Handscomb hundred passes the test

A little over three months ago, in his position as Australia A captain, Peter Handscomb said he felt his batting had progressed to a point that he was ready to handle international cricket.

The simple statement carried with it a caveat.

"I think I'm ready – having never played any sort of international cricket. I feel as though my game could be good enough now," he told cricket.com.au. 

"But you don't know until you take that next step."

Well now he knows.

Handscomb's somewhat tentative belief back then would have been heavily reinforced in Adelaide, when he earned the Baggy Green he'd been craving since childhood and promptly delighted fans with a brisk maiden half-century against an outstanding South Africa attack.

And on day two in Brisbane, he must have felt just about bulletproof when he raised his bat for a maiden Test hundred in just his second appearance for his country.

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Indeed, the 25-year-old is yet to play an insignificant innings for Australia; complementing his first-up fifty and today's wonderful hundred was a knock of one not out that just happened to include the winning runs in that Test against the Proteas.

Underlining Handscomb's dream run to date was the contrasting figure of Nic Maddinson, who trudged off the Gabba after adding just a single to his duck on debut three weeks ago.

But while Maddinson's immediate Test future is now considerably clouded, Handscomb's couldn't be burning more brightly.

The Victorian is composed and confident, possesses an unorthodox stance and technique but plays plenty of textbook shots.

For the vast majority of his innings, he was able to quietly accumulate while Steve Smith played the lead hand.

Not that he trailed Smith significantly in the run-scoring stakes during their 172-run union – he made 77 while the skipper added 90 – but moreover, the Gabba crowd was enamoured with Smith's pursuit of a century on day one and the tourists had perhaps shifted their energies more towards stopping the world's number one batsman.

All of which meant Handscomb could construct his own innings relatively unnoticed.

And the nature of his play was more delicate than destructive, with six of his first nine boundaries finessed through the third man region, an area in which he excels against both pace and spin.

A couple of straight driven boundaries – one from Mohammad Amir and one from Yasir Shah – showcased another strong aspect of the Victorian's game.

And then came the six-four combination to bring up three figures; a six over long-on from the leg-spinner to move to 97 was followed by a delightful square slash through cover-point to take him to 101.

But above all this innings was a triumph of will.

In that same interview back in September, Handscomb imagined what it might mean to play for Australia.

"It would be absolutely amazing," he said. "It's one of those things, you start playing cricket as a kid, and you're watching it on the TV while you're playing out in the backyard.

"You see the guys pull the Baggy Green on and you think, that looks pretty cool."

Mission accomplished, he's now also a Test centurion, and there's every chance there will be plenty more to come.

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