New-look Bird set to swoop into summer

A new-look Jackson Bird is set to swoop into the 2018-19 summer, a fitter version than fans will have seen and with a few tricks up his sleeve.

Bird has spent the freezing Tasmanian winter in pre-season training, where he's enjoyed an extended block of time dedicated to strengthening his lissom frame and developing different deliveries for the shorter forms of the game.

"Over the past couple of years I haven't had the chance to work on a couple of variations for my white-ball cricket," Bird told cricket.com.au today.

"It's shown in my performances – I haven't had the best JLT Cup or Big Bash competitions in the past two years and I think that's solely down to me having a red-ball focus.

"I'm never going to be someone like Andrew Tye that's got 20 variations but it's been good to work on a couple that I can hopefully put into play in the JLT Cup."

The right-arm seamer missed Australia's tumultuous Test tour of South Africa with a hamstring injury, forced to watch on from home as his countrymen hit rock bottom and South Australia swing bowler Chadd Sayers make his Test debut in the final match in Johannesburg.

That hamstring strain was severe enough to rule him out of the South Africa tour but a quick recovery saw him return in time to finish the Sheffield Shield season with the Tigers, who made it all the way to the season finale that ended in defeat to Queensland.

But the work he's done in the gym with his Tigers teammates and coaching staff this pre-season has him hoping he'll retain that strength throughout the summer and not succumb to injury.

"A pre-season is something I lacked last year," Bird said.

"I had a couple of niggles getting ready for tours and going away and towards the back end of last year it really showed.

"I struggled a bit, was cooked by the end of the season.

"It's been good to get that base of strength and conditioning and I'm feeling as good as I ever have.

"Hopefully that puts me in good stead for the rest of the year to come."

While he's been running, lifting and bowling in Hobart, the 31-year-old hasn't been thinking about his next assignment for his country, which could be Australia's two-Test tour against Pakistan given the injury cloud over first-choice fast bowlers Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins.

Bird was not selected as part of the Australia A four-day squad that faces India A away next month, but neither were Sayers and Jhye Richardson, the other two quicks that travelled to South Africa.

"I'm not too sure where I stand in the pecking order and I haven't really had that much dialogue with the selectors about where I stand," he said.

"For me it's just about starting the year off well.

"The way the selectors are now, they're rewarding guys that are doing well in domestic cricket, so I'm in the same boat as the guys trying to play for Australia.

"There's a few injuries going around with Patty (Cummins), Josh (Hazlewood) and Mitch (Starc) all doing their rehab.

"If those guys don't recover in time for Pakistan there could be a few positions up for grabs.

"It will be interesting to see what happens there, but I'm not really focusing on the selection side of things because it does your head in if you think too hard about it."

With his focus on domestic wicket-taking in order to underline his spot in that pecking order, Bird hasn't given much thought to missing out on a national contract. Instead, he points to recent history that shows he's still managed to represent Australia without a Cricket Australia deal.

"Missing out (on a CA contract) was obviously disappointing but I understand where the selectors were coming from," he said.

"There's a heavy white-ball focus this year and that's the way that they do their contracts.

"A month or two out from the contracts being announced I would have been surprised if I'd gotten one.

"It turns out I didn't get one but I spoke to (selection chairman) Trevor Hohns and he made it clear on what the selectors think of me going forward and if the opportunities arise and I do perform well throughout the year there will be a chance I get upgraded.

"I've only really ever had one CA contract and still managed to play for Australia in the years that I haven't had one.

"I've probably played more for Australia in the years that I haven't had one."