Maddinson tips fewer nerves, more runs

Despite heading into his second Test match with a career aggregate and average of zero, Nic Maddinson expects he will feel less nervous in Brisbane this week than he did on debut in Adelaide last month.

Maddinson admits that his introduction to Test cricket against South Africa was a bit of a blur, having been named as one of three uncapped additions to a revamped Australia squad just days before he found himself in the middle of Adelaide Oval receiving his new Baggy Green.

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The scope of Australia’s victory in that dead-rubber Test meant the left-hander was granted a solitary innings, which ended after 12 deliveries when he was cleaned up by a stunning yorker from young pace sensation Kagiso Rabada.

But Maddinson claims to have learned much from his abbreviated stint as a Test batsman after being plucked from Sheffield Shield ranks, and believes he will enter his second match against Pakistan at the Gabba starting on Thursday carrying a little less angst.

With Australia’s selectors opting to stick with the same 12-man squad that stormed to a resurgent seven-wicket win in the day-night Test against the Proteas, the 24-year-old is assured of another outing against the pink ball when Brisbane hosts the first Commonwealth Bank Test under lights this week.

With his match-high 80 in last week’s day-night Sheffield Shield match for New South Wales against South Australia helping to further settle his nerves ahead of his second Test appearance.

“Ask me in a few days and I'll let you know, but yeah it happened all pretty quickly I guess,” Maddinson said in Brisbane today when asked if he felt more settled now that he had a Test match to his name.

“From playing a Shield game (immediately prior to his debut), flying out that night and straight into Test match preparation in Adelaide it was a bit of a whirlwind.

“But I've had time to settle now and reflect on the week that was in Adelaide, and a win. 

“I'm looking forward to this one (against Pakistan), probably a little bit more relaxed but it'll be interesting to see how I go once I get to training and the nerves start flowing again.”

If the 80 he scored against SA’s four-pronged pace attack in the first innings of last week’s Shield game helped to dull the disappointment of his Test duck, then being dismissed for zero in the second dig might have set some butterflies in motion once more.

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But Maddinson was scarcely the only player to struggle against the pink ball in atypical cloudy and humid conditions in Adelaide last week, where 17 wickets tumbled for less than 200 runs on a remarkable third (and final) day.

And he therefore takes confidence from the 80 he compiled in almost three hours at the crease, knowing that overhead conditions are expected to be similar at the Gabba where temperatures in the high 20s and humidity of more than 50 per cent is forecast throughout the coming week.

“Usually the humidity here (in Brisbane), the ball seems to move,” Maddinson said today.

“I saw that in Adelaide last week, it did a little bit off the pitch but then when the cloud cover came in, it was humid and the ball seemed to swing as a red ball does. 

“That's something we'll have to be prepared for.

“So regardless of what (colour) ball it was, that (80 against SA) was an important innings for me. 

“I was still extremely disappointed to get out when and how I did, and to miss out in the second innings but that's cricket.

“I've moved on and I think the experiences that I've gained from failing in pink-ball games has probably helped me in what I can prepare for this week.”

The unknown factor in that preparation will be the state of the pitch that awaits both teams for the first (and only day-night fixture) of this three-Test series.

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Maddinson was absent from NSW’s pink-ball Shield match at the Gabba last October due to delayed concussion after being struck while batting during the Matador BBQs One-Day Cup.

And while he has experienced day-night conditions at Adelaide Oval over recent weeks, his Blues and Australia teammate Mitchell Starc (who did play in the Shield season opener under lights against Queensland) noted there was significant differences in the pitches used for pink ball cricket at the two venues.

“The (Brisbane) wicket was probably a little bit harder than Adelaide,” Starc said of his experience at Gabba earlier this year when he finished with match figures of 1-62 from 19 overs on his return from a serious leg injury.

“It didn’t quite have that little bit of cushion (of extra grass) so the ball got quite soft and didn’t really carry through which you don’t normally see at the Gabba.

“So it will be interesting to see what we come up with this week.”