Runs, now tons: Tiger Tim's plan for Shield dominance

The words of a former captain were ringing in Tim Ward's ears as he trudged off Blundstone Arena last month.

Tasmania's opening batter had just flayed at a cover drive attempt only to edge straight into the waiting gloves of the Victorian 'keeper to be dismissed for 91 – his third half-century in five innings to that point this Marsh Sheffield Shield season.

Throw in being left stranded on 90 not out in last week's rain-affected fixture with NSW, and Ward is one of the in-form players in the country, but he is still yet to crack three figures this summer.

For the left-hander who originally hails from NSW, it is a familiar spot he finds himself in.

Reflecting on his premier cricket days for Paramatta – a club he started at in 2012 as a young teenager – Ward recalls a successful, but frustrating period in the 2017-18 season when the trend first arose.

"I might have scored eight fifties or something like that and I got a 98 not out in there and maybe another 90 and I was really disappointed," he tells cricket.com.au.

MyCricket records show his memory is just about spot on. It was actually seven fifties, part of a 699-run season as an 18-year-old that would delight most. But not Ward, and not his captain at the time.

Recognising the ability of his lightly-built opener, Paramatta skipper Nick Bertus – holder of four Sheffield Shield caps and a BBL runner up with the Sydney Sixers last summer – delivered some home truths for the young star, advice Ward still looks back on.

"Bert told me at the end of the year that I really cost myself six hundreds there," Ward says.

"So that's a similar place to where I am now, I reckon. I'm in this position, I can get the 50, or to 80, but the big hundreds aren't coming just yet.

"I think it's around the corner for me at the moment, just like it was few years ago where I sort of worked out how to do it in first grade after watching a guy like Nick.

"Now I'm watching a guy like Matthew Wade and hopefully that can help me take that next step and get across the line and get a few big hundreds this year."

Bertus, who still captains the premier side five years on, thinks he may have been too hard on his teenage mentee, but says the rewards Ward is now reaping are a testament to his hard work and willingness to learn.

"He would open a lot of the time and I would be batting three and going out there after he got a nice 25 or 30 and was looking a million bucks and then (he'd) just find a way to get out," Bertus recalls.

"I was probably pretty blunt with him and I just said, 'Mate, you're going to be a serious player, but until you start getting hundreds instead of 40s and 60s, it's not going to really mean anything'.

"And to be fair he was so good with any sort of criticism or advice that he really did take it on board, because he sort of flew under the radar and he'd get all these scores, but you'd look at the end of the year and here are seven or eight fifties and all the other good players in Sydney were making 100s, 150s, 200s.

"So there was probably a few tough conversations from my end in terms of, it's too good to be averaging around 35, 40, but you should be averaging 55, 60 with four or five hundreds each year.

"I'm glad that he listened because some guys take it the wrong way, but he was always a great learner and was then really wanting to get better."

 

Image Id: 5F2F0CA2C80343348F4583A679912E71 Image Caption: Ward plays a pull shot for Parramatta in 2016 // Parramatta District Cricket Club

It's a scary proposition for opposition Shield sides if things click for the 24-year-old in the manner they did in the two following seasons at Parramatta; Ward reeled off seven first-grade hundreds and amassed close to 1200 runs from the end of 2018 to the beginning of 2020.

Asked what he would say to Ward this time around, Bertus conveyed a similar mindset to the one he passed on when they were teammates.

"I think it would be similar," he says. "It's obviously a big step up from grade cricket to playing Shield cricket, the bowlers are coming out session after session with high quality.

"He's definitely got the game to score massive hundreds and I think at the moment, without speaking to Tim much, there's a bit of an opportunity as there's a few of the Australian players that are a bit older and could be coming to the end of their career.

"I think from an onlooker's point of view it's probably going to be someone around Tim's age (who is next picked) if they can rack up hundreds after hundreds … and I think that's probably Tim's next step.

"He'd be the first one to say that if he can convert a couple of those fifties into not just hundreds, but 150s, that's probably the player who's going to get the Aussie spot when it opens up.”

***

Ward's eye-catching start to his Shield career is the product of years of toil to even give himself the chance at a higher level.

As one of a new generation of cricketers, batters especially, that have taken their game to places like Darwin during Australia's winter, the patient opener became a full-time player even before he picked up his first rookie contract.

"He basically was like a professional cricketer without getting paid," Bertus says. "He was hitting so many balls and he was really fit.

"It struck me that he gave himself the best opportunity to do well every week."

'Devoted' is the word that best encapsulates the patient left-hander's dedication to his craft.

Whether it be in the gym, on the running track, or where you will often find him – in the nets – Ward is intent on knocking the proverbial Test selectors' door down.

And a chance might just be around the corner. Australia's incumbent openers David Warner and Usman Khawaja – aged 36 and 35 respectively –have both indicated the end of their international red-ball careers could come within the next 12 months.

While he might be behind the likes of Marcus Harris, Matthew Renshaw and Henry Hunt as next in line, Ward has both age, and the benefit of being untried on his side.

But he won't be getting ahead of himself.

Indeed, Ward is, as his former captain suggested, the first to admit he has work to do to reach that level, but he's more than prepared to play the long game with his adopted home state and add to his so far solitary Shield century.

"I'd like to think that the selectors would want to see a few hundreds put on the board first and a few match-winning innings from myself before that (a national call-up) was the case," he says.

