Ashes 2017: It’s been a long road to the top for Test debutant Cameron Bancroft

LONG before he flew to Brisbane to make his Test debut, Cameron Bancroft made the same journey on a wing and a prayer.

Cameron Bancroft in the nets in Brisbane ahead of the first Ashes Test.

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LONG before he flew to Brisbane to make his Test debut, Cameron Bancroft made the same journey on a wing and a prayer.

Not picked for an Australian under 19s development squad, the never-say-die teenager from Perth asked the coach if he could just turn up anyway.

Bancroft stayed on his aunty Anita’s couch and caught the bus to the national performance centre every day, willing to do whatever it took to one day play Test cricket for Australia.

When he was presented a faux baggy green on his first Australia A tour in 2015, he was so proud he wore it out in Chittagong that night.

Persistence has paid off for Ashes debutant Cameron Bancroft.

On Thursday, Bancroft, 25, will trade it in for a real one when he strolls out to the Gabba, testament to arguably the hardest working and driven cricketer in the country.

The man who refused to turn Bancroft away, Australian development coach Troy Cooley, knew instantly that there was something special about the kid who wouldn’t take no for an answer.

“He is single-minded, a bit like a dog on a bone. He’s pretty ferocious around what he wants,” said Cooley.

“He didn’t get one of the under 19s spots we had in the national performance program that year, but I can remember him giving me a bloody call and saying, ‘G’day, Truck, it’s Bangers here. Listen, my aunty lives in Brisbane and it’s no good in WA weather-wise in the winter, but would you mind if I came up for a few weeks and just trained? I won’t bother, I’ll just stay two or three weeks.’

Cameron Bancroft putting in the hard yards at the Gabba on Tuesday ahead of the first Ashes Test.

“I said, ‘Bangers, no problem’. How can you say no to that?”

Bancroft’s reputation precedes him as the man with the insatiable work ethic.

Short leg is the fielding position in cricket that no one enjoys, so Bancroft made it his mission to turn himself into the best short leg fielder in the world and thrive on the dirty work.

It’s in his DNA.

For a couple of years, key figures in Australian cricket had no doubt Bancroft ticked every box – the only problem was he wasn’t scoring runs.

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By his own admission, Bancroft struggled to deal with being named to make his debut on the 2015 tour of Bangladesh, only to have that campaign cancelled due to terrorism threats, and he then slipped down the queue and out of contention.

Bancroft said he just lost the mental battle with himself.

“I just wanted it so badly. I wanted it so badly and I wasn’t patient enough,” Bancroft said on Tuesday.

“It took me a little while just to sit back and kind of go, ‘this is where I want to go, I’ve just got to trust it and no matter when that happens or if that happens, I’ve just got to stay relaxed and enjoy.’

“(The difference this year) is the fact I didn’t really think that I’d be here.

“I just went out and tried to make runs for WA. By doing that I was playing for something bigger than the personal success that I’d certainly dwelled on and worried about in the past.”

Bancroft has literally knocked the door down for his Test debut with a stunning double hundred against South Australia and a pair of 50s against the all-Australian NSW pace attack.

WA coach Justin Langer once had to tell Bancroft that his intensity was becoming detrimental and implored him to find focuses outside cricket.

Cameron Bancroft in the nets at the Gabba ahead of the first Ashes Test.

But overall, it’s this drive that has separated Bancroft from the more talented kids that kept him out of that under 19s team all those years ago.

Bancroft went to sleep on his aunty’s coach dreaming of a baggy green, and now it’s his.

“I’ve probably visualised it and imagined what it would be like,” said Bancroft.

“But until it happens, I won’t really know.

“I’m not a complete person or a complete player now. So again, I’ll just keep striving to be better.”

Originally published as Ashes 2017: It’s been a long road to the top for Test debutant Cameron Bancroft