Image Credit- CA
Nobody imagined that this summer, Xavier Bartlett
would be representing Australia. Not even Bartlett Xavier.
But on Friday at the MCG, he had the appearance of
having played international cricket for years as he effortlessly cut through
the top order of the West Indies to capture 4 for 17, the second-best scores by
an Australian on his ODI debut.
He admitted he had no thought at the start of the
summer, or even during the early part of the BBL, that he was even close to
Australia selection.
“Oh, definitely not,” Bartlett said.
“We’ve got so many great fast bowlers at the moment. Obviously, [Mitchell]
Starc, [Josh] Hazlewood and [Pat] Cummins are probably the top three to ever do
it for Australia or in that conversation. And then I only really got my chance
through Jhye Richardson’s injury and Nathan Ellis was injured as well.
“There’s definitely a long list of people in
front of me. But I’ve just got to keep trying to do my best for Queensland, and
if I get an opportunity at the higher level, just try and take it and just sort
of almost learn as much as I can as well along the way.”
His pre-game anxiety was exacerbated by the
realisation that, despite his BBL success, he had not played any 50-over
cricket since September 2022.
“Yeah it did,” Bartlett said. “I spoke
to someone on the phone and I was like ‘I haven’t played a 50-over game in like
15 or 16 months’. Yeah, I mean … I don’t know. It just sort of happened so
fast.
“I was injured at the start of this year and
didn’t have a chance to play any domestic cricket, which was a frustrating
time. But you can kind of see the light at the end of the tunnel and you’ve
just got to keep trying to work hard because these days don’t happen very often
in the game of cricket.”
Shai Hope, the captain of the West Indies, was one of
Bartlett’s four victims after he mishandled a long outswinger to fall foul of a
powerplay. Although he had seen some prior film of Bartlett, he was incredibly
pleased with the real thing.
“He’s shown that he’s got the ability to perform
at this level,” Hope said after the match. “Not the quickest, but as
we see you don’t need pace to be disruptive. He was very, very consistent. He
bowled really well, especially for his first game. He looked like he belonged.
We know as a West Indies group we have to find a way to not allow him to settle
for the next game.”