No ceiling to what young Jake can do with bat: Maxwell

Jake Fraser-McGurk’s call-up to the Australian ODI squad is no surprise for the batsman, who has been hitting the lights out in white-ball cricket and is being compared to Glenn Maxwell and a young David Warner.

Jake Fraser-McGurk. Picture: Getty Images

Jake Fraser-McGurk’s call-up to the Australian ODI squad is no surprise for the batsman, who has been hitting the lights out in white-ball cricket and is being compared to Glenn Maxwell and a young David Warner.

Maxwell clearly likes what he sees, tweeting recently: “No one in Australia is better to watch then Fraser-McGurk. Easily the most talented young batter in the country. His potential doesn’t actually have
a ceiling.”

The batsman has been brought into the squad as a replacement for Maxwell, who is being “managed” ahead of the T20I.

Queensland fast bowler Xavier Bartlett has also been added to the squad, as replacement for the injured Jhye Richardson.

The prospect of the 21-year-old Fraser McGurk taking on the West Indies’ exciting young quick Shamar Joseph is tantalising.

Fraser-McGurk is one of the biggest hitters on the circuit, landing one ball on the SCG members’ roof and hitting Scott Boland for a 100-plus metre six in a recent BBL match.

The good news for Australian cricket is, that like Warner and Maxwell before him, the youngster wants to play Test cricket for his country.

He is a young man in a hurry. In October, he scored the fastest one-day hundred, getting to the milestone from just 29 balls in a state match, outpointing previous record-holders AB de Villiers’ 31-ball effort in an ODI against the West Indies and Chris Gayles’ 30-ball century in the IPL.

Fraser-McGurk took 32 off Sam Rainbird’s second over, reached his half century from 18 deliveries and only needed 11 more ball to bring up triple figures, in an innings that included 13 sixes.

The young batsman moved from Victoria — where he made his first-class debut at 17 — to South Australia in the winter, and scored his maiden first-class century in November.

There were great hopes for him when he began playing Shield cricket in 2019, but his progress has not been as fast as he or others expected.

“You have that thought in the back of your head when you think you aren’t really up to it when you’re not doing well,” Fraser-McGurk told Cricinfo earlier in the season.

“I started pretty well in both debuts and was thinking it could only really go up from there, being a naïve young kid. I’ve been around for a while, but some people forget I’m still only 21, so hopefully got plenty of cricket to come.

“I’ve caught myself a few times thinking this is so hard, but then I realised where some of the other greats of the game were at my age. Steve Smith was a bowler at my age and now he’s one of the best batsmen in the world, you have to realise you’ve got plenty of time.

“But it never means stop working as hard, just means you have time to figure out your craft and now hopefully getting that score away, it can be a bit clearer for me.”