Valente the all-round invisible guy

If Australia are to lift their ODI world ranking above its current sixth place and mount a defence of their World Cup title in the UK next year it's not unreasonable to think they might consider the leading wicket-taker in the domestic one-day competition over the past two years.

Having claimed more scalps in the white-ball format than either Andrew Tye, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon in that time.

When that player has also scored as many domestic one-day centuries over the same period as the combined tally from fellow allrounders Mitchell Marsh, Moises Henriques, James Faulkner and Ashton Agar, his case would seem even more compelling.

In times past, such proficiency with bat and ball would see the individual concerned fitted for a national uniform, or at the very least shipped the pre-fabricated one with 'next Keith Miller' emblazoned on the back that's been an under-used hand-me-down for 60 years.

But not only is Cameron Valente's name noticeably absent when revamps to Australia's struggling white-ball outfit are debated, the 23-year-old can't nail down a regular berth in South Australia's Sheffield Shield line-up.

And is yet to make his KFC Big Bash League debut despite being on the list at Perth Scorchers and Brisbane Heat over the past two summers.

There is a sizeable difference between 'flying under the radar' and 'Invisible Man', but Valente – who this week clubbed 162 from 115 balls followed by a further 80 from 101 in a pair of Redbacks' one-day trial games – remains seemingly unfazed by his anonymity.

"I think that when it comes to my own performance, that's a good thing," Valente told cricket.com.au, shortly after being run-out during SA's internal practice match on the reduced-size Adelaide Oval No. 2.

"I find sometimes that when people are thinking about selection, their performance can go downhill – they try too hard, and their performance suffers.

"Instead, I'm just trying to nail every game that I get my opportunity in.

"I've never thought about (higher honours), and I'll continue to not think about it until that time comes."

Image Id: 55A462463D5C4C62ABF67E2E6560465B Image Caption: Valente celebrates a JLT Cup ton // Getty

It's difficult to argue that he hasn't grasped his opportunities in most of the 14 one-day cup matches he's played for SA since his maiden appearance against Western Australia in Perth two years ago.

In that game, his bowling skills were apparent (3-40 from 10 overs) though his batting brought him a second-ball duck when he was caught behind off rival allrounder, Hilton Cartwright.

That inequity was addressed in his next outing, against Victoria at the WACA when he went to the wicket with his team hopelessly listing at 5-35 in vain pursuit of 343, only to be the last dismissed for an even 100 from 102 balls, punctuated with eight boundaries and a six.

Then it was back to dominating with the ball (3-30 against Queensland) before he finished SA's 2016-17 campaign as the competition's equal-leading wicket-taker alongside New South Wales Test-capped duo Cummins and Doug Bollinger.

In total, he's taken 23 domestic one-day wickets at 26.57 which represents two more than the man that he regularly aims to emulate his medium-fast bowling upon, WA and Australia white-ball specialist Andrew Tye.

Although Tye's batting return pales alongside Valente's record of 386 runs at 35.09, which places him (in terms of aggregate) ahead of specialist batters the ilk of George Bailey and Peter Handscomb from a similar number of matches during the past two seasons

In addition to carrying the time-honoured burden heaped upon every half-decent allrounder since Miller's retirement in 1956, Valente also bears the weight of fronting up to the inevitable 'are you a batter who bowls, or vice-versa' question vis-à-vis his allrounder status.

To which he has an answer as neat as the lofted straight drive he's been working on over winter, to reduce his reliance on square-of-the-wicket scoring options in pursuit of the 360-degree game so revered by modern batters and their coaches.

"I've always wanted to be a clear allrounder," says the former Australia under-19 representative whose affinity for cricket grew from weekends spent at his father's club matches following the death of his mother from cancer when Cameron was aged four.

"I don't want to be a batting or bowling allrounder – I want to be good at both.

"From a bowling point of view, I want to be like Andrew Tye in the shorter format.

"He's very good at working out batsmen and bowling those slower balls when he needs to as well as landing yorkers, and he's gone a long way with those skills.

"It shows what you can achieve if you identify the important areas and become really good at them.

"And on the batting front, I just try to take bits and pieces out of the games of good batters that I see, and play with and against, to try and follow what they do and put it in my game."

Throughout the winter, in addition to increasing his aptitude at Fortnite, the video game that delivers greater angst to parents of teenagers than does Tye's slower ball in the minds of international batters, Valente has been putting hard work into his red-ball game.

Not so much his bowling, which is likened within the SA set-up to recent Test player Chadd Sayers, which largely explains why the pair are rarely selected in the same Redbacks' XI.

Valente's long hours away from the console, and an internship stint with South Australia Police, have instead been devoted to tightening his defence and bolstering his 'release' shots against spin – namely sweep and reverse paddle strokes.

In the diligently sought hope of adding to the four Sheffield Shield games he's managed over the past three summers.

Valente is aiming to grasp a position within SA's top seven and to provide a genuine fourth-seam option that would bring greater flexibility to an attack spearheaded by Sayers, Daniel Worrall and Joe Mennie, as well as the potential spin presence of Tom Andrews or Adam Zampa.

But with the likelihood of Redbacks' captain Travis Head and keeper Alex Carey missing significant sections of the coming summer on national duty, the SA brains trust is hopeful Valente might justify a spot in the top six which would further enhance his 'genuine allrounder' claims.

Not that his inability to ink his name into SA's Shield calculations has caused him frustration. Well, not in the last year or two, at least.

"I think in my first couple of years there was, I think I was a little bit immature and I wanted it so badly," Valente concedes.

"But now I look at our list and it's hard to find a spot where I would sneak in.

Image Id: 95E63E2D68D04B2C98A6F668CF489C72 Image Caption: Valente celebrates a Victorian wicket // Getty

"What I've heard, from a selection point of view, is that I'm a lot like Chadd Sayers.

"So if I was to be picked as a genuine bowler, it would be hard to pick us both because he's very similar to me – though obviously he's 10 times better at the moment.

"If I'm going to squeeze in, they really want me to bat in the top seven and then be that extra quick.

"It just makes selection so much easier if you can bat, so that's really how I'm trying to squeeze in."

More immediately, Valente's focus – as per his warm-up in Adelaide's football season weather of recent days – is the Redbacks' JLT One-Day Cup opener against New South Wales at the WACA on 20 September.

Which might excite the interest of BBL clubs given his current unsigned status, or even national selectors searching for solutions to an ODI form line that shows the reigning world champions with two wins from their past 20 scheduled games.

If he slips under their guard, it won't be for want of fair warning.