Pucovski fires again as silverware awaits

Only two batsmen have scored more than 36 across three days of this JLT Sheffield Shield final. That one of them is Will Pucovski, playing in his first final and just his 13th first-class match, speaks volumes of this highly-touted 21-year-old.

Hype has long surrounded Pucovski – it's only natural when the Australian captain is summoned to watch an 11-year-old bat, as Ricky Ponting was a decade ago – and his innings of 51 on Saturday that helped Victoria tighten their grip on this summer's Shield title was merely the latest chapter in what has already been an extraordinary summer.

This campaign even saw him called into Australia's Test squad to face the Sri Lankans in January, where he was overlooked for what many assume is an inevitable ascension to the Baggy Green brotherhood.

And with a high-profile Australia A tour and Ashes series in the UK on the radar this winter, many might expect that to come as soon.

But on a bitterly cold, windy and often wet Melbourne day, if Pucovski's mind did drift anywhere into the future, it was only some 1,500km north to Byron Bay, his holiday destination for next week.

Wearing all the jumpers his kit bag could carry, Pucovski said playing four consecutive Shield matches before this week's final had been much more vital to his development than mixing drinks and running gloves with the Test squad.

"I'm still very inexperienced and have a lot to learn," he said after Victoria put 375 runs between them and NSW with three second-innings wickets remaining.

"But playing is the only thing that helps that.

"I still feel inexperienced and just a young up-and-comer. I don't think having been picked in a Test squad really changes that, it was just one of those things where things fell my way.

"Playing more games continuously back-to-back-to-back and learning what it's like to be a proper first-class cricketer is the best thing for me.

"Facing blokes like that (Starc, Cummins etc) in the nets is pretty tough. Then you come back and it's probably playing more Shield games – I'd only played six before I got picked, so even getting four in a row and a Shield final has been big for me in terms of getting some continuity."

Pucovski turned 21 in February and speaks with caution when addressing his future ambitions, but his eyes light up when speaking about the close bond he's formed with his Victorian teammates in his short career so far.

"I still feel like – not a kid – but one of the young guys in the squad," Pucovski says, with a grin.

"You still get put in your place and treated the way you should as a young guy – obviously all tongue in cheek and everything – but I've loved that and everyone's been really good since I came back.

"We're just a very close group. A few have come in from other states and they say they're shocked how close we are as a group.

"We play pretty well together, and with a bit of the star factor of your Pattinsons and your Siddles when they're going pretty well, things are pretty tough for the opponents."

NSW have found out just how tough again this week, having already been beaten by the Victorians twice this season. A third win will see Victoria claim a fourth Shield title in five seasons and perhaps the first of many major pieces of silverware for Pucovski.