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Nic Maddinson’s top priority is to play Test cricket again. He wants to replicate his successful Sheffield Shield campaign from the previous season in New South Wales following his winter break. He also wants to revive his T20 career by joining Sydney Thunder and completing a double swap.
After missing the initial part of the summer due to injury, Maddinson made three century in three Shield matches in the second half of the previous season for Victoria before deciding to return to Sydney, the site of his career’s inception.
In a Shield season where runs were scarce, those performances stood out, and Maddinson’s name began to be touted as a potential return to Test cricket. In his three prior Test matches, which took place in 2016–17 against Pakistan and South Africa when the batting order was changed, he managed just 27 runs in four innings.
“Probably [think about it] most days to be fair,” Maddinson told. “Obviously throughout the winter and off season you have other stuff and family at home, but when you start coming into cricket, we’ve been outdoor training on the centre wickets, [Josh] Hazlewood and [Mitchell] Starc have started to roll through, it’s hard not to think about the progression of your career.
“I love playing the game and want to help New South Wales win but also from a personal point of view still feel like I offer something at international cricket and would love to have that chance again. There’s a lot of motivations for people and still playing for Australia is there for me.”
Additionally, he feels that the player he is today cannot be compared to the player who played Test cricket in the past. He played shield cricket for Victoria for six seasons, averaging 50.63 overall.
Following a challenging BBL season for Melbourne Renegades, when he was dropped despite captaincy after 48 runs in four innings, Maddinson had a prolific conclusion to the Shield. Having recovered from an ACL injury, he had played virtually little cricket going into the event. With an average of 20.30 from 134 innings, his T20 record is unimpressive overall, but he expects to improve with Thunder.
“Ten times better, maybe more,” he said. “Think I’m probably a much better player than I was even three or four years ago. Felt like Shield runs last year were pretty hard to come by on some of the wickets we got dished up. Opening the batting was always a great spot to bat but it was never really my strength. To be able to score the runs I did last year gave me a lot of confidence, being able to adapt and play a different style. As you look to progress career you have to adapt and last year felt I really made some good progress.”