Rogers a "rubbish" T20 player

If Australia’s selectors are looking for a remedy to their team’s disappointing showing at the showpiece World T20 in Bangladesh they can save themselves the trouble of contacting reborn Test opener Chris Rogers.

That’s because, by his own, brutally frank self-assessment Rogers has flagged that he ain’t the answer.

In fact, he concedes he is so utterly ill-equipped for the game’s ultra-short format that he has abandoned any notion of ever playing it again, even for England county side Middlesex where he returns this month to once again take on the captaincy for the 2014 northern summer.

“I won’t play Twenty20 because I’m rubbish,” Rogers told cricket.com.au when asked about his plans and priorities ahead of Australia’s next Test commitment against Pakistan in the UAE in October.

“I don’t want to play Twenty20.

“When I’m not very good at something it frustrates me massively.

“And I can tell I’m not very good, no matter how hard I try I just don’t seem to have the game plan.

“Maybe I’m like a little kid – when you’re not good at something you just don’t want to do it.

“I’ve tried to set high standards for the whole of my career, and I’m not going to let that slip now.

“And then there is pride – pride in what you do and to be the best you can.”

Rogers is the only one of the 18 players to receive Cricket Australia contracts for the coming year who was not part of a KFC Big Bash League franchise, having ruled himself out of the just-completed and subsequent seasons.

His Twenty20 record at domestic level in Australia and England will stand at 43 matches for 627 runs with a not-to-be-sniffed-at strike rate of 114 runs per 100 balls faced, and an underwhelming average of just over 17 per innings.

And despite a first-class career that spans 15 years, has yielded more than 21,000 runs at an average of a whisker under 50 and a rejuvenated Test tenure that currently shows 14 matches with four centuries, Rogers is under no illusions as to what is achievable and what is fanciful.

It’s the reason he has never considered putting his name forward for a crack at the financially lucrative Indian Premier League.

“No chance, I don’t think I could come up with a game for it,” the 36-year-old said.

“I’ve tried all I can but it just doesn’t work.

“I’m happy – I’m playing because I love the longer version of the game and if that means I can play for a little bit longer then it probably means more to me than earning some money in the IPL.

“Which wouldn’t be much anyway.

“You can’t afford to let standards slip, and the fact that I’ve been able to do okay in Test cricket is something I’ll be able to look back on at the end of my career and be grateful for.

“The fact that I had that opportunity, and that could prove to myself I was able to play at that level.

“But still my job is to bat and to score runs, particularly now as captain of Middlesex.

“That’s going to drive me to do well.”

Rogers admits that at times throughout his productive and peripatetic career he has perhaps pushed himself too hard to succeed.

Rather than feel greater freedom as he nears his cricketing dotage, he also feels that the pressure to maintain the lofty standards he sets himself and the fear of failure that accompanies that self-imposed benchmark can – at times – threaten to become a dead weight around his neck.

As a result, the challenge posed by captaincy and the fact that its nature requires a more expansive view of the game than purely dwelling on personal successes and failures represents something of a breath of fresh air.

“It (captaincy) is a different challenge, and I’ve found it easier the older I’ve got in terms of being able to deal with disappointment and frustration,” Rogers said.

“I like being responsible for tactics and how the team’s going.

“It also drives you a little bit.

“If you’re in the field and it’s a county game there’s a chance you can start drifting off and begin thinking about other things but captaincy keeps you involved in the game and that’s a good thing to have at the back end of your career – more challenges.

“Of course, the scrutiny and the pressure are always going to be there, it’s part and parcel of being old.

“But I think I need to deal with it a bit differently and enjoy it rather than feel burdened by it.”

Just as long as he doesn’t have to face up to the new white ball in the opening over of a Twenty20 game.

That is quite simply one burden too many.