Australian youngster Will Pucovski made his Test debut against India at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) last month in the only drawn Test of the series. He faced Indian pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah and compared it to playing cricket on a PlayStation.
The 23-year-old had never played a proper cricket match at the SCG before and the Test debut was his first experience of doing so. Therefore, the only experience of batting (albeit virtually) at the SCG he had was when he emulated Shane Watson in a PlayStation game.
Will Pucovski said on The Grade Cricketer YouTube channel, "I actually genuinely felt like I like was playing PlayStation game, it was like International Cricket 2011 or something on PlayStation. They had this view, so I still remember faking illness to get a day off school when the game came out."
"I loved Shane Watson at that time. So, whenever Shane Watson was opening the batting, it might have been Ashes cricket, it was one of the games, and they had this new view.
I thought it was pretty cool where you were like a bit of a spider cam above the batter, so you'd be almost facing, and I'd never played a proper game at the SCG before," he added.
Like many cricket fans, Pucovski enjoyed the PlayStation game but became one of the few who get an opportunity to realize something like that in real life.
"Still, I had played a PlayStation game there, getting Shane Watson a 100 on Ashes cricket whatever year it was when I skipped a day of school.
So, I still remember it, and I was like I genuinely remember sitting there Bumrah was at the top of his mark, and I'm like I know this because this is what happened when I was facing England with Shane Watson," Pucovski added.
Pucovski scored a half-century in his debut Test innings and announced himself on the big stage.
