'Taking the stairs' has Fraser-McGurk primed for BBL

For Jake Fraser-McGurk the message from Chris Rogers on how to win back his spot in the Victorian side was simple – "knock the door down".

So clear was the messaging from the Victorian coach and former Australia Test opener that the 19-year-old even quoted him from a news article a few weeks earlier.

"Buck (Rogers) pretty much told me that you've got to knock the door down," Fraser-McGurk said on Tuesday as he prepares for another KFC BBL season with the Melbourne Renegades.

"I saw there was something in the paper the other day saying some players get the elevator up and some players get the stairs.

"He kind of wants me taking the stairs this year and earn my spot, cement it and score heaps of runs."

And scoring runs is what he's done.

In his first competitive game of the year – a second XI match against NSW Metro earlier this month – the young right-handed cracked 146 off 180 balls in the first-innings, and 32 in the second as Victoria cruised to victory by 197 runs.

So good was his form in that match that he was immediately elevated to Victoria's senior side six days later for their first Marsh One-Day Cup match of the season where he struck 45 off 33 in a losing cause.

The flamboyant young batter burst onto the scene in 2019 at just 17 years old, scoring 51 in his maiden first-class innings and 54 in his first Marsh Cup innings five days later.

But those two knocks remain his highest scores in both formats, and despite playing 10 Big Bash games last year, he has failed to pass 50 again at senior domestic level.

When asked if his rise into professional cricket happened to soon for him, he said he hadn't given it much thought.

"You just get the opportunity and whenever you get it you just take it," Fraser-McGurk said.

This BBL season shapes as a golden opportunity for the aggressive youngster, and with another year's experience under his belt, he feels primed to take advantage of several key absences from the Renegades top order.

With Shaun Marsh out due to a calf strain, T20 World Cup winning skipper Aaron Finch under an injury cloud and new Renegades' captain Nic Maddinson on Australia A duties, a number of spots have opened up in the batting line-up at the start of the tournament.

"Those first few games will be good opportunities for the young players to get in there and show what they can do and hopefully I can cement that spot before the big dogs come back," Fraser-McGurk said.

"(Hopefully I'll) play a few more games and perform a bit better this year and then team wise definitely try to win more games and get off the bottom of the ladder."

As for what he's done differently to knock the door down, Fraser-McGurk said it was all down to his mental skills.

"Just … be a bit hungrier instead of giving it away and (better) decision making, nothing really technical or anything," he said when asked if he's changed anything in his game this season.

"One of the things (previous Renegades' coach Michael Klinger) said to me was there's always time to catch up so you don't need to go from ball one.

"You see blokes like Chris Lynn going pretty much straight away but it's obviously hard for an 18, 19-year-old to come in and do that without all the experiences and knowledge of where they're going to bowl."

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