Sangha arrives with a little help from his friends

Out of the Big Bash for more than two seasons and beginning to think he was a red-ball player only, Jason Sangha turned to one of Australia's out-of-favour Test stars for advice.

Sangha, who at 16 became the youngest player ever to be contracted by NSW when he landed a rookie deal in 2016, hadn't played for the Sydney Thunder for 1048 days when he finally broke back into the team last month.

Australia's former U19 World Cup captain concedes spending almost three years out of the Thunder side was a "hard time" that left him questioning whether he was good enough to play domestic T20 cricket.

But the sliding doors moment came in the Canberra bubble during last season's Big Bash, when his conversations with skipper Usman Khawaja, who himself was out of favour at international level, forced him to question his approach to the game.

"Usman … just kept saying to me as a bit of a joke, he said, 'mate, you're way too way too intense, you're way too intense'," Sangha recalls to cricket.com.au.

"If I had an actual conversation with him (he would say) 'you really need to start enjoying the game, because you're so young and you're going to get to my age and realise why was I so hard on myself when I was when I was a lot younger?'."

The right-hander had announced himself as a player of the future in 2017 when, in just his second first-class game, he scored his maiden century – a sensational 226-ball 133 – in a tour match against an England side featuring Alastair Cook, Joe Root and Stuart Broad.

He made his debut for both NSW and the Thunder the following season, scoring another century in just his third Sheffield Shield match and making an unbeaten 63 in his maiden Big Bash game.

But despite regular appearances for NSW at Shield level across the next two years, that BBL|08 campaign remained Sangha's only appearance in the T20 format until this summer.

"I'd be lying if I didn't say I was drifting off," he says of those BBL|09 and BBL|10 campaigns where he didn't play a single game.

"I wasn't even in the X-factors. I think I might have been the third batter in line.

"No doubt your mind is going to drift and wonder if you're still good enough at this level or if the coaching staff think you're good enough or selectors think you're good enough. Yeah, I was definitely guilty of that.

"More of my opportunities probably came in red-ball cricket than white-ball cricket.

"I probably put it on myself a little bit, that I was labelling myself as a bit of a red-ball player. I think when you keep getting exposed and keep (getting) opportunities in one format, you probably feel like you can start to put the pieces together in terms of maybe you think that you're a red-ball player only."

Looking back, the now 22-year-old realises Khawaja was right – he was a "pretty intense" cricketer.

"I'm a bit of a perfectionist in a way," he says. "If I put my mind to doing something, I really want to be good at it.

"I'm learning how to play the piano now. I'm not trying to be Piano Man, but when I try to do something, I really try and be good at it. My mates call me Elton but I'm far from it at the moment."

From a cricketing perspective, Sangha says "sometimes you've got to understand that there's better players in front of you".

"I felt like I was just playing the victim card (about) not getting picked and I actually realised, 'OK, I need to work hard on my game, and I need to improve in a lot of areas'," he says.

"At the end of the day, I (was) still getting to be a part of a professional set-up. So I think I (had) to be a bit more grateful that whilst I wasn't playing any games, I was still getting the opportunity to be a part of a BBL team.

"And when and if the opportunity does come, I just want to have fun, I want to relax and I really want to enjoy my cricket.

"That's provided me with a sense of calm and a bit of clarity, which we know as any batter is what we're always aspiring to (have)."

For the first time in two years, Sangha entered this season content and clear with how he wanted to play. And when the opportunity finally arrived in the Thunder's fourth game of the campaign, he took his chance, just as Khawaja did for Australia's Test side at the SCG later in the summer.

In 11 innings in BBL|11, Sangha has hit 384 runs at 48 with a strike rate of 130.61 to be the Thunder's top scorer for the tournament so far, his superb run including contributions of 91 not out, 56 not out and 45 to help the Thunder win six games in a row.

He even captained the side for three games when regular skippers Khawaja (Test duty) and Chris Green (COVID-19 isolation) were unavailable.

Having also credited conversations with his state captain Moises Henriques for turning is mindset around, Sangha says this is the first season where he's tried to just have fun.

But he adds it will all matter that little bit more if he can deliver for his teammates in the business end of the season.

"All the stuff that I'm saying, it really needs to come to full effect towards the back end of the tournament when the pressure starts to rise a bit more," Sangha says.

"It definitely has been a bit of a long road but in the grand scheme of things, I'm still very grateful for the opportunities I've been given.

"It's been really nice to see some hard work pay off a little bit more. But it all means nothing if I can't provide for the lads going into the finals.

"If you asked me 12 months ago, would I be captaining the Thunder, I would probably think you're joking.

"But at the same time a lot of hard work has gone into it … this year the opportunities I've been given in white ball cricket has given me a massive boost of confidence to know I'm not just this red ball player, I can also do a decent job in white ball as well."