Cowan returns to NSW to chase Test dream

Ed Cowan has signed a one-year deal with New South Wales in a bid to reignite his Test cricket dream less than two months after quitting Tasmania.

The move takes Cowan's cricket journey full circle, returning to the NSW Blues where he began his first-class career in 2005 before moving to Tasmania for the 2009-10 Bupa Sheffield Shield season.

An 18-Test veteran, Cowan is banking on the move providing the opportunity to secure a second chance as Australia's Test opener with Chris Rogers widely expected to announce his retirement after the winter Ashes series.

"When I was thinking whether it was time to finish up in cricket that was the carrot I guess, knowing that an opportunity was going to come up and I feel like I'm the best person for the job," Cowan told Fairfax Media.

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"If there was a different situation – if (Rogers) was a lot younger and had a lot of cricket left in him, it might have been a different decision.

"I've still got a deep desire to play Test cricket and I think NSW is as good a place to make a fist of that as anywhere.

"And to come home is a nice feeling. I still feel like I've got plenty of really good cricket ahead of me and (last) season I felt like I played as well as I'd ever played.

"I know my best is good enough to do well in Test cricket."

The former Test opener was on the verge of tears as he announced he was returning to Sydney for family reasons after telling Tasmania colleagues he would not be returning to the State in 2015-16 before their final game of last summer's season.

Quick Single: Cowan leaves Tigers to return home

"It's time to be a family man who plays cricket rather than a cricketer with a family," Cowan said on March 10. "It's for a purely personal reason that we're going to be moving back to Sydney. I'm very sad but I'm confident it's the right thing to do."

He left Tasmania without guarantees of a spot in the NSW list but has proved too hot a commodity for the Blues to turn down.

Cowan's move back to the NSW Blues effectively makes him a straight swap for teenage sensation Jake Doran who left NSW to take up a contract with Tasmania in a bid to hasten his progress to first-class cricket.

Ryan Carters and Scott Henry were the NSW Blues openers for 2014-15.

Cowan played 18 Tests for Australia, making his debut on Boxing Day against India in 2011, scoring 68 in his first innings in the Baggy Green. 

The highlight of the left-hander's international career came in his eighth match where he scored his maiden Test match century against the world No.1 ranked Test nation South Africa featuring an attack that featured Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander and Morne Morkel.

Cowan scores his maiden Test ton

"If I had my time over again I think I'd play a bit more positive cricket," Cowan said of a Test career that yielded 1001 runs at 31.28, conceding that "at times (I) ended up being a bit of a block artist".

"To a degree I probably took that upon myself to be the guy that was hard to get out. I became a bit of a caricature of what I perceived the team needed, I guess.

"I found myself in Test cricket exhausting myself batting for three hours for not many. You get out and you've batted for three hours for 30. You want guys to attack the game and when they come off after three hours they could be 130.

"I think I'm a different player now, with my Test experience and batting with a bit more intent."