Cherny: Australia’s never had a white ball specialist like Tim David as all-rounders heroics break the mould

Tim David would be forgiven for not knowing what a red ball was if popped up in his biryani, but DANIEL CHERNY writes that doesn’t mean the Singapore-born Twenty20 specialist isn’t one of Australia’s most important - and unique - cricketers.

With power to generate a golf drive that would place him near the top of the game’s professional ranks, Tim David is mop-haired, swaggering, chain-adorning proof that the modern Australian cricketer can have his cake and eat it too.

The lumbering Singapore-born belter is a Frankensteinian cricket experiment. Take a very modest state player on the fringes of the Australian domestic system and harness the one particular skill at which he excels to the extent that he makes millions every year on the franchise circuit but still finds time to win matches for his country.

Australia has had white-ball specialists before but never one quite like David. The likes of Ian Harvey, James Hopes and now Marcus Stoinis have all been pigeonholed as pyjama practitioners but all of those three and several others of their ilk were solid if not exceptional first-class cricketers.

David would be forgiven for not knowing a red ball if it popped up in his biryani. He’s never played a first-class match, and there’s no reason to think he ever will. Even 50-over cricket looks too long for him, judging by his brief foray in South Africa last year.

Tim David is one of the more unique cricketers Australia has produced, writes Daniel Cherny. Picture: Sarah Reed/Getty Images.

Dumped by his home state of Western Australia in 2019, David threw all his professional energies at becoming a middle-order finishing tee-er off-er in Twenty20 cricket, an area in which the Aussie men’s side has often been reaching to plug a hole.

Helped by a strong 196-centimetre frame, the call paid off in spades financially when it yielded him a $1.5m Indian Premier League deal with the Mumbai Indians two years ago. Still such are the collective Australian fans’ sensibilities that even though he’d done it across continents on the franchise circuit, there was a sense that the public didn’t yet believe this bloke who couldn’t get a game for his state could be relied upon when push came to shove in international cricket.

His first 16 months in Australian colours had produced glimpses but an underwhelming Big Bash League campaign with the Hobart Hurricanes left the door ever-so-ajar for him to be dislodged before June’s World Cup.

AUSTRALIA WIN WITH THE LAST BALL OF THE INNINGS!! 😱

Tim David you STAR 🤩

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— Fox Cricket (@FoxCricket) February 21, 2024

You can forget about any doubts on those fronts. Across four international innings in the last fortnight, David has plundered 140 runs from just 60 balls without being dismissed, including 31 not out from 10 deliveries to pull off a Wellington heist on Wednesday night, including picking a gap through the leg side to find the four needed off the final ball from Tim Southee.

One six in the onslaught was launched 98 metres into the stands, but in some respects that’s nothing from David, who insiders say was cracking golf balls 320m over the summer.

The PGA tour average across the 2022-23 season was around 274m.

It wasn’t all that hard to imagine as David repeatedly dispatched the Black Cap bowlers into the masses at cow corner.

The 27-year-old tossed up whether to accept a Cricket Australia contract when he qualified for a points upgrade last year. Doing so would have restricted some of his earning potential by effectively blocking him from endorsements which compete with CA sponsors.

But able to still play in most if not all of the leagues he wants, David has been able to have the best of both worlds to the extent that between the West Indies and New Zealand T20 series, he dropped into the UAE to play one T20 game for the Indians’ Emirati offshoot in the ILT20 league. It is a bizarre arrangement at face value but one that didn’t seem to harm his game on Wednesday night, and a striking example of the type of flexibility needed from cricket administrators to get the most from their resources when it counts.

Originally published as Cherny: Australia’s never had a white ball specialist like Tim David as all-rounders heroics break the mould