All-round Hardie out to prove batting credentials on 'A' tour

A month ago, Aaron Hardie was certain he was still a long way off national selection.

The sixth allrounder in line just to represent Western Australia, let alone Australia, the 23-year-old thought he was "not really" a chance of emulating his state teammates Cameron Green, Mitch Marsh, Ashton Agar, Marcus Stoinis and Hilton Cartwright.

That was until he got a call out of the blue from national selector George Bailey following his epic 174 not out in the Marsh Sheffield Shield final informing him he'd been picked for a 16-player Australia A tour to Sri Lanka in June.

"It was a couple of weeks after that Shield final, I didn't expect him to reach out so quickly," Hardie told cricket.com.au this week.

"He just said 'well done’ on a good season, obviously a good finish, and that all-round skills are something pretty valuable.

"I'm still pinching myself a little bit, certainly throughout my time at WA I was looking at people ahead of me for that allrounder's spot.

Image Id: E0DA6B7EC5354230BBDEFC951B8B87E8 Image Caption: Aaron Hardie hooks during his 174 not out in the 2021-22 Sheffield Shield final // Getty

"I knew it was going to be hard to get into the Western Australia team and that has always been my goal for the past four to five years."

Born in Bournemouth on the south coast of England, his parents moved to Perth when he was two years old.

His first memories as a child were in Australia growing up with his two younger brothers, Matthew and Michael, and his earliest memories of cricket didn't come until five years later when as a 'Milo-Have-A-Go' kid he played on the WACA Ground the same day Adam Gilchrist smashed what was then the second fastest Test century off 57 balls against England in 2006.

Despite his success with the ball throughout his young 10-match first-class career, Hardie said he wasn't a fully-fledged allrounder until the age of 14 when he "started to grow a bit", always bowling at training but never in games for Willeton Junior Cricket Club where he now also plays Premier Cricket.

Being picked purely on his batting talent is a role he's determined to get back to for Western Australia, and with the state's highest Shield average of 119 last season (although he only batted five times that included three not outs), he's well on the way to doing so.

Hardie played five games at the start of the 2021-22 summer for the Perth Scorchers as a batter only while recovering from pre-season elbow surgery but wasn't picked for WA until after the KFC BBL when he could bowl again, taking the new ball in their last three Shield matches where he collected 10 wickets at an average of 14, including 3-54 in the final.

"I love being able to contribute with both aspects of the game," he said.

"But something I'm proud of is being able to play purely as a batsman during the Scorchers season a little bit, I took confidence from that for the back end of the summer.

"That's a pretty big goal for me to be able to get picked as a batsman because you only have to look around that injuries are a fairly significant part of everyone's career, especially bowlers, and potentially even more so allrounders.

"If I can get to the stage where I can get picked in any team as a batsman, that's something which I'd love to be able to do going forward."

While acknowledging he wants to be selected on his batting ability alone, Hardie said he wouldn't be relinquishing the new ball in a hurry and credits former WA bowling coach Matt Mason, who has taken up a full-time role with county club Warwickshire, for encouraging him to open the bowling when he returned from injury.

That injury was a culmination of playing through the 2020-21 season with elbow pain, which caused a build-up of scar tissue that prevented his elbow being able to function properly.

He had keyhole surgery in August last year to remove the scar tissue, which prevented him from bowling in a match until early January, but thankfully it hasn't troubled him since.

Hardie will travel to Sri Lanka with three massive international scalps already under his belt after dismissing former England captain Joe Root during tour match for a WA XI as an 18-year-old in November 2017, and current and former India captains Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli a year later while paying for the CA XI at the SCG, where he also made 86 with the bat.

"It's obviously going to be a big step up in the level and it will be good to get some subcontinent experience," Hardie said of the A tour.

"Learning from not only the Australian boys but some of the Sri Lankan players and learning to play spin in those conditions can only help you when you come back to Australia."

Qantas Tour of Sri Lanka, 2022

T20 squad: Aaron Finch (c), Sean Abbott, Ashton Agar, Josh Hazlewood, Josh Inglis, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner, Matthew Wade

June 7: First T20, Colombo

June 8: Second T20, Colombo

June 11: Third T20, Kandy

ODI squad: Aaron Finch (c), Ashton Agar, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner

June 14: First ODI, Kandy

June 16: Second ODI, Kandy

June 19: Third ODI, Colombo

June 21: Fourth ODI, Colombo

June 24: Fifth ODI, Colombo

Test squad: Pat Cummins (c), Ashton Agar, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner

June 29 - July 3: First Test, Galle

July 8-12: Second Test, Galle

Australia A fixtures

Squad: Sean Abbott, Scott Boland, Pete Handscomb, Aaron Hardie, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Henry Hunt, Josh Inglis, Matthew Kuhnemann, Nic Maddinson, Todd Murphy, Josh Philippe, Matt Renshaw, Jhye Richardson, Tanveer Sangha, Mark Steketee

June 8: First one-day game, Colombo

June 10: Second one-day game, Colombo

June 14-17: first-class tour match, Hambantota

June 21-24: first-class tour match, Hambantota