Depth makes Sandhu work even harder

Gurinder Sandhu has put a positive spin on his absence from NSW's Bupa Sheffield Shield side, saying the depth of fast-bowling talent at the Blues will only help him later in his career.

Sandhu, who is in line to make his one-day international debut in Australia's Carlton Mid ODI Tri-Series opener in Sydney on Friday, has been restricted to just seven Shield matches in the past one-and-a-half seasons.

With current and former Test quicks Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc, Doug Bollinger and Trent Copeland in the Blues squad, as well as the highly-rated Sean Abbott and medium-pace allrounder Moises Henriques, Sandhu has often been surplus to requirements when it comes to red-ball cricket.

Not that's he's incapable of performing in the longer form of the game; he took 11 wickets in three games to start the season before he was left out to accommodate the return of NSW's Test stars, and overall has taken 41 wickets in 12 first-class matches.

Fourteen of those 41 wickets came in his first two first-class matches, part of an incredible start to his domestic career that spurred him to a shock Steve Waugh Medal win in 2013.

National selectors have seen enough of Sandhu to throw him into international cricket at the age of just 21, but selector Mark Waugh lamented on Monday that the right-armer hasn't been able to play consistent first-class cricket.

Quick Single: Waugh wants more Shield games for Sandhu

But Sandhu is willing to bide his time.

"I think it does," Sandhu said when asked if the competition for places makes him work harder.

"Some people, I guess, take the easy option and maybe move states or whatever.

"But you stay here and work hard and try and fight your way into the team I think that puts you in good stead for later on in your career."

While Sandhu has struggled for games in first-class cricket, he has been a mainstay of NSW's limited overs side for the past three seasons.

He was the leading wicket-taker in the Matador Cup late last year with 15 wickets, took 11 scalps in the competition last summer and 14 in just four matches in 2012-13.

He has followed up his Matador Cup feats with some impressive performances for Sydney Thunder in the KFC T20 Big Bash League, conceding just 6.95 runs an over to go with eight wickets in six matches.

A feature of his work this summer has been his improved pace, a by-product of a long off-season at the Bupa National Cricket Cdntre in Brisbane.

It convinced selectors to add him to Australia's squad as a standby player for the opening matches of the Tri-Series, and with Mitchell Johnson sidelined by a hamstring injury and Hazlewood and Starc still recovering from the Test series against India, Sandhu could well make his debut when the Aussies take on England at the SCG this week.

"It was good training up there, a good hard training block," Sandhu said of his time in Brisbane.

"I think I put on a kilo or two of muscle and dropped a bit of fat.

"Which tends to happen up at the academy because it's a pretty good training program set up by Cricket Australia.

"So I think that's helped me a lot.

"It's always important to take your chance (and) grab it with two hands.

"If I'm lucky enough to get a go (on Friday), I'll be doing my best for the team to win and also try to get a few wickets for myself."