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Candid Maddinson cuts out the noise to keep Test dream alive

Older, wiser and in the form of his life, Nic Maddinson appears better placed than ever for a Test opportunity

Nic Maddinson's name might be increasingly mentioned for a possible recall to Australia's Test squad but the enigmatic left-hander is the last man to buy into the chat.

Instead, Maddinson's focus stretches no further than helping to salvage Victoria's stuttering Marsh Sheffield Shield campaign.

The 28-year-old blazed a run-a-ball fifty for Australia A against a potent England Lions attack this week, continuing his rich vein of form in first-class cricket that has him averaging 92.57 in Shield cricket this summer.

A late addition to the Australia A squad, Maddinson showed his customary attacking flair, regardless of the tricky weather conditions, brand-new pink ball and an attack led by Test-capped seamer Craig Overton.

The knock, coming on the back of his 95 and 105 not out in last week's Shield match against his former team NSW, was watched by National Selector Trevor Hohns from the MCG stands where he kept a close eye on proceedings as he ponders options for the coming two-Test tour of Bangladesh in mid-year.

Maddinson mauls Blues in blazing SCG century

"I didn't even know there was a tour to Bangladesh on until last week," Maddinson candidly admitted to cricket.com.au this week.

"An 'A' game is hard to get up for sometimes. It's a one-off game in the middle of the Shield season. I'd have loved to be at the Gabba with the Shield season on the line.

"I think it takes away a little bit of the team aspect, games like this. You worry about your own performance and can get a bit internal with everything."

It's a statement that reveals much about Maddinson's team-first ethic, but doesn't mask his ambition to earn another crack at Test level.

"The struggles and everything you have growing up …. I had a tough run in cricket in terms of my performances, it was very inconsistent," he says.

"I feel like the age I'm at now and the experience I have, that's put me in a good stead to still want to play for Australia.

"All the lessons along the way have put me in a good position now to understand my game a lot better, understand the game of cricket, and I feel like I'm in a lot better position now if I was to represent Australia again."

His first foray into Baggy Green – when included after a round of blood-letting that followed Australia's home series loss to South Africa in 2016 – proved forgettable.

Batting at No.6 in a drastically re-shaped Australian middle-order, he averaged 6.75 with a top score of 22 from four innings before losing his place to allrounder Hilton Cartwright for the final Test of that fraught summer.

It set Maddinson on a path of self-doubt and recrimination that saw him walk away from the game for a time.

A new lease on life was found in Melbourne, where Maddinson made a conscious effort to shut himself off from the cricket world outside of the game immediately in front of him.

Previously a voracious reader of everything ever jotted down about him, Maddinson turned off his social media and avoided cricket news and scores outside his two club sides – Easts in Sydney and St Kilda in Melbourne.

"Having heavily scrutinised my own performances and put too much pressure on myself in the past, that's what it (avoiding media) has helped with," Maddinson says.

"Rather than sitting at home and reading everything that's written and watching every ball of state cricket.

"In terms of my own performances, staying away from the media has taken the pressure of myself and allowed me to go and play the way I want to play."

Image Id: 8D9F3ABC59364F53997D955BFA27B71A Image Caption: Nic Maddinson in action for Australia A this week // AAP

Playing his way, Maddinson has found a formula that works for him at Shield level: 1,211 runs at 86.50 with five hundreds, including a double, are the proof.

Peculiarly in light of his powerfully clean ball-striking, Maddinson's form deserted him during the KFC BBL for a second successive year and in BBL09 he struggled to 143 runs at 10.21 and a strike rate of 88 for the Melbourne Stars.

The grind of play-travel-play during the Big Bash season offers little respite for a player to snap out of that funk.

Despite the stats lines, Maddinson insists he does not find the four-day game any 'easier' but says it was the work done with the Stars during the Big Bash this summer that helped him continue his hot-streak when the game switched back to four-day mode.

"I was putting a lot of hard work in throughout the Big Bash and although I wasn't getting the results I was still confident that I was going to come out of that in a pretty good way," Maddinson told cricket.com.au this week.

"For a few technical reasons I was struggling, but towards the end of it, the last month I was hitting the ball as well as I ever had in my career – at training.

"I felt really clear in my thinking, but just struggling in the middle.

"I think when the game slows down a bit as it can do in four-day cricket, you get a bit more time to set-up your innings and set-up accordingly."

Having missed last season's Shield final due to a broken thumb, Maddinson will return to Victoria's side for their final two games of the first-class season from next week as the reigning champions continue to eye a late surge to the title decider.