\u201cexcited\u201d by the potential of Kellaway<\/a>.<\/p>\nBut the Victorian opener, who features alongside talents including Sam Konstas and Kurtis Patterson in Darwin this week, played a straight bat when quizzed about might lie ahead this summer. <\/p>\n
\u201cLook, for me, if I\u2019m making runs for Victoria at the top of the order and contributing to us winning games, then I\u2019m happy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s my role for the Vics, to open the batting and try to get big scores which sets us up to win games of cricket. That\u2019s always my main focus and hopefully we\u2019ll have a Shield at some stage in the next one, two, three or four years. So that\u2019s definitely the main focus and I guess the rest kind of takes care of itself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Campbell Kellaway of Victoria celebrates after scoring a century during day three of the Sheffield Shield match between Victoria and Tasmania in October last year.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
The building blocks<\/p>\n
The pain of falling short in what proved a thrilling Sheffield Shield final against back-to-back champions South Australia in March still lingers for the Victorians.<\/p>\n
But Kellaway, who followed a 66 against South Australia in the final round of the season with innings of 29 and 16 in the decider, is treating the experience as another learning point.<\/p>\n
Aside from moving duties, he said the rare break from the crease gave him some time to reflect on the experiences of the last couple of seasons that have helped round his game.<\/p>\n
\u201cDefinitely. I guess whenever you do get a period of time to put the feet up, it gives you a chance to look back at \u2026 how your season went,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve definitely learnt so much about my game as a player over the last 12 to 24 months from being exposed to different conditions and different challenges. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhether it\u2019s opening the batting in Shield cricket (and) I was lucky enough to get over to India twice in the pre-season last year (and) played a club season in the UK the year before, so it is just trying to learn as a batter and as a player and hopefully that holds me in good stead for this season coming and time after that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kellaway said his main sounding boards are Victorian coach Chris Rogers, a fellow left-hander who averaged 42.7 in 25 Tests for Australia, and the state\u2019s batting coach Ben Rohrer, with the pair intent on challenging him to improve as an opener.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess getting their thoughts on different situations and times when I\u2019m challenged and times when I\u2019ve done well \u2026 you\u2019ll learn a lot about yourself as a player when you get thrown in the deep end at times, or when you do well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess (it is about) just gathering more knowledge on what makes me tick as a player and I guess that holds you in good stead when you get put in pressure situations in future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chris Rogers backs Victorian stars | 12:48<\/p>\n
The finishing school<\/p>\n
\u201cBucky\u201d Rogers and Rohrer aside, Kellaway said the strength of the Victorian squad added to his education, with several players boasting international experience.<\/p>\n
Scott Boland is in Queensland training this week and will join the Australian team in Darwin for the first Test against Bangladesh next week, while Handscomb and former Australian opener Marcus Harris both have Test experience.<\/p>\n
Kellaway said he and Geelong teenager Ollie Peake, who has been identified as a prospective Australian player, looked at the senior players when \u201cthe heat\u2019s really on\u201d and tried to model their development.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love trying to pick the brains of the older players and I guess guys like Ollie Peake and myself and Harry Dixon, we\u2019re always trying to pick the brains of Pete and \u2018Harry\u2019 and Sammy Harper, who\u2019s had a breakout year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love talking to Pete Hanscomb because he\u2019s played cricket in all different conditions \u2026 and knows his game pretty much inside out. He\u2019s always got plenty of runs and I guess he\u2019s always happy to share his experiences with us and we try to soak it all in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Australian great Allan Border told foxsports.com.au this week that it was important the nation\u2019s leading domestic cricketers hit the ground running given the heavy schedule the country\u2019s Test team is about to begin, saying doors will open.<\/p>\n
While not speaking specifically to that prospect, Kellaway said \u201che had banked\u201d the \u201cinvaluable\u201d lessons that came with opening for Victoria and when touring India with Australia A so that if \u201copportunities (come) in the future, I\u2019ll be ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
CA XI (14-player squad)<\/p>\n
Campbell Kellaway (VIC\/ Melbourne CC)<\/p>\n
Campbell Thompson (SA\/ East Torrens CC )<\/p>\n
Corey Rocchiccioli (WA\/ University Premier Cricket Club)<\/p>\n
Hanno Jacobs (SA\/ Sturt CC )<\/p>\n
Jake Doran (TAS\/ University of Tasmania CC)<\/p>\n
Jerrssis Wadia (SA\/ Tea Tree Gully CC )<\/p>\n
Josh Philippe (NSW\/ Western Suburbs CC )<\/p>\n
Kurtis Patterson (NSW\/ St George CC )<\/p>\n
Sam Konstas (NSW \/ Sutherlands CC )<\/p>\n
Teague Wyllie (TAS)<\/p>\n
Tom Menzies (SA \/ Adelaide CC )<\/p>\n
Tom Rogers (VIC \/ Ringwood CC)<\/p>\n
Xavier Crone (VIC \/ Carlton CC)<\/p>\n
Noah McFadyen (SA \/ Adelaide CC)<\/p>\n
Border backs Weatherald to keep place | 01:03<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After making a significant adjustment in the off-season, Campbell Kellaway is struggling to find the consistency he is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":844086,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44,85],"class_list":["post-844085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844085","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=844085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/844086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=844085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=844085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=844085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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