Victoria opener Will Pucovski has been hogging the limelight for his stellar showing in the ongoing Sheffield Shield. He has aggregated 495 runs this season, including two successive double hundreds.
As a result, the 22-year-old on Thursday (November 12) was named in Australia’s 17-man squad for the upcoming four-match Test series against India.
Pucovski will get another opportunity to impress the selectors when he faces India's bowlers in a tour match in Sydney from December 6.
The Australia “A” game has been seen as an unofficial “bat-off” with incumbent opener Joe Burns, who has hit a lean patch for Queensland in recent Shield games.
However, Pucovski doesn’t pay any heed to all the talks around his selection for the first Test, starting December 17 at the Adelaide Oval.
“I think it's a bit of a media build up, to be honest, the big bat-off thing,” he told reporters on Friday (November 13).
“I think all I can control is how I go about it in my preparation and then obviously in the game so I feel like my batting's in a really good place.
“I'm off a lot of social media, so that makes it a lot easier. You can't get tagged on Twitter and stuff if you don't have the app, so that's been a pretty easy one for me.”
Pucovski has been out of cricket due to concussion and mental health issues. He believes the concussion problems may have contributed to his mental health struggles.
“Getting hit in the head a lot is not ideal from a physical or mental perspective,” he said. “But I've done a lot of work in that space to try and make sure my process is in a really good place.”
Meanwhile, Australia head coach Justin Langer has strongly suggested that Joe Burns would open for Australia alongside David Warner in the first Test against India.
"Pucovski's been amazing hasn't he, and that's what we're looking for. We want guys who are outside the team to bang so hard you can't ignore them," Langer told reporters on Friday. "And the fact is Will's been so good, we can't ignore him.
"That said, I've also been consistent with the messaging since last summer, the last time we played Test cricket, that we loved the combination of Joe Burns and David Warner.
"They have a real synergy, they work well together, have chemistry. So at this point I'd say that will remain the same."
(Inputs from Reuters)
