Join now and get your first month for just $1 ><\/a><\/p>\nAfter earning his maiden Test call-up in 2018, Doggett spent close to two years battling a series of debilitating back problems that threatened to derail his career.<\/p>\n
But after overcoming those injury hurdles, the 31-year-old has developed into one of the Sheffield Shield\u2019s most consistent performers, putting himself within touching distance of a coveted baggy green.<\/p>\n
Over the last two summers, Doggett has taken 76 first-class wickets at 21.12 while representing South Australia and Australia A, earning a long-awaited Test recall towards the end of last season\u2019s Border-Gavaskar Trophy campaign against India.<\/p>\n
The uncapped seamer was named as a travelling reserve for June\u2019s World Test Championship final at Lord\u2019s before a minor hip issue ruled him out of the recent Test tour of the West Indies.<\/p>\n
However, Doggett has declared himself fit and firing ahead of what could be a career-defining summer for the paceman.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like my body \u2014 touchwood \u2014 is in a good spot; I\u2019ve got plenty of trust in it now,\u201d he told reporters in Sydney on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I can just trust myself and trust all my processes that keep me on the track.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brendan Doggett of South Australia. Photo by Matt King\/Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Doggett kicked off his summer over the weekend, taking 2-67 during South Australia\u2019s 131-run loss to New South Wales in Silverwater, including the dismissals of Blues openers Blake Nikitaris and Kurtis Patterson.<\/p>\n
Albeit disappointed with the match outcome, Doggett confessed it was \u201cgood to get back playing again\u201d after a quiet winter, headlined by three matches with Durham in the County Championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re always a bit nervous after a long pre-season, coming back from injury,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn a personal note, it was good to blow some cobwebs out, and there\u2019s a bit to work on there for me as well. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just glad to get the first one out of the way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mentored by the likes of Andy Bichel and Jason Gillespie, Doggett put himself back on the national radar last summer by taking 6-15 during an Australia A match against India A in Mackay. A few months later, he snared a career-best 11 wickets during March\u2019s Sheffield Shield final against Queensland in Adelaide, helping South Australia win their first red-ball title in 29 years. <\/p>\n
With Cummins under an injury cloud, national coach Andrew McDonald has stressed the importance of bowler rotation throughout what could prove a gruelling Test campaign against England.<\/p>\n
And should Australia require fast-bowling reinforcements during the Ashes, Doggett is the next cab off the rank.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had the honour of being in and around that squad last summer, and in our off-season,\u201d Doggett said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI try not to look at any of that stuff and just go about my business, trying to perform well for South Australia. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf the opportunity does come to be part of the squad for the summer, I\u2019ll be over the moon.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut those boys are doing pretty well, aren\u2019t they?\u201d<\/p>\n
Brendan Doggett of South Australia leads his team off with five wickets during the Sheffield Shield final. Photo by Mark Brake\/Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Doggett\u2019s short-term challenge will be balancing his workloads and keeping his body in pristine condition ahead of the Ashes, with South Australia set to play four Sheffield Shield matches before the Test squad is announced.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s desperate to avoid a repeat of what happened at the start of his career.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s definitely a fine balance of playing too much, but also not playing enough,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cI obviously don\u2019t want to cook myself too much, which I have done in the past, start bowling badly when I get tired and injury concerns pop up.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Starc and Hazlewood are only expected to play one or two red-ball games for New South Wales before the Ashes, Doggett is uncertain what his schedule looks like over the coming six weeks.<\/p>\n
And although he\u2019d love to play every match for South Australia this summer, he doesn\u2019t want to push himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just going game by game, as cliche as it sounds,\u201d Doggett continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m putting my hand up to play every game I can. It\u2019s a privilege to be playing. I don\u2019t think I\u2019m in a position to pick and choose when I can and can\u2019t play.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll let other people take care of that and do what I\u2019m told.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier this week, South Australian coach Ryan Harris declared that Doggett was in the \u201cprime of his career\u201d, adamant he was ready for the challenges of Test cricket.<\/p>\n
But Doggett knows he\u2019ll need to get his summer off to a flying start to cement his spot in the Ashes squad.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m trying to break into that squad, so I feel like I need to probably be out on the park putting in performances,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, it\u2019s probably just trying to prioritise performances and Shield cricket to be part of a squad and get my name in the hat.\u201d<\/p>\n
South Australia gets its Sheffield Shield season underway on October 4, facing Victoria at Adelaide Oval.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brendan Doggett knows exactly what the Australian Test captain is going through at the moment. With a blockbuster…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-161221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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