Last drinks: Neser seeks advice from veteran 12th man

Having served as Australia's 12th man for almost a dozen Tests without earning a Baggy Green cap, Michael Neser has turned to the game's longest-serving substitute for advice on how best to cope with life on the perpetual periphery.

By his own calculations, Neser reckons he's run the drinks for "ten or eleven" of the 18 Test matches Australia have played since he was first called into the national men's team squad for the 2018 series against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates.

And while the 30-year-old all-rounder - who today capped another stellar summer with the Ian Healy Trophy as Queensland's best men's player across all domestic formats - continues to revel in being selected for Australia's Test squads, he admits life on the sidelines can extract a mental toll.

As a result, he has sought counsel from former Australia seamer and current Bulls assistant coach Andy Bichel who reputedly holds the unenviable record for most Tests as 12th man, having carried the drinks 19 times during his seven-year international career that included 19 Test appearances.

Steve Waugh, Australia’s skipper for much of Bichel's international tenure, would later acknowledge he "was the guy in my experience who suffered most from carrying the drinks for an extended time" given the Queenslander rarely forced his way into a strong team when in peak form around 2003-04.

Neser acknowledges he's currently in a similar position, with Australia boasting a formidable pace attack led by Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and James Pattinson, and revealed he has found Bichel a great source of wisdom in recent years.

Not only has Bichel helped oversee technical aspects of Neser's bowling, but he has also provided insights into how best to handle being part of the squad while remaining outside the starting XI.

"Bic (Bichel) has been a big part of my game in the last three years, he's helped me so much," Neser said today.

"I do a lot of work with Bic, especially a lot of drill work to get my technique right and he's given me a couple of words of advice.

"Obviously he was twelfth man a lot too, so he's given me some advice on how to mix drinks.

"I must be doing a good job of it because I've done it a fair bit lately.

"It is deflating every time you're told you're not playing, but I've been through it before with Queensland when I was a youngster.

"I was on the sidelines quite a bit.

"It's like you can see the cherry there and you want it, but you just can't get it.

"But at the same time, I'm using that as fuel - it really drives me to be better.

"The good thing is I'm being surrounded by the best players in the world, and every training session is so intense that you learn from it.

"Every time I'm not selected, it drives me to be better."

In addition to the tips and insights he's gleaned from being a regular member of Australia's Test and limited-overs squads over the past 18 months, Neser also claims he has been better able to manage his body thereby enabling him to spend more time "on the park".

He has worked diligently on his fitness, and such dedication to his craft as well as to his teammates saw him named Queensland's Sheffield Shield Player of the Year and Bulls Players' Player of the Year, for best exemplifying the team's values on and off the field.

Despite dominating with the ball in the six Marsh Sheffield Shield matches he played last summer, in which he claimed 33 wickets at 17.30, Neser acknowledges that a likely Test call-up rests on the fitness or form of the big-name quicks currently ahead of him in the selectors' eyes.

"I know what the pecking order is at the moment – we have some of the best bowlers in the world," he said.

"I just have to wait and see what happens.

"But I do still have the drive to play Test cricket, that's something I really want to do.

"I feel like I've still got room to improve, and in my end-of-season reviews I said that I didn’t want to just plateau.

"With this (enforced coronavirus) break, I've got a chance to improve physically so that's something I'm really looking forward to."

Neser came close to earning Test selection during Australia's Ashes campaign last year, on the strength of his bowling in the practice nets where he troubled his team's best batter – former skipper Steve Smith – more regularly than any of his highly credentialled fellow quicks.

However, it was his training battles with Queensland teammate Marnus Labuschagne that stood out most starkly for the South Africa-born seamer, as much because of Labuschagne's character as his undoubted batting credentials.

"Since he started bowling leg-spin he's quite vocal in the nets, so every chance we get to bowl to Marnus it's a bit of a competition," Neser said.

"And in his head, he's never out so it's quite funny.

"Whenever he gets hit on the pad it's 'not out, outside the line' or some other crap.

"He's quite vocal when he bats too, so he makes you switch on with the ball."

Labuschagne's history-making cameo at Lord's last year – when he became Test cricket's inaugural concussion substitute as cover for Smith, who had been struck by England's Jofra Archer in the game's first innings – remains one of Neser's treasured memories of that campaign.

He particularly recalls Labuschagne heading out for his maiden Test innings with Archer in the middle of an especially brutal bowling spell and getting hit flush on the grille of his protective batting helmet from the second delivery he faced.

But in Neser's mind, the most memorable moment of a series in which Australia retained the Ashes on British soil for the first time since 2001 came in the previous match, when Smith crowned his return to Test cricket after a 17-month absence with a stunning first-innings century at Edgbaston.

"That was unbelievable, one of the most amazing innings I've seen," Neser said.

"It gave me goosebumps watching that."