By Glenn Moore
Jake Fraser-McGurk has said he’s “fine” with his omission from Australia’s T20 World Cup squad. Time is on his side and he “wasn’t even in the picture a month-and-a-half ago”.
Nevertheless, the young batting gun will have been pretty pleased at his response to the snub – blasting a 19-ball half-century in his first match after the selection decision was revealed.
Fraser-McGurk got to the landmark by smashing 4, 4, 4, 6, 4, 6 in one Avesh Khan over. He was out next ball, clouting a full toss from Ravichandran Ashwin (3-24) to mid-wicket, but he had made his point.
The 22-year-old ’s fourth half-century in seven Indian Premier League innings set McGurk’s Delhi Capitals, coached by Ricky Ponting, on the way to a 20-run win over Rajasthan Royals.
Fraser McGurk launches the ball into the stands.Credit: AP
With fellow opener Abishek Porel making 65 off 36 balls, the Capitals made 8-221 from their 20 overs.
That looked as if it would be comfortably enough when Royals openers Yashasvi Jaiswal and Jos Buttler were out in the power play, but visiting skipper Sanju Sansom had other ideas.
He had raced to 86 off 44 balls, keeping the Royals very much in contention, when he was brilliantly – and controversially – caught by Shai Hope on the boundary.
The West Indies international showed nimble footwork as he skirted the boundary cushion, though not nimble enough in Sansom’s view.
The third umpire disagreed, and after Sansom left, the Royals gradually faded away, closing on 8-201.
Shai Hope claims a catch for Delhi Capitals in the IPL game against Rajasthan Royals.Credit: X
Fraser-McGurk’s freewheeling innings defied the painful blow he took to the midriff from the bowling of Kiwi speedster Trent Boult.
“He’s hardly put a foot wrong since he’s been here. He hasn’t surprised me with what he’s done,” Ponting said post match.
Jake Fraser-McGurk, batting for the Delhi Capitals, is hit in the midriff from the bowling of Kiwi speedster Trent Boult (Rajasthan Royals).Credit: AP
“I had a good look at him in the BBL and knew what he was capable of.”
With 309 runs from seven innings, Fraser-McGurk is rocketing up the IPL batting charts despite missing selection for Delhi in the early rounds.
He’s now the 25th highest run-scorer in the comp, but most of those above him have batted 10 or 11 times, and none have a strike rate over 200 to compare with his 235.87.
His most eye-catching innings so far was the blistering 84 he amassed from just 27 balls days before the Australian selectors finalised their World Cup squad.
Days later, he told Willow Talk Cricket Podcast he understood the reasons he had not been included and appreciated the messaging coming from the selectors.
“The communication was really good. There’s two ways you can look at it. You can look at it through, ‘This is what I’ve done to prove my case,’ and then there’s also, ‘Look, a month and a half ago I wasn’t even in the picture,’” he said.
“They [the selectors] probably had a good idea … of what it was a month-and-a-half ago trying to build that, how they can get the connection in that team.
“And it’s also hard to fit in. You’ve got David Warner, our best opener ever in three formats. You’ve got Travis Head, who’s lighting it up over here and has lit up for the past 18 months. And then Mitch Marsh is the same and he’s also the captain.”
But the in-form batsman was holding hope he might be added to Australia’s squad as a travelling reserve.
“I can’t really see myself batting five or six because we’re pretty set there with Timmy David, Cam Green those sort of blokes. So that’s the way I think about it. That’s fine. There’s hopefully going to be more time for that,” he said.
“And if I do somehow get a travelling reserve [spot] then great, I can get a good experience there or something like that. But yeah, it didn’t really bother me a hell of a lot because I wasn’t in this position to sort of … feel like I’ve earned that yet. World Cup cricket is a lot different to IPL and franchise cricket.”
AAP
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