Why Will Pucovski must debut in Sydney

There can be no more excuses, no more false starts, if Will Pucovski is fit he must make his debut at the SCG.

Will Pucovski has had three false starts to his Test career so far

It is time for Will Pucovski to play Test cricket.

It’s been time before, indeed it has been time on three separate occasions prior to this and it hasn’t happened for various reasons, but enough is enough.

If the Victorian survives what is sure to be a fierce examination from the fast bowlers in the nets over the next few days he has to play.

It’s hard to get a clear line on information around the young batsman, but the fact he has been brought into the squad indicates he is over his concussion and we assume he is over the mental health issues which have troubled him.

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He hasn’t been in the nets or played a game since early December, but that’s too bad. He made two double centuries at the start of the Sheffield Shield season and presumably hasn’t forgotten how to bat.

What’s the point of bringing him back if not to give him the long-awaited debut?

They have dropped Joe Burns, the opening position is vacant and Pucovski was picked in the squad ahead of Marcus Harris, who is also in the squad.

Harris is a good player, Pucovski is potentially a great player.

Basically it is time to you-know-what or get off the pot. We have been here before but we don’t want to be here again.

Pucovski’s name was written in ink next to David Warner’s at the start of the summer to open in Adelaide, but less than a week before the coin was tossed he was struck in the head and concussed in a match at Drummoyne.

Before the tour match the 22-year-old had posted scores of 255 not out against South Australia and 202 against Western Australia.

The kid has had a number of false starts.

He was picked in the squad and was due to make his Test debut against Sri Lanka in January 2019 when he was just 20. Selectors made a U-turn at the last minute and opted for Kurtis Patterson after the NSW batsman made a late bid in the tour game.

Pucovski had been on the radar since he was a boy, but had confirmed early indications by making a double century in Sheffield Shield that summer.

In doing he so he joined Don Bradman, Ian Chappell, Clem Hill, Darren Lehmann, Norm O’Neill, Ricky Ponting, Paul Sheahan and Doug Walters in the exclusive collective of Australian batsmen who had done so before reaching the age of 21.

The son of a Serbian immigrant, it was revealed later, had suffered some form of breakdown overnight in that innings and returned home at its completion for six weeks’ rest.

Patterson was picked for the second Test in Canberra in the 2018-19 summer and Pucovski was released from the squad, which the team doctor said was for mental health reasons.

“Will Pucovski has been released from the men’s Test squad and will return home to Melbourne to continue managing his wellbeing,” team doctor Richard Saw said. “He reported some challenges over the past few days, and the decision has been made that the best thing for Will’s welfare is for him to return home to Melbourne.

“Will has been proactive in this process and while he has made significant progress, he feels this is the best course of action to get ready to play cricket for Victoria. He worked closely with members of his family, Cricket Australia medical staff and Cricket Victoria to reach his decision.”

In retrospect there is some confusion around the reasons for the decision to send him home with some suggestion that it was pointless keeping him in Canberra on the eve of his 21st birthday.

In March that year he scored another century in the Sheffield Shield. He’d missed four games for Victoria, but had still scored 649 runs at 54.

It should be noted that Harris had scored 1199 at 69.8 opening for the same state. Pucovski has only moved up the order this season alongside him.

In November 2019, Pucovski was picked as part of the Australia A team to play Pakistan in Perth on the eve of that Test series and was one of the candidates vying for two vacant places in the Test team.

Again he was forced to withdraw because of mental health issues.

“During the course of the Australia A game, Will presented to team management and the national selectors that he was experiencing some challenges and ultimately sought counsel on that through our and his support network, before then determining that it’s best for him at this point in time not to be considered for Test selection,” Cricket Australia head of teams Ben Oliver said at the time.

Another Test summer passed without Pucovski but he managed five games in the Sheffield Shield and in February he was captain of the Cricket Australia XI for the series against the England Lions.

Pucovski had to withdraw from the games, however, after suffering a concussion when he jarred his neck diving for his crease while batting but was well enough to enjoy the birthday cake presented to him in the team room.

Birthdays have proven problematic. In 2017 he’d been struck by a ball in a fielding mishap on his 19th birthday and missed the rest of the season.

Concussions have dogged the cricketer but from a variety of causes. His first had come when slung in a tackle playing football at school. Another came when struck while batting in the one-day competition at the start of the 2017-18 season and another when hit during a Sheffield Shield game in March 2018. They’ve happened at home, in the nets, in the field and at the crease.

There is talk he has a problem against the short ball, but you might argue that when you spend as much time at the crease as he does you are going to get hit more often than most.

The other issue is a more delicate matter but possibly not unrelated. He assures us he has found a way to deal with the mental health problems of the past. “It’s been a long journey but I don’t think I could be in a much better place to take this challenge on,” Pucovski told SEN Radio in November.

“It’s something I’m really excited for, and people have their different journeys and mine’s taken a different path, but two years down the track from Sri Lanka when I was just about to turn 21, I feel like I’ve put in a mountain of work and that’s been to achieve my goal of hopefully succeeding and playing for Australia. So, if the opportunity comes, I definitely think I’m ready.

“I think I’ve just put the work in, to be honest, and I guess natural maturity.

“I was 20 a couple of years ago, I’m 22 now, I’ve played 15 or 20 more first-class games, I’ve put a stack of work in off the field to make sure my life and my cricket’s in a really good place and probably the difference in feeling is more like you’re excited but you’re ready to do a job this time.

“Last time, not that I wasn‘t ready to do a job, but you were probably so filled with that sort of excitement of getting picked for Australia that I didn’t think too much about the job at hand. This time around it feels like I’ve earned the right to be here and I’m pretty pumped to take the challenge on, even if I don’t play, just doing my bit around the squad to hopefully win a series for Australia.”

It’s time to play.

Pucovski’s history of head knocks

December 2020

Playing for Australia A against the touring Indians, he is caught halfway between ducking and hooking a shortish ball from Kartik Tyagi. The ball ricochets off his helmet and goes to the boundary. He is immediately taken from the field and eventually ruled out of the first two Tests of the summer

February 2020

Captaining a Cricket Australia XI in a tour game against the England Lions on his 22nd birthday, Pucovski takes off for a quick single at Metricon Stadium only for his bat to get stuck in the turf while attempting to make his ground. He falls forward heavily and strikes his head on the ground. GHe fails a concussion test and is ruled out of the game

March 2018

Playing for Victoria against NSW in a Shield game, Pucovski tries and fails to duck under a bouncer from Sean Abbott but is instead hit on the side of the helmet. He loses his balance until a concerned Abbott rushes to his side and is substituted out of the game with concussion

November 2017

Captaining a senior Victorian side for the first time in a Futures League game against Tasmania, is he struck on the right side of the helmet by paceman Nick Buchanan. He walks to the side of the ground unassisted but withdraws from the match

October 2017

Attempting a simple hook shot from a short ball delivered by Queensland’s Ben Cutting during a domestic one-dayer at North Sydney Oval, he looks fine after copping a blow to the helmet. However, after a few swigs of water he leaves the field. He later passes two concussion tests and he returns to the crease but last only three balls before getting bowled

February 2017

In his Sheffield Shield debut, birthday boy Pucovski is fielding at mid-off when he is struck on the head by a ball that deviates off a rough outfield.

Pre 2017 incidents

- Pucovski’s first case of concussion comes playing Australian football for his school. He is slung to the ground in a tackle and his head collides with another player’s knee

- Just a month after his football ordeal, he is training in the nets when a ball struck by a batsman in the next net hits him in the head

- A year later he is walking through his home when he bangs his head heavily on a door