Tremain's hunger returns after 18 months on the outer

Chris Tremain can't quite remember exactly how many days it was between his 65th and 66th first-class games, but he does know it was "a long 18 months".

Having spent one full summer and two pre-seasons watching a lot of cricket but barely playing any, the 30-year-old says his current form – which has netted him 16 wickets at 13.81 in just three games this season – is simply a case of "just picking up the tools and going back to work".

Not that his belief didn't waver during the most difficult period of his decade-long career.

When Tremain wasn't included in NSW's Shield squad for their opening two games of this season, the right-armer immediately feared history was repeating. Having moved back to his home state at the end of the 2019-20 season when his request for a contract extension was dismissed by Victoria, despite being the leading Sheffield Shield wicket-taker across the previous five seasons, Tremain didn't play a single game for NSW last summer, even though he was fit and healthy.

He did manage three games for the Sydney Thunder in the KFC BBL but with Australia's Test attack of Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood available for a large part of the season due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on international fixtures, Tremain wasn't able to force his way into NSW's senior side.

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Top Sheffield Shield wicket takers 2015-16 to 2019-20 

Chris Tremain (Victoria) – 191 

Jackson Bird (Tasmania) – 173 

Scott Boland (Victoria) – 164 

Joe Mennie (South Australia) – 164 

Trent Copeland (NSW) – 163

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And when the Blues did need to bring in reinforcements, they opted for veteran Trent Copeland, allrounder Sean Abbott and the likes of Harry Conway and Liam Hatcher.

All told, including all of last season and most of this one, Tremain has played just eight games out of a possible 53 at state and Big Bash level.

"I didn't play a lot of grade cricket (either) because I was always in hubs and bubbles," Tremain tells cricket.com.au. "I was removed from it a lot, so there wasn't a great deal of cricket played at all.

"Being burnt out at the back of (my) time at Victoria, that season where I didn't play much at all, if it did anything, it gave me a rest.

Image Id: E4A92D40653B4FE88473079E8EF64814 Image Caption: Tremain had a frustrating start in his return to NSW // Getty

"There were quite a few months there when COVID first hit, and I was rested anyway. I was ready to go, and the hunger … actually wavered quite a lot.

"When you're sitting on the sidelines, you weren't where you wanted to be, which is playing Shield cricket or in the first XI, and (the hunger) started to bottom out as well.

"I went from being hungry but tired, to being fresh and lacking opportunity, which was an interesting dynamic to work through.

"Even with the better part of 70 games under your belt, when you go through a lay-off like that, you still doubt yourself. There's still doubts about whether you're (a) good option. I still had those doubts in the BBL (this season) when I didn't play a game and thought, 'I can't be that bad an option'.

"What did put me in good stead was the fact that I've played that much cricket (so) I was able to talk myself out of it and go, 'Well, I'm not that bad an option – there's just some really good options in front of me'."

Image Id: EED64BA805EB48AABFE0AA7AE63589FA Image Caption: Tremain played four ODIs for Australia in 2016 // Getty

During the 2021 winter – before the COVID-19 lockdown in Sydney – Tremain travelled to Darwin for the One-Day and T20 Strike Leagues (in June through to August) and in September, he played Queensland Premier Cricket for Valley District to finally get some games into his legs.

But it wasn't until pre-season training with NSW leading into their opening three matches of this season that Tremain, who featured in four one-day internationals during a tour to South Africa in late 2016, reached his sliding doors moment.

"I probably bottomed out in pre-season this year when I wasn't in the initial Shield squads," he says. "I thought we were going to go back down the same route as last (season) where I was sitting on the pine waiting for an opportunity.

"I had a chat with the (NSW) assistant bowling coach Shawn Bradstreet and he just said, 'If you play cricket the way you've played cricket for the last 10 years, it'll be good enough. You don't need to do anything extraordinary or special. If you just do what you do, it'll be good enough'.

"I was lucky enough when I got that opportunity (against) Victoria, there were no jitters or nerves about being back in the game. I just had this belief that was instilled in me – which had wavered – from our bowling coach saying, 'Just go do your job and you'll be good enough'.

