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Australian cricket's Carmen Sandiego seizes his chance

Dan Christian may be 38 years of age but his drive to play for Australia burns as strongly as ever

Even for the hyper-mobile Dan Christian, the recalled Australia allrounder's past few months have resembled the plot of a 'Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego' game.

Cricket’s ultimate journeyman begun his first international campaign in nearly four years with a rollicking knock in an unofficial intra-squad clash on Tuesday (AEST) that suggested he is right in the mix to take on the West Indies in the upcoming five-game T20 series in St Lucia.

His path to St Lucia has been a lot more complex than the other 17 squad mates vying for a berth at this year's T20 World Cup.

Two months after fleeing the Pakistan Super League for the UAE due to a COVID-19 outbreak, Christian then went through the same thing at the Indian Premier League in May, flying with the entire Australian contingent to the Maldives.

Rather than return home, Christian then travelled to Bahrain for a fortnight in order to fulfil his next playing commitment with Nottinghamshire. The United Kingdom at that stage was not accepting arrivals from the Maldives.

It was only after eventually arriving in England to captain the side he led to the previous year’s county T20 title that he was informed of his national selection, and asked to fly back to Australia to quarantine for two weeks so he could join the team bubble before flying out for the series in the Caribbean.

Presuming the squad completes a mooted tour of Bangladesh, he will have been in 10 countries in less than five months, an unheard itinerary during the pandemic.

"It was nice to play a game," Christian told cricket.com.au after blasting 47 off 31 balls in the 22-over-a-side game at the Daren Sammy Cricket Ground.

Image Id: 16A53181049F4FD3ABAA3CE4C5E2EADD Image Caption: Christian hit two sixes and three fours in his knock // cricket.com.au

"I've done a lot of travel of late and missed a lot of cricket with comps getting called off and then getting the call to come here. I've done a lot of training but not actually been on the field.

"To get the call up again as a 38-year old is pretty special, I certainly wasn't going to knock that opportunity back."

Christian's many teammates call him 'Siri' because he knows everything. When it comes to T20 cricket, he has experienced a bit.

The veteran has won a whopping nine domestic T20 titles in a career that has spanned 350 games across six different domestic leagues.

He even once played for the Windward Islands, against Australia in a warm-up match for the 2010 World T20 in the Caribbean, the only time Australia has made the final of the tournament.

With a maiden T20 title still elusive, Australia are crying out for a 'finisher' but despite Christian’s success in recent years in exactly that role, he knows he has considerable competition for a spot at this year's event.

Within an hour or two of Christian's impressive knock on Monday evening in St Lucia, both Mitch Marsh and Ashton Turner played match-winning hands in the run-chase.

The likes of Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis, both absent from this tour, will then be back in the mix for the World Cup.

"There's a lot of guys – you can throw Moises (Henriques) in that, you throw Stoinis and Maxwell and Daniel Sams as well, we've got a real wealth of talent in that area nowadays," said Christian.

"Whoever gets the gig is probably going to be playing really well at the time and I've got no doubt that they'll do a good job at that World Cup.

"I'd love to (be in the World Cup squad). It's the pinnacle to be playing for your country in any form but World Cups are massive and especially in this format which I've been concentrating on for the last few years.

"It'd be really nice to get another opportunity. But there's a lot of guys playing that similar role. Hopefully I can play well in these next couple of weeks and get on the plane."

Qantas Tour of the West Indies 2021

Australia squad: Aaron Finch (c), Ashton Agar, Wes Agar, Jason Behrendorff, Alex Carey, Dan Christian, Josh Hazlewood, Moises Henriques, Mitchell Marsh, Ben McDermott, Riley Meredith, Josh Philippe, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, Ashton Turner, Andrew Tye, Matthew Wade, Adam Zampa. Travelling reserves: Nathan Ellils, Tanveer Sangha.

West Indies T20 squad: Kieron Pollard (c), Nicholas Pooran (vc), Fabian Allen, Dwayne Bravo, Sheldon Cottrell, Fidel Edwards, Andre Fletcher, Chris Gayle, Shimron Hetmyer, Jason Holder, Akeal Hosein, Evin Lewis, Obed McCoy, Andre Russell, Lendl Simmons, Kevin Sinclair, Oshane Thomas, Hayden Walsh Jr

T20 series
(all matches at the Daren Sammy Stadium, St Lucia)

First T20: July 10, 9.30am AEST (July 9, 7.30pm local)

Second T20: July 11, 9.30am AEST (July 10, 7.30pm local)

Third T20: July 13, 9.30am AEST (July 12, 7.30pm local)

Fourth T20: July 15, 9.30am AEST (July 14, 7.30pm local)

Fifth T20: July 17, 9.30am AEST (July 16, 7.30pm local)

ODI series
(all matches at Kensington Oval, Barbados)

First ODI (D/N): July 21, 4.30am AEST (July 20, 2.30pm local)

Second ODI (D/N): July 23, 4.30am AEST (July 22, 2.30pm local)

Third ODI (D/N): July 25, 4.30am AEST (July 24, 2.30pm local)

* Details of five-match T20 tour of Bangladesh are yet to be announced by the Bangladesh Cricket Board. Tours are subject to agreement on bio-security arrangements and relevant government approvals.