Cartwright details Khawaja inspiration to resurrect career

Axed from the Australian setup at the end of the 2017-18 summer, Hilton Cartwright wasn't even getting picked for his state by the start of the 2020-21 season.

It ended a horror run for the now 30-year-old who hadn't scored a century in four seasons (including one for County side Middlesex) until this summer and was averaging 25 in first-class cricket since his last Test against Bangladesh in September 2017.

His 50-over form wasn't much better having still never hit a List A hundred, while averaging just 26 in his three seasons prior to 2020-21 since his last ODI for Australia in India, also in September 2017.

He'd also switched KFC BBL clubs from the Perth Scorchers to the Melbourne Stars in 2019 and may have been feeling on the outer in West Australian cricket.

He describes his journey over the past four years as a "pretty tough one".

"It's just been challenging, every part of it, especially the last 24 months of injury, selection and a few other things around that," he said.

"Just over 12 months ago I wasn't even in our Shield side at the start of last season."

The right-hander indeed missed the first three games of Western Australia's 2020-21 Marsh Sheffield Shield campaign and played only four of their eight matches for the season.

But, until this year just gone, it was his highest averaging season since the one in which he made his international debut against Pakistan in the Sydney New Year's Test in 2017.

He said his first goal coming into this summer was to get picked for the opening Shield match of the year, which he was, making 69 and 121 not out in a draw with South Australia.

Having just helped WA end a 23-year Sheffield Shield title drought, where he finished as the competition's third highest run scorer for the season, he topped of the summer by being crowed Western Australia's Laurie Sawle medallist as the state's best men's player of the year.

And he credits a mindset similar to reborn Test star Usman Khawaja as being crucial to helping him resurrect his own stuttering career.

"I've taken a big leaf out of Usman Khawaja's book the way he's been going about it the last 12 to 24 months," Cartwright said.

"Whatever is in his control he accepts that and whatever is out of his control, he also accepts that.

"Since I've been dropped from the Australian team and being dropped from the state team, I've had my goals to try and achieve.

"I didn't think it would take as long as it has when I initially got dropped from the Australian team but it's all part of the journey."

He also credited his wife Tameka for the pivotal role she had played in creating a really positive support network.

"She always has the answers, even when I've got no idea what they are," Cartwright said.

"I don't know how she does it, she's just got an amazing way of being able to listen really well and coming up with an answer that I didn't even think of but half the time it's right in front of my face.

"I've got a couple of really good mates in cricket (as well) so that makes it really beneficial that I can talk to them in detail around cricket and what I'm going through, and they've got a good understanding."

Cartwright said Khawaja was also his inspiration for an international comeback as well.

"Our head coach Adam Voges did something very similar, he debuted at the age of 33," he said.

"You can go through a long list of Australians, Chris Rogers as well is another one that did it, so I think for people who do get dropped from Australian sides always know that there's the possibility of making a comeback and Usman is just the freshest one on that list.

"It's (an Australian recall) definitely on my goal list, I've got a whole pile of them. But there's so much competition in Australian cricket at the moment.

"You don't have to look too far in the Ashes series and a new hero was born in Travis Head and he's such a good player.

"He's dominated the domestic circuit for the last three, four years so for me to get into that realm of things I need to start doing it for three to four years to put my name up in headlights like those guys have.

"My physical and my mental game is definitely a lot stronger now than what it was four or five years ago."

Cartwright has also just scored his first international franchise T20 contract after being picked up for the Oval Invincibles in Tuesday's Hundred draft.

"(You) don’t have to go far to see when things start to line up, you start to get other opportunities so I'm really grateful for that," he said.