New skipper re-lives purple patch to find his best

Newly appointed NSW Blues skipper Kurtis Patterson hopes a rediscovery of form and feel in last season's Marsh Sheffield Shield final after two challenging years has him well placed to return to his run-scoring best this summer.

After playing two Tests against Sri Lanka in January-February 2019, which included a maiden century in Canberra, Patterson was overlooked for the Ashes tour that followed that year, then endured an injury-interrupted 2019-20 season, before under-performing last summer with just one 50-plus score (102) from 17 Shield innings.

But the 28-year-old, who was on Monday named full-time NSW skipper in the four-day competition, believes a video session in the lead-up to the Shield final against Queensland paved the way for a shift in fortunes, viewing his first-innings 43 in the defeat to the Bulls as something of a breakthrough.

That session focused on watching himself during that golden stretch in the summer of 2018-19, when the tall left-hander posted that maiden Test hundred amid a run of four centuries in five innings.

"It was until before the Shield final that I looked back on my lead-up to my Test series (when) I played in the Australia A game (where he made 157no and 102no) where I watched some footage and just tried to focus on one or two of the basic things that I did well," Patterson said.

"Really they were just being still at point of release, and looking to get forward.

"I had a really good chat with Chandika (Hathurusinghe, NSW batting coach), just spoke about simplifying things as much as we can, (we said,), 'We've got one more game left, let's simplify things as much as possible'.

"I only scored 40-odd in that Shield final but in terms of just the way I felt, it felt like I was back to my normal self, which was nice in a way but also a bit disappointing that it took me the whole season to work that out.

"But that was the key learning and come out last year. I still feel like I'm improving. Obviously that was a poor year results-wise last year but it's a nice feeling knowing I'm learning something about my game every year."

Patterson stepped in to lead the Blues on occasions last summer in place of Peter Nevill, whom he has replaced permanently this season, and said he felt it benefited his game in that it helped him avoid over-thinking matters related to his own batting.

"Being able to (captain) last year in the one-day final and the last couple of Shield games was good for me to see how I reacted, and how I thought with it," he said.

"Half of my battle with my batting is just getting myself out of my own head, so the captaincy does that naturally because you can't just think about yourself – you have to think about the rest of the team.

"Getting myself out of my own head is a good thing, so I certainly felt that when I was batting last year when I was captain it allowed me to kind of see the bigger picture.

"But (batting) certainly was something I thought about (when accepting the captaincy) because now that I am captain, first and foremost I'm a batter, and when we're batting, it's no longer 'Kurtis the captain' – I have to perform as a batter.

"So it's something I probably won't really know the answer to until we're in the depths of the season and I've got a few more bases of data to work with. But last year I felt really comfortable, it didn't feel like it hindered my batting at all – it felt, if anything, that it helped."

Patterson's Test debut in January 2019 preceded the international bows of both Cameron Green and Will Pucovski, as well as the stunning elevation of Marnus Labuschagne, meaning the elegant leftie now has his work cut out to return to the Baggy Green, despite averaging 144 in Test cricket (from two innings).

He and the rest of the chasing pack will have five Shield matches to press their claims in the lead-in to the opening Test of the summer against Afghanistan, and a sixth before the Ashes.

Despite the arrivals of that aforementioned trio, Australia's top six remains far from locked in.

"I think that's better for everyone," Patterson added of the front-loaded schedule. "It's better for the Australian team, if those guys are around for the red-ball players to get a high level of cricket into them before the Ashes starts.

"It's obviously nice to have six games as opposed to three, and time to at least find your rhythm leading into that Ashes summer.

"And that obviously goes for everyone – I think it's better for the entire game the more Sheffield Shield games we have leading into any Australian summer."