"Maybe a 1000-run season or two to really show that I've got the ability, because getting to 50 and getting out is not winning many Test matches or first-class matches.

"So yeah, I'm pretty happy with the way I'm going at the moment but there's still a big step before I start dominating first-class cricket.

"I've got to think of the near term and that for me that is winning a Shield with Tasmania, maybe even contributing in the Marsh Cup as well. So I think for me, (higher honours is) a few years down the track and I'd be very lucky to get that opportunity."

***

While Hobart is home for Ward now, it's Parramatta where his heart lies.

Bertus remembers first seeing this 'little kid' when Ward was in the under-16s – a player with an enviable technique, but lacking the power to assert himself.

"He was just really a little kid that looked good but he probably didn't have enough power to score real big runs (but) always had a good technique and a really good temperament," he says.

"But then he went through the grades pretty quick. Obviously (he) got bigger and stronger and he was someone that probably flew under the radar a little bit until he got to first grade.

"I remember his debut – we won quite easily, and he would have been on 50 or 60 and looked like he'd been playing for five or six years."

They're memories that Ward looks back on fondly, with a drought-breaking premiership for the club in that same season where he was a perennial half-century maker a particular time he holds close to his heart.

 

Image Id: 99652B95BFBB4A0D961CEF0F32201B7F Image Caption: Bertus and Ward pose with the trophy // Purelight Photography

"The club were really good to me. I probably got a few opportunities to play second grade cricket when maybe I shouldn't have," he says.

"The guys around the club and the culture – guys like Nick who played for New South Wales – really just showed me how to go about my cricket and bat for long periods of time, and how to play aggressive and competitive cricket.

"It was a great moment for the club when we broke a 50-year drought in the first-grade premiership and doing it with a bunch of guys – most of us were Parramatta juniors – was a pretty special moment for the club. It holds a pretty special place."

It's why his decision to move to the Apple Isle was a tough, but ultimately necessary call.

Having never made NSW's Under 17 or Under 19 sides – which Ward admits was probably the right call at the time – and only receiving one Second XI opportunity despite his proficiency in the state's premier competition, the former part-time labourer knew it was time for a change.

He was contemplating the move himself, aiming to find a new club side and force his way onto the Tigers list, but a call from Tasmania coach Jeff Vaughan came before he needed to take that initiative.

"I knew that I wasn't getting an opportunity and contract in New South Wales that year and I'd already actually thought about moving down to Tasmania to pursue a contract down there just through playing grade cricket and then earning one the year after," Ward says.

"Luckily I got a call from Jeff Vaughan and he said, 'Would you like to come down on a rookie contract?' and that made the move easy for me.

"Being able to have that income and not having to look for another job and having that support around me, versus just moving down on my own and working through grade cricket like someone like Nathan Ellis did a few years before me (was great).

"I was really lucky just to get that opportunity and probably didn't really go well when I (first) came down here.

"I'm just really grateful to Tasmania and Jeff for getting me down here and having a belief in my ability and letting me showcase that."

***

Now in his third season for the Tigers, New South Wales' loss has been Tasmania's gain.

Bertus, who himself held a contract with the Blues during the year Ward made the trip south, says he couldn't believe his state was passing up on their home-grown talent.

"I was with New South Wales at the time so I remember, if I'm honest, being astonished that they weren't giving him a contract," he says.

"I couldn't believe what they were doing – I could see it, every weekend, how good this player was.

"It's come to fruition for Tim to go to Tasmania, and I think as someone that went through the New South Wales system, it was probably the best thing for him down there with a really good bunch of guys in Tasmania.

"I remember him being a little bit hesitant at first … but I think it's a really good environment down there and I think one that suits him, and he was always going to thrive as a professional cricketer just with his work ethic."

Admittedly, Ward says it did take a little bit of time to become comfortable in his new conditions.

"It was difficult to begin with, I tried to play the same way that I did in Sydney, and it just didn't work out," he says.

"I got out driving a couple of times and I think just had to adapt fast.

"After I did that, I was able to show that I could bat long periods of time in Tasmanian conditions and I think that was the key; they were looking for an opening batsman, so that was a big part of it – being adaptable and batting for long periods of time."

His Shield debut came at the end of a 788-run season with the University of Tasmania – a club where former Australia captain Tim Paine immediately took him under his wing.

The two struck up a close relationship, with Ward often confiding in the wicketkeeper and playing alongside him when he first represented the Tigers against WA in the final game of the 2020-21 season.

Ward managed 15 and 24 in his first two innings at first-class level, but more importantly it gave him a taste of what he had been craving so desperately for years.

It set him on the path to score more than 500 runs as a permanent part of Tassie's XI last year and lead to his peers voting him as the Bradman Young Cricketer of the year for 2021.

Now second only to Peter Handscomb for runs this season, the change in environment is quickly paying dividends for the self-aware young player.

Firsts have been a common theme of his past two years, and he will get the chance to tick off another when he strolls out for his maiden appearance at the MCG this Thursday against the Vics.

"It's pretty cool, I've never been there so probably when we do arrive on Wednesday, I'll be taking a lap around and just having a look and taking it all in, the same as I did at the Adelaide Oval and the SCG when I played there a couple of times," he says.

"I'm really excited for it. I'm not sure what the pitch is like, I think it's changed around a little bit the last few years, but I'm really looking forward to getting out there and having a look."

And doubtless making another small step in his burgeoning career.