'Missed opportunity': Ben Mac goes back to go forward

Ben McDermott has ditched plans to reinvent himself as a middle-order finisher to fit a perceived gap in Australia's T20 side, pledging to return to the top of the order in the KFC BBL in a bid to recapture the free-wheeling run-scoring that earned him a national call-up in the first place.

McDermott was one of five players cut when Australia's selectors trimmed an extended 26-man preliminary squad to the 21-man touring party that has now landed in England for six limited-overs games against the hosts next month.

McDermott has failed to cement his spot in a dozen T20 internationals and now looks back on that time as "a massive missed opportunity".

There was no better time to reflect than in the days he spent quarantined in a Hobart Airbnb to meet Cricket Australia's strict biosecurity protocols for a tour from which he had already been axed. 

In these times of extreme precautions, CA put McDermott on standby and under the same biosecurity measures as the rest of the squad, which meant he had to move out of the house he shares with his partner, who continued to work. 

He was able to return home once the Australian squad's chartered flight took off on Sunday, and this week he returns to Tasmanian training with renewed focus.

"I tried really hard to become that middle-order player (for Australia) and forced myself to bat in the middle order for the Hurricanes last season, but it just didn't go my way," McDermott told cricket.com.au. 

"So basically, I'm going to get myself back up the order and give myself the best opportunity to score more runs by facing more balls."

Despite playing one extra game last summer, McDermott's output for the Hurricanes was down on his BBL|08 numbers in terms of runs scored, strike rate, sixes and balls faced – the result of coming in down the order.

"Last year I probably got myself stuck trying to hit the ball to my strong zones, which is over mid-wicket, and limiting myself to that," McDermott said.

"So (I will be) going back to hitting the ball where it needs to go, treating each ball on merit, and I think batting at the top of the order will help that as well."

With Matthew Wade's availability for the Hobart Hurricanes uncertain this summer due to his involvement in the national set-up, McDermott should quickly find himself elevated to either opening alongside D'Arcy Short, or coming in at No.3 behind Short and Mac Wright. 

Also on McDermott's goals for this season is improving his glovework, with an eventual aim to be Tasmania's wicketkeeper of choice in all formats. 

A regular behind the stumps in the Queensland under-age system and at Australia U-19 level, that petered out when he moved to Tasmania in the 2015-16 summer, until he picked it up against in last year's Marsh One-Day Cup.

"I had a good platform to start from, but it wasn't great, so there's plenty of work to do there," McDermott said.

He's been working closely on his glovework with Tassie teammates Wade, Tim Paine and Jake Doran, and will again feature behind the stumps for the Hurricanes. 

McDermott knows these changes won't necessarily help his ambitions to return to the Australian set-up in the short term. The T20 top-order is well set, and the latest squad showed he sits behind Alex Carey, Josh Philippe and Wade in selectors' preferences for T20 wicketkeeper-batters.

But should that opportunity come again, he'll be ready having ridden the highs and lows of international cricket in a short but eventful career so far.

Called up for the T20 leg of Australia's 2018 series against Pakistan, McDermott made his debut in a low-key international against the UAE, which wasn't televised and was played in front of just a handful of spectators at the nursery ground near Abu Dhabi's main venue.

McDermott was in the game with a catch in the covers, got off the mark with an easy single first ball, and creamed his first boundary to strike the winning runs, with good mate and Hurricanes teammate Short at the other end.

"Then it all spiralled downhill from there," he said, reflecting on a stretch of three consecutive run-outs against Pakistan for scores of 0, 3, 21.

"It was the highest highs and the lowest of lows of my cricketing career in those two weeks.

"I learned about the ups and downs of international cricket pretty quickly and the spotlight you get yourself into. It's not like playing BBL anymore, the whole world is watching you that much more closely."

One run-out – an ill-judged risky single to get a more experienced in-form batter on strike – is forgivable. 

A second run-out to a freakish bit of fielding that saw a tumbling, left-handed flick find its mark with one stump to aim at, well that's just a part of cricket. 

But a third in a row, that became a mental demon that took some battling. 

"The third was a mix-up with 'Maxi' (Glenn Maxwell), that was when I was starting to really think about it," McDermott says.

Image Id: 2F0172FB89A24EB483451641EDFEA35B Image Caption: Ben McDermott receives his T20 cap in Abu Dhabi // Supplied

"Two, it's just two, you can shrug it off, but the third one I was, 'Oh geez'.

"It was definitely playing on my mind then. I'd had people tell me to not run myself out again and then it was, 'Unbelievable, he's done it again'.

"It was tough to get past, and you've got people telling you you're due for another run-out and stuff like that. 

"But you can't think about it too much. It's just decision-making, you've got to make the right decision. 

"I've definitely learned a lot from it. If I do get another opportunity, I'll be able to look back and know I can do it, but also not to stress myself out too much next time. 

"Run-outs will always be part of the game, but hopefully not three times in a row again."