Reinvigorated Bird ready to pounce

It's a path increasingly more are taking, but if Jackson Bird had not changed his state allegiance from NSW to Tasmania he admits he would still be playing club cricket in Sydney.

Bird made the move from the Harbour City to Hobart in 2011 to pursue a career in cricket that was road blocked in his home state by surging local fast bowling talent who had, or would shortly, represent Australia at Test level.

Inside 13 months, from November to December 2012, Bird made his first-class debut, claimed 53 wickets, bagged five five-wicket hauls and twice 10 scalps in a match, captured a hat-trick, was crowned the Sheffield Shield's best, and to cap it all off, won his maiden Baggy Green on Boxing Day.

So traversing Bass Strait, daunted and full of doubt, paid ultimate dividends for Bird. And in quick time.

"I played a lot of second XI (for NSW Blues) without challenging for a spot in the first XI team," Bird told cricket.com.au. 

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"At the time I moved down, Trent Copeland had just taken 45 wickets in the Shield season, Pat Cummins had just debuted and was playing Test cricket, like Doug Bollinger was, and Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc were coming through. 

"You can only fit 11 players into a team and I'd probably still be playing Premier cricket if I didn't come down to Tassie."

Like most aspiring speedsters with a lanky frame and a shortage of velocity, Bird modelled his game on Australia's pre-eminent fast bowler Glenn McGrath.

McGrath's modus operandi, banging away at a line and length outside off-stump that rooted the batsman in the no-man's-land between front and back foot, is the same method Bird has employed to great success.

And it's the late outswing, subtle movement off the seam, and unerring accuracy, the same traits his idol possessed, that secured Bird a return to the Australian squad to tackle New Zealand on seaming wickets expected to suit the 29-year-old down to the ground. Literally. 

"I try to do the same thing over and over again – just try to hit the top of off-stump and challenge their (batsmen) defence," Bird said. 

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"If there's any sort of seam movement that's the best tactic to have, to get them to play every ball. 

"That's what I've done when I've been at my best and my most successful … just build pressure. 

"If the ball is consistently seaming around there's always going to be a ball with a batsman's name on it. 

"It's just a matter of being patient and doing the simple things well. 

"Which is what guys like Glenn McGrath did so well in their career. 

"Obviously, I haven’t had a career anything like his but I've tried to model myself on his line and length and his game plan which is just to be patient. 

"The key on seaming wickets is not to go searching for wickets."

If Bird is selected to play his fourth Test against the Black Caps, it will be a different version of the lissom quick that international fans are used to. 

The fast-medium pace and surgical accuracy remain from the last time we saw the right-armer represent his country; against England in the fourth Test of the 2013 Ashes in Durham.

What has changed is the way Bird swoops into the crease, legs and arms pumping like oscillating pistons while his torso is perfectly still as if it was robotic. 

Bird now charges in from 15 metres behind the popping crease, 10 metres shorter than the run up he used prior to the summer's start.

The decrease in yardage has seen him bowl more overs in the first half of the Shield season than any other, fast or slow.

"I got back from England where I bowled a lot of overs (for county club Hampshire) and I found myself getting really tired towards the end of the day," he said. 

"It was random how it happened. I came to training one day and the run ups were wet so I could only bowl off a short run. 

"The ball was coming out well and my pace was good so Damien Wright, the Tasmania bowling coach, challenged me to try something different and change my run up to see how I went. 

"We went away on a pre-season tour a week later and it only took two sessions before I had it down pat. 

"Wright has played a big part in that helping me get my head around my new run up. It's been fantastic. 

"I feel like I can get through the crease a lot better, and towards the end of the day I still feel tired if I've bowled a lot of overs but I feel I can get through the crease and maintain my pace, which is what I've lacked during the back end of a day sometimes."

It took a journey across a body of water to ignite his cricket career; perhaps it will be another voyage over sea that re-ignites his Test campaign.