Kurtis Patterson has been quietly working away at a comeback to the Australian team

Kurtis Patterson knows how Nathan McSweeney must be feeling. The forgotten man of Australian cricket is quietly forging his way back to the top from rock bottom, writes BEN HORNE.

Sam Konstas might be the most anticipated story in cricket, but one of his teammates is quietly building his own fairytale path towards an extraordinary comeback.

Of the 467 Test cricketers to have played for Australia, few have had a more bewildering last innings before being dropped than Kurtis Patterson.

If you thought Nathan McSweeney’s unceremonious axing was brutal, what about Patterson who made 114 not out in what was just his second – yet last – Test back in February 2019 against Sri Lanka.

Patterson did not make the cut for Australia’s Ashes tour four months later, a staggering piece of misfortune in an era when very few batsmen outside of the established stars have made Test hundreds, let alone so early on in their careers.

Kurtis Patterson has been unlucky with Australian team selections. Picture: AAP Image/David Gray

But dropping back to Sheffield Shield cricket was not even the start of Patterson’s excruciating fall from grace.

The harder he tried and the higher the expectations he placed on himself to return to the Test place he had coveted since he was a boy, the further it got away.

Last summer, Patterson hit rock bottom when, as NSW captain, he was axed from the state team and returned to grade cricket in Sydney.

Now, after scores of 91, 66, 71, 99, 33 and 167 not out since he returned to the NSW Sheffield Shield team two games into this season as a replacement for Konstas, when he was called up for Australia A, Patterson is daring to dream again.

“I have got to a place where I’m really set on now, that I do want to play cricket for Australia again and I want to get back to that Test team,” Patterson told this masthead.

Patterson has worked his way back up to dominate for NSW. Picture: Matt King/Getty Images

“Actually I pulled my baggy out of the wardrobe and put a little hook on the bedroom so it was the first thing I’d see in the morning and look at it each time I go to bed.

“That’s not something I think about when I’m playing cricket, but it is an overarching goal that I’m not just here to – as fun as it is – play state cricket. I do want to get back there and play at the highest level and show myself and everyone what I can do.

“That’s a nice sort of north star for my cricket.”

THE EMOTION 🔥🔥

It's been 769 days since Kurtis Patterson's last century #SheffieldShieldpic.twitter.com/GQ7Ba5utVs

— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) December 8, 2024

Kurtis Patterson met former Test captain Mark Taylor for advice earlier this year and has taken inspiration from late-blooming Test superstar Usman Khawaja that you can achieve so much as a mature-age batsman returning to the top level.

“I must admit I thought playing Shield cricket against Usman four or five years ago, that he was done,” Patterson said.

“I’d love to actually sit down with him because it looks like he’s gone through a similar journey in terms of his expectations, and just enjoying himself a lot more.”

Patterson has taken inspiration from Usman Khawaja. Picture: Patrick Hamilton / AFP

But the road back to this point, where Patterson is legitimately repositioning himself as a Test prospect ahead of next summer’s Ashes (especially at a time when Marnus Labuschagne struggling at No.3) has not been easy.

There have been some dark moments.

Athletes who become first-time dads often give interviews where they wax lyrical about how fatherhood has given them a new-found perspective on life and their careers.

But Patterson had a very different experience as the challenges of becoming a parent coincided with his professional life falling to pieces and his enjoyment of the sport he loved being sapped away.

.@copes9 has his regularly scheduled chat with Kurtis Patterson, who had an impressive debut Test series 👏 #AUSvSLpic.twitter.com/1rUiFzYA9Z

— 7Cricket (@7Cricket) February 4, 2019

“I found it really difficult, Hayden’s first year in his life. As in I found life really difficult,” Patterson said.

“Cricket wasn’t going well. I didn’t say no to enough things (as NSW captain) and I said yes to everything and tried to take a lot of things on, on my own.

“Particularly cricket and then obviously at home. Becoming a new parent to your first kid, it’s probably the biggest life change you’ll ever have.”

That. Is. OUTRAGEOUS!

Kurtis Patterson with a screamer 😱 #AUSvSLpic.twitter.com/onS7IKaTB4

— 7Cricket (@7Cricket) January 26, 2019

But after the anguish and humiliation of being dropped from NSW as the skipper of the team and questioning what he wanted out of the game at age 30, Patterson slowly rediscovered the simple joys of the game.

Surrounded by teammates working normal day jobs at his club, St George – also the same junior outfit that Konstas came through – Patterson slowly started to recalibrate his mindset and attitude towards the game that had grinded him down.

“I definitely lost the enjoyment. Not just of the game but also the process and the practice and all the little things you have to do to make yourself a really good cricketer,” Patterson said.

“One of the biggest shifts I’ve made is I’ve got drastically lower expectations of myself now than what I had.

Patterson struggled in both his personal and cricket life. Picture: AAP Image/Dean Lewins

“Come game time now, I feel like I’ve really stripped away … (the feeling) that it was either a hundred or the end of the world, which is a shocking place to be as a cricketer because we all know if you score three in a season that’s a bloody good season, so there’s still a lot of misery outside of those three innings.

“I felt like I had way too high expectations of myself particularly during my time as captain. It affected my batting in a huge way. Sometimes those things just snowball and one problem can turn into three, four, five pretty quickly and you lose sight of what you’re actually here to do.

“It was certainly a tough period but I feel like getting dropped, a line in the sand was drawn.”

Another challenge he has taken up with the sports psyche he now meets with regularly was to crack the code for why with 35 first-class 50s and only 12 hundreds he had struggled to stay at the crease long enough to convert consistent starts into big daddy scores.

Patterson felt some of the old stresses return when he was brutally dismissed for 99 in what was his 100th first-class match against Tasmania last month, but then vanquished those demons in the very next innings when he went out and hammered an unbeaten and matchwinning 167, his highest Shield score.

“I was really disappointed after that 99. I fell into some old habits there and that innings I put such a label on ticking off that 100,” he said. “When I got to about 85 I could just see my mind shifting, ticking to that 100 and really wanting it. I actually had a really good chat to ‘Shippy’ (NSW coach, Greg Shipperd) after that game around the fact that the goal should be 200,” Patterson said.

“If you’re going to put a goal on something make it 200. That’s the number you really want to get to. It was nice. When I got into the 90s the next week I thought, ‘Who cares,’ it’s another 10 runs and the goal here is to be here at the end of the day.

“I was a lot calmer … and I would say that for the first time in my career, I actually have a method that I know I can actually action when I’m out in the middle.

“I feel like now if you ask me, ‘What do I do when I’m batting well?’ I can actually answer that question for the first time in my career, which is funny.”

In those two weeks against Sri Lanka in early 2019, Patterson achieved everything he ever wanted making his Test debut and a Test hundred. But then within the blink of an eye it was gone.

And would it ever return?

Patterson believes if he gets another chance for Australia he will prove he is more ready now than he was when he was first given that baggy green hanging at the end of the bed, waiting to be worn again.

“It’s been an expensive lesson or me in a way and I wish it probably only took two years rather than four or five years, but I do feel like I’m a better player than I was back then,” Patterson said.

“I do feel like I’d be ready to go. I feel like my game is in a really good place.”

Originally published as Kurtis Patterson has been quietly working away at a comeback to the Australian team