![\"Western](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/ff40f4b0d23cf180a75a4bde7e77ab0a298784b9.jpg\")
Camera IconWestern Australia\u2019s Jhye Richardson\u2019s career could explode if he is picked for the Melbourne Test. Credit: Morgan Hancock\/Getty Images<\/p>\nFor half a decade Jhye Richardson has been Australian cricket\u2019s \u201cwhat-if\u201d player.<\/p>\n
What if he wasn\u2019t plagued by injuries? What if he\u2019d kicked on after his impressive debut? What if he hadn\u2019t been stuck behind one of the greatest fast-bowling groups we\u2019ve ever seen.<\/p>\n
If he plays on Boxing Day, Richardson could become Australia\u2019s wow-factor.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s quick, he\u2019s skilful and he now looms as the wildcard of the stacked Aussie pace attack as they race towards a new era.<\/p>\n
The 29-year-old West Australian \u2014 at his best \u2014 pushes 145km\/h, swings the ball both ways and can do damage off the seam. He has showed all of those tricks while training with the Test squad over the past two weeks.<\/p>\n
Being shorter in stature he also offers a different trajectory to the first-choice attack of Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and even Scott Boland, which shouldn\u2019t be underrated.<\/p>\n
All four of those players will likely have their eyes on the 2027 tour of India. It\u2019s this great Test team\u2019s final frontier.<\/p>\n
Camera IconWestern Australia\u2019s Jhye Richardson\u2019s career could explode if he is picked for the Melbourne Test. Credit: Morgan Hancock\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
But before then is a full-to-the-brim Test schedule that includes the mid-year visit of Bangladesh and then a heavyweight series against South Africa, where pace is king.<\/p>\n
Cummins has played one Test in this Ashes series and Hazlewood has missed it altogether.<\/p>\n
They will need to continue to pick and choose where and who they play between now and the tour of India.<\/p>\n
And while Michael Neser has become a reliable Test contributor who will knock the door down again to play on Boxing Day and Brendan Doggett impressed in the first two matches of the series, Richardson has a fast-pass to the front of the queue.<\/p>\n
It was after consultation with Australian coach Andrew McDonald and captain Cummins that Richardson cut his season short earlier this year to have a shoulder surgery.<\/p>\n
They wanted him right for the Ashes and he was firmly part of their plans.<\/p>\n
Now Richardson has the chance to show why, and if can stay fit, remain part of those plans for a long time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For half a decade Jhye Richardson has been Australian cricket\u2019s \u201cwhat-if\u201d player. What if he wasn\u2019t plagued by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370327,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,588,85,33383],"class_list":{"0":"post-370326","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cricket","11":"tag-sport","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-the-ashes"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370326","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=370326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}