Henry not resting as he hunts higher honours

Were Henry Hunt the resting type, he could have justifiably kicked back on the laurels earned during a breakthrough summer and enjoyed a relaxing off-season just completed.

Not only did 2021-22 deliver him the honour of Marsh Sheffield Shield Player of the Year (shared with Victoria's Travis Dean), Hunt took over the Redbacks' captaincy for the final two games and duly led the team to their first win in more than two years.

Then there was selection for Australia A in their match against England A that ran concurrently with last summer's opening Ashes Test, and a last-minute call-up to SA's Marsh One Day Cup line-up as a concussion substitute that led directly to him earning a BBL contract with Adelaide Strikers.

And to crown that list, the 25-year-old opener received a taste of Test representation having been deployed as a substitute fielder for injured David Warner as Australia's bowlers scythed through England's batting on the final day to take an early grip on the urn.

Image Id: 6DBEC6DF083D484093A05955CC80A32C Image Caption: Henry Hunt receives his 25 game cap from Jake Weatherald ahead of the Redbacks' match against Victoria // Getty

"Everything happened really quickly that morning, and to be on the field when Gaz (Nathan Lyon) took his 400th wicket and then they continued to fall was a pretty awesome experience," Hunt recalled prior to beginning his 2022-23 Shield campaign against Victoria in Adelaide.

"Obviously the size and the influence of the crowd was totally different to anything I'd experienced in Shield cricket, so to be a very small part of that moment gave me a little taste and something to work towards.

"To go and field and rub shoulders with some of the biggest names in Australian cricket, it was something I want to strive to achieve and to get out there for myself."

Not that Hunt needed that brief introduction to international cricket to fuel his motivation.

The hard-working right-hander, who learned his craft on the backyard tennis court of his family's home at Grenfell in New South Wales' verdant central-west, thrives on challenges and will leave no avenue unexplored in his quest to further evolve and improve.

During the winter, he was part of the Australia A squad that toured Sri Lanka in tandem with the men's Test team where he worked assiduously on his batting technique against spin, bouncing back from a pair in the opening four-day game at Hambantota to post a century in the second.

Hunt was then part of the eight-man youth squad – including Test-capped opener Will Pucovski and emerging batting star Teague Wylie – that spent 10 days at the MRF academy in Chennai to further hone their skills on subcontinent pitches.

While it wasn't Hunt's first playing experience in Asia, he admits he gleaned considerably more than from his previous visit to Colombo as part of the Sydney University outfit involved in a red-ball campus T20 tournament in 2017.

"That was definitely more of a social event," Hunt recalled with a wry grin.

"This year's trip with the Australia A squad, and then to Chennai, was a great experience - training and playing in foreign conditions is something I really want to do, to challenge myself in different circumstances.

"To experience that first-hand and play against some of their best players over in Sri Lanka was great from a learning perspective and something I hope I can try and work towards over the next few years.

"That's the goal."

To try and achieve that ambition, Hunt forewent his traditional winter sojourn in Darwin's Strike League competition to consolidate the lessons he learned in Sri Lanka and India in conjunction with his mate and mentor, SA batting coach Steve Stubbings.

As a former opener who played more than a decade with Derbyshire in the UK county competition, Stubbings shares a similar batting mindset with his young charge and delights in the progress Hunt has shown since he entered first-class cricket three years ago.

A secret to their working relationship is a shared pragmatism of approach.

"We both like the idea of working in straight lines, so it's the simplicity of where you defend the ball, can you defend it straight, can you defend it back to where the ball has come from," Stubbings told cricket.com.au.

"As simple as that sounds, I think that mantra struck a chord with him and he's constantly searching for feedback on where he's defending the ball and if his lines are right.

"He's really meticulous with that, and I think that's what sets him apart in terms of his defensive game.

"I think openers are a certain breed, and I can say that having been one myself.

"We love the idea of a bowler sending down their best ball, and you can let it go simply and give them a bit of a wink which can be one of the most satisfying parts of the game, even better than smacking it to the boundary.

"But then the other side of Henry's game that has really improved over the last two or three years is his range of shots.

"He drives beautifully, has a great pull shot when guys drop short, he cuts well, and he's got some strong options through the leg side.

"He's also worked hard on his game against spin, and it's been so exciting to see him with Australia A during the winter and having some great opportunities there to play in spinning conditions in Sri Lanka and on the trip to India.

"He's got a good understanding of where he's at so he's able to keep learning and keep moving forward, and his strength of mind is something that really holds him in good stead."

Stubbings, whose opening partners across his county playing days included former Australia Test batter and current Victoria coach Chris Rogers, believes Hunt's no-nonsense mindset and his preparedness to receive (and share) "a bit of brutal honesty" is reminiscent of many an Australian to have succeeded in the UK.

But there are other elements, such as the quiet surety with which he stepped into the captaincy role when Travis Head was absent on international duties last summer, that stamp him as a person as well as a player of great promise.

Hunt admits his peripatetic cricket journey – from country NSW, to Canberra, to Sydney's grade ranks, to Adelaide – has meant he'd never previously spent long enough with a single team to be afforded leadership duties.

However, the respect he engenders from his teammates coupled with his willingness to learn any new element of the game meant he grasped the opportunity to skipper, and was rewarded with a record that shows a winning ratio to date that's the envy of many of his SA captaincy predecessors.

"Now that I've done it, I realise it probably makes you think a bit differently about the game," Hunt said of his two-game captaincy tenure that yielded a five-wicket win over NSW at Karen Rolton Oval last March.

"I think most cricketers try to think of the game strategically and tactically as best they can when they're out on the field.

"At the end of the day, it's just a game of problem solving.

"I guess the challenge is trying to marry the two together when you're captain - to think like a batter when we're batting and then like bowler which can be pretty different for me.

"But it's something I'm looking forward to doing again this year when Heady's away."

It's not the only goal he's carrying into this season, with SA looking to snap a series of five consecutive wooden-spoon finishes in the Marsh Sheffield Shield.

In acknowledging the Shield Player of the Year accolade was a pleasant surprise and gratefully received recognition for effort, he claimed it carried greater resonance as acknowledgement of the countless hours his parents put in driving him to and from training and games during his boyhood.

So rather than being driven by a desire to become the first player in the award's 47-year history to win it in consecutive summers, he's eyeing individual contributions that more directly influence the Redbacks' results.

"'I want to go bigger and better this year, and hopefully score a few more bigger hundreds that can make more of an impact to winning some games of cricket for South Australia," said Hunt, whose seven first-class centuries to date show a career-high score of 134.

"Then there's the area of improving my game across all formats, now that I've been given opportunities in the white-ball games.

"I still see myself more in the mould of a traditional batter who's probably more oriented towards the longer form of cricket, but limited-overs is an area of cricket I want to try and get better at and have an impact on.

"I'm grateful to the Strikers for the chance, and hopefully I can learn as much as I can and develop myself into an all-format player.

"I'm looking forward to seeing how far I can take it."

While anxious not to heap unfair expectation on Hunt who is clearly on the radar of national selectors with Australia's incumbent Test openers Warner and Usman Khawaja both in the autumns of their exceptional careers, Stubbings also sees genuine hope for higher honours.

"He's a pretty upstanding citizen, a fantastic player and I think he's got a real chance," Stubbings said of his opening protege.

"I don’t want to put pressure on him, but he's a good player and he's not someone who mucks around.

"He doesn't mind a challenge … let's put it that way."