Dutch courage: Buttler-esque Cooper in Aussie mix

Tom Cooper's stunning domestic form has him in the mix to achieve the rare feat of playing cricket for two countries after his latest blitz prompted Australia's limited-overs captain Aaron Finch to liken him to England master blaster Jos Buttler.

Finch said there's no reason why the 32-year-old couldn't come into calculations for Australia's T20 World Cup campaign after watching him shred Victoria's bowlers in their Marsh Cup clash at the MCG in an astonishing 46-ball 81 including seven sixes to lead South Australia to a one-run win.

So high is the confidence of Cooper, currently the Marsh Sheffield Shield’s leading run scorer, that he responded to a dare from mic’ed up Victoria keeper Sam Harper to ramp medium-pacer Jono Merlo by doing precisely that. 

Cooper has played 41 times for the Netherlands including three one-day and T20 World Cups, but ICC regulations do not preclude players who have previously played for Associate nations to be picked for full member sides like Australia.

The Netherlands qualified for next year's T20 World Cup without him (his younger brother Ben did play however) but Cooper hasn’t given up on playing for his native country.

Working in his favour is a subtle but important shift in Australia's T20 strategy that has seen a greater emphasis placed on finding specialist 'finishers' like Buttler to bat in the lower order, as opposed to re-purposing top-order guns used to batting against a new ball and with field restrictions in place to come in during the final overs.

"It's still a dream to play for Australia, it has been since I was a little kid," Cooper told cricket.com.au.

"Hopefully I can have a good Big Bash and I can take some of this form into that. Then who knows? 

"I've played the majority of my T20 career in that middle-order position, so at times it has been frustrating to see the highest run scorers get picked, and they're generally from the top of the order. 

"It's shown in the results – the boys looked almost unbeatable during the recent T20 series (against Sri Lanka and Pakistan). I still aspire to it, whether that opportunity arises or not, who knows, but it's the dream."

Cooper’s cameo on Tuesday was no flash in the plan; the right-hander piled on a career-best 271 not out against Victoria in the Sheffield Shield last month, while he played an important role in the Melbourne Renegades winning last summer's KFC Big Bash title.

Finch, who has led the national side on an undefeated run through their last seven completed T20s, indicated he has all the tools to be successful as a late-innings specialist for the Aussies.

"It wouldn't be a stretch at all (to suggest Cooper could play for Australia)," said Finch.

"He's a 360 (degree) player. He's so dynamic, he's so hard to bowl to because he can ramp (to) both sides (of the wicketkeeper) and he's got the power. 

"When you combine that, it's like trying to bowl to Jos Buttler or someone like that. 

"He's been in some great nick and it's great to see him doing well – obviously not against us. He's such a great bloke, he brings a lot to the team with bat and ball, and in the field." 

Australia's recent shift to finding players who have thrived in the middle and lower order in T20s saw the likes of Ben McDermott and Ashton Turner picked ahead of D'Arcy Short and Chris Lynn for recent T20 series wins. 

The dominance of the Finch-led top-order meant however the lower-order received almost no opportunity to demonstrate their capabilities against Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

"At times it can be frustrating when you're stuck down there but it can be quite a specialist role," said Cooper. 

"It's something that needs to be practiced quite a lot and it's a good thing going forward there's a bit more an emphasis put on that in selection, which has seen some really good results for the Aussies.

"Up the top of the order, you get a bit more freedom. You can get away with not getting them in the middle all the time because you've just got to clear the infield. 

"At the end (of an innings), you aspire to be a 360 degree player so you can hit the ball where the fielders aren’t but a lot of the time you've got to take a risk and try to clear (boundary) fielders. 

"If you don't get it quite right you can find yourself looking pretty silly."

Having played for Australia at the Under-19 World Cup with the likes of Finch, David Warner and Usman Khawaja, Cooper had stints with Australia A in 2012 and 2016 but picked a less conventional route to international cricket.

He represented the Netherlands at the 2011 ODI World Cup before helping them famously topple England at the 2014 World T20 in Bangladesh, where he was second only to Virat Kohli among the leading run scorers, and last played for them at the 2016 World T20.

Dirk Nannes is the most recent Australian to have played international cricket before making his debut for Australia, having also played for the Netherlands.

Redbacks teammate and former Australia ODI batter Callum Ferguson believes Cooper's handy bowling further enhances his national claims.

"I believe firmly he'd be an asset to the Australian T20 side," Ferguson told cricket.com.au.

"He brings a lot to any side and I think he'd do that role really well. He bowls some really handy off-spin as well and I've thought he's been under-utilised as well. 

"He knows his game backwards, he's worked really hard on all of those skills – those shots you see him play, he's played them in practice. 

"He's got a very laid-back attitude and as a younger player he probably got a bit of a rap for being a bit too lackadaisical. I never saw it that way because I always thought he was very professional about his approach. 

"I can't speak highly enough of him because I think he's a fantastic cricketer across all three formats. We're seeing the very best of him at the moment."