Image Id: B94B5134871E4E1C85B65D9844C136C6 Image Caption: Tremain debuted for NSW a decade ago before moving to Victoria // Getty

"And that's what it feels like at the moment. People (are) highlighting good performances but in reality, I'm just picking up the tools and going back to work.

"I was lucky I had that conversation at the start of the (season) because if I hadn't, it probably would have been a very different story. I would have been quite nervous and would have gone searching and seeking for something that I didn't need to.

"It was a long 18 months (631 days) between games – the last one was day four at the Gabba with Victoria (in February 2020) and then it was day one against Victoria with New South Wales at the SCG (in November 2021)."

And Tremain didn't have to wait long for his first Shield wicket in two summers, striking with his very first ball to remove James Seymour, and then two balls later to dismiss former teammate Peter Handscomb.

"Then a couple of overs later, I took another wicket," he recalls. "So I had 3-2 in three overs.

"(It) was awesome because it got a monkey off my back straight away and then I was able to just go back to work.

"I didn't need to look for anything else; I just knew I can fling the ball 22 yards down the other end and I'll be OK. Because generally flinging it down the other end has worked for me in the past."

Tremain claimed 4-52 that day against Victoria and has since taken match figures of 7-97 against Queensland, catapulting him into the top 10 Shield wicket takers of the season.

His wickets have also come differently to his traditional away-swingers, which look to draw the edge to the waiting slips cordon. In fact, seven of his 16 first-class dismissals so far this season have been bowled or lbw, while half have also been left-handers, compared to 31 per cent of left-handers in his 207 wickets since the beginning of 2015-16.

"There's a few faint ones going behind, but a lot of lbws and bowleds and a lot to left-handers as well," he says. "(It) means the ball is moving the other way, which I've made friends with.

Image Id: 5EB6A22B2E884C5B89599EA6763D285E Image Caption: Tremain has added some new tricks to his skills set // Getty

"I know why it's happening, and I can get things going the other way as well. But at the moment, we've just found a nice recipe for keeping the stumps in play, especially on flat wickets.

"Much like you see with Scotty Boland quite a bit, running the ball back in and then getting one to straighten seems to be really difficult to play on flat wickets.

"Normally it was away swing; a lot of my career was trying to get the ball to shift away to the right-hander … big swinging outies caught at second slip.

"I was never that good at bringing it back down the line to left-handers. I could do it, but it wasn't the preferred mode of dismissal.

"Running the ball back in at the moment is definitely the way to approach things because I can't imagine Bankstown and Karen Rolton (Ovals) – our next two venues – are going to be spicy enough to get the ball through to first, second and third slip."

That work ethic to constantly improve and develop his skills was also evident during Tremain's time in the first-class wilderness, when he called on his old coach at Victoria – and the current interim head coach of Australia – for help.

"I needed to get six to nine inches closer to the stumps (at the bowler's end)," he says. "I was far too wide on the crease and to do that, I needed to change an angle in my approach.

"I didn't notice that until I got to Darwin and even then, I reached out to Andrew McDonald and said, 'For old times' sake can you just have a look at this?'

"He got back to me and said, 'You need to work on that and get back to where you were' (closer to the stumps), and it took me two weeks to get back there. He gave me four months or six months and I said 'I'll do it in two weeks'. We absolutely hammered it, which opened up a whole new door.

"(When) you get close to the stumps, you get more side on, then you get that away movement like I used to have, and you still have the option to go back in.

"Looking at those game tapes, I know my body has changed. I'm a little bit older, tactically I know a bit more and technically we're getting back to what I was when I was at my best. But everything else, I'm back at the place where I was when I was performing really well.

"Except I'm two years older, and a lot wiser."

Image Id: E3BCD08B29C54905B2117EDEDB71BD78 Image Caption: Tremain has re-established himself as one of the Shield's leading bowlers // Getty

Barely six months after turning 30, Tremain's dreams of higher honours are far from over. Younger than both Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood, he also has the recent rise of Boland – his former pace partner at Victoria who made his Test debut this summer at the age of 32 – to provide inspiration.

But he says the prospect of playing for Australia is "not really a big driver" for him like it was when he was younger.

"I just want to have a really good career," he says.

"I've had a really good career (already) and I've got a good opportunity to keep adding to a really good career.

"If I finished tomorrow, I'd be really proud of everything I've achieved."