “Through injury, I have spent a lot of time with him, watching a lot of games when I haven’t been playing then also all the technical changes that I’ve made with him,” he said. “He’s someone I really trust. He’s one of the great men. Love working with him.”

Bartlett hopes for a longer run of Sheffield Shield cricket this season (and a chance to play the County Championship in the future) although there will likely continue to be a close eye kept on his workloads. He played three matches in the second half of last season where he claimed 11 wickets and got through a sizeable workload. Against Western Australia at the WACA, he sent down 41 overs in the match, taking 5 for 64 in the first innings. He also showed his batting potential, something he is keen to develop further, with twin half-centuries against New South Wales in the final game of the season.

“Red-ball cricket is the pinnacle of our sport,” he said. “Test cricket is what every kid dreams of growing up. That’s definitely a goal of mine. We’ll have to wait and see but would like to play as much red-ball cricket as I can.”