Royals return and Aussies abroad

Back with a bang!

It was a thrill to be part of the first Super Over match of this year’s IPL this week, though not so great to end up on the wrong side of the sudden-death shoot-out that handed the Rajasthan Royals our first loss of the tournament.

Ditto for losing my off-stump to Mitchell Johnson off the first ball of his Super Over.

But that’s one of the great attractions of the IPL – you get to play against guys who for the rest of the year are your teammates.

It’s a bit weird and a bit different to suddenly find yourself on the opposing team to someone like Mitch who I usually see bowling on match days from the comfort of first slip.

Obviously, the Australian guys in the IPL know each other very well so there’s not too many secrets about how we play and how we go about things, so I was really happy for Mitch to do well in the Super Over even though it didn’t work out for me and my team.

Having faced him a lot in the nets over the years, it’s a strange feeling to suddenly come up against him and other Australian players in the middle.

Mitch knows me inside out and where to bowl to me, and at the same time I guess I know the balls he’s going to bowl.

The trick is trying to negate that and he landed a beauty first up in that final over on Tuesday night.

I didn’t get any short ones from Mitch during his spell, though I only faced a few balls from him.

It certainly wasn’t like the battle I had with Pakistan’s Wahab Riaz during the World Cup where just about every one of them was around my armpit, which made it a bit more challenging.

There’s no doubt that was a nasty spell from Wahab and I was lucky enough to get through.

I’ve seen Mitch a lot in the nets having grown up with him and faced him since I was 17, so he’s certainly hit me a fair share of the time and any time I get out of the nets without getting hit is a pretty good result.

Faulks on the road

Jimmy Faulkner had to face Mitch in the last over too, and he’s a guy who certainly doesn’t lack confidence in that regard – though Mitch won the battle that time.

Jimmy never loses that, although his overconfidence is more tongue in cheek at times.

He’s very confident in his own ability, whether it’s with bat or ball, and over the last two or three years I’ve spent a hell of a lot of time with Jimmy and we’ve become very good mates – which is a good thing otherwise we would have got sick of each other very quickly.

It’s great to have someone like Jimmy around.

He’s a world-class player and he’s a great guy, and we’re very lucky to have him here at Rajasthan.

Now that he and I have spent so much time together we know where each one’s individual comfort ‘bubble’ sits, so we don’t intrude too much. 

More to the point, Jimmy’s a very busy man and he knows I need a little bit of downtime to myself.

As far as his status as ‘The Finisher’ is concerned, that was a role appointed by the players who have seen him do his thing consistently.

There hasn’t been a time where he hasn’t done the job for any team he’s played in.

Mate against mate

There’s no real words involved between the Australians when we run into one another on the field, it’s more we know a lot of their guys who are playing are Aussie guys and are crucial wickets in the game, so there’s a bit of celebration when we get one of them out.

It’s certainly not over the top – we have way too much respect for each other so no-one’s ever going to step over the mark.

And as an Australia team we’ve had a lot of great times together, especially over the last 18 months.

It’s also nice to be involved in matches against your mates, and to see someone like Shaun Marsh come out in that Super Over and hit them so sweetly from ball one was an unbelievable sign.

He’s as good a batsman as there is in the world when he’s hitting the ball like that, and speaking as a bowler he’s very hard to stop.

Shaun’s always done extremely well for Kings XI Punjab and that’s shown by his record with more than 2,000 runs in the IPL for them.

They’ve got a very strong overseas collection, especially the four guys that have been playing (Glenn Maxwell, David Miller, George Bailey and Johnson) so it’s hard for Shaun to get a look in.

But he knows how to take down good quality bowling and he’s done it many times before, so it’s great to see him get an opportunity and do really well.

It’s going to be interesting to see when George Bailey comes back in, how they’re going to make those four overseas players work.

George has been hitting the ball unbelievably well in this tournament so far, so that’s going to be a headache for their team management.

Smith crisp

While sitting on the sidelines for the first few Royals games was frustrating, it also gave me a chance to watch Steve Smith continue to grow into the captaincy role.

Steve’s always had an incredible talent even from the first time he was in and around the Aussie squad.

Some of things he’s been able to do even at such a young age is pretty special, but it wasn’t until the last two years that he was able to bring it all together.

Not only his raw talent but to also have the cricket smarts to help perfect his game.

And especially over the last 12 months that development has been incredible to watch.

Whether it’s in the game or also in the nets, to see how he takes on our quick bowlers at training is amazing.

Those net sessions are always very nasty, with Mitch Starc, Mitch Johnson, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, James Pattinson, it’s never that nice facing these guys in the nets.

But to see Steve Smith bat in the nets against these guys, it’s incredible to watch.

He’s got his game sorted and he’s got all the shots, all the options against the quicks and spin.

He’s hungry as well. He loves batting, he wants to keep churning them out and that’s what he’s been doing.

As far as his leadership is concerned, I think he’s continued to grow with the life experience he’s had.

For a 25-year-old he’s had plenty of experience already with the ups and downs of professional sport and there’s no doubt Dani, his girlfriend, has helped him find his feet in life as well.

It’s great to see someone who continues to evolve and he’s only going to continue to develop and grow with the more experiences he continues to have in life.

He’s a very good leader.

Tactically he reads the game incredibly well.

Exciting times ahead

Of course, on the other side of the IPL we have our Test tour to the West Indies and then straight on to the Ashes in the UK.

And as much I love playing in the IPL and am looking ahead to the change of formats and conditions for those Test series, I’ve also got some other important matters before the West Indies.

The birth of our second child, so hopefully the timing works out and I can be there for that as well as for the full Test tour that follows.