Cricket<\/a> World Cup, Ollie offers a bashful grin in response to his mother\u2019s tale while his father, Clinton looks on. The family are sitting in the team hotel in Windhoek, Namibia, where Australia have marched through the group stage undefeated; the two Super Six victories that followed in Zimbabwe \u2013 one of which came off the back of a crucial Peake century \u2013 means they will face England in the semi-final on 3 February.<\/p>\nThe classy left-handed batter may have been destined to play cricket from a young age, but his rise has been both rapid and remarkable. While many cricket fans discovered him recently, thanks to his outrageous last-ball six to win a BBL match for the Melbourne Renegades against the Perth Scorchers, others have been tracking his progress through youth pathways and into the senior Victorian side.<\/p>\n
With 10 Sheffield Shield appearances under his belt, influential voices \u2013 including former Australia captain Ricky Ponting \u2013 are already pencilling Peake in as a starter for the 2027 Ashes in England.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat still feels a fair way away for me,\u201d says Peake. \u201cI\u2019m purely trying to focus on keeping my spot in the Victorian team and winning games there, because, already in a year, I feel like that team are already my best mates, which is a pretty special thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got a great culture there, and we\u2019re building towards something special. In Australia, there\u2019s only six teams, and every team is incredible and has Test stars who have either played for Australia, in the mix, or up and coming. It feels like anyone who\u2019s playing on their given day is good enough to make it to the next level.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ollie Peake celebrates hitting a last-ball six as the Renegades snatch a BBL T20 victory from the Scorchers in January. Photograph: James Worsfold\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
If Peake speaks about his career with a maturity beyond his years, it\u2019s at least partly due to the influence of his father. Clinton also captained Australia\u2019s Under-19s side and still holds the record for the highest individual innings in a youth international, set in 1995 when he scored an unbeaten 304 in a Youth Test against India at the MCG.<\/p>\n
Clinton played a handful of matches for Victoria during a golden era for Australian batting in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and his own experiences have made Ollie aware that the road to international cricket is littered with talented youngsters who fade away after being dubbed the next big thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re young and naive, you don\u2019t realise just how good each next level is,\u201d says Clinton. \u201cSo hopefully Ollie, as a second-generation cricketer, has got eyes wide open that nothing is a given, and the present is a gift, and you want to be grounded in what you\u2019re doing right now, because you never know how long it\u2019s going to last.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just trying to make sure that I ask heaps of questions and keep myself grounded,\u201d Ollie adds. \u201cI\u2019m not trying to ride each performance too much, either way. On the scale, I know it\u2019s probably been a bit of a dry season for me compared to what I\u2019m probably used to in juniors or even premier cricket. But I\u2019m trying to look at things in the long term and enjoy each day as it comes.\u201d<\/p>\n
As an ageing Australian Test side slides towards transition, attention is quickly turning to the next generation and Peake\u2019s standing as a serious contender was confirmed when he was invited to join the Test squad in a developmental capacity during Australia\u2019s tour of Sri Lanka last summer.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really exciting,\u201d he says. \u201cI remember being really nervous. I felt like I had impostor syndrome, like, why are they taking me? It definitely took me a few days to warm into it and start talking to people before they spoke to me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s all a part of it, observing and watching all the masters at work. It\u2019s a golden generation of Australian cricket and, over the past 10 years, there haven\u2019t been too many losses. Watching the way they go about it and how confident they are in their games was awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peake plays a shot during the Under-19s World Cup Super Six match against South Africa. Photograph: Matthew Lewis-ICC\/ICC\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Peake has aspirations to play international cricket in all formats but he is unequivocal in citing Test cricket as his ultimate goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the Ashes would be the coolest series to be a part of, but something else that really appeals is playing in the subcontinent. Australian sides struggle traditionally over there and to get in the heat in India or Sri Lanka or whatever, and just face heaps of spin bowling when it\u2019s ragging and bouncing and rolling along the ground would be pretty cool as well. Foreign experiences are really appealing and, yeah, that\u2019s the dream.\u201d<\/p>\n
For now, his sights are set on Australian success in Zimbabwe. Peake won his first Under-19s World Cup medal as a 17-year-old injury replacement, and now he is the senior pro, leading his country.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe feeling is starting to become more and more familiar with each win,\u201d he says. \u201cIt feels like the belief\u2019s growing. That belief has definitely grown in my mind, and it feels like in everyone\u2019s mind that we do have what it takes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After five-year-old Ollie Peake had gone to bed in his family home in Geelong, his mother, Sarah, entered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268077,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-268076","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}