Old ball, new tricks: Perry stars among Test teammates

In an attack featuring James Pattinson, Scott Boland and Jon Holland, Mitch Perry is the name least familiar to those outside Victorian cricket circles.

But based on current form, the 21-year-old right-armer is almost first picked among a bowling line-up boasting 28 Test caps for Australia.

Having burst onto the scene with the wicket of Steve Smith in just his third first-class appearance, the young seamer has added another 36 scalps in his first two seasons of Sheffield Shield cricket.

He's played all of Victoria's 15 Marsh Sheffield Shield matches since his debut against South Australia at the start of the 2020-21 summer – and his 22 wickets at 25 this season has him ranked as the Vics most prolific bowler and seventh leading wicket-taker in the competition.

While his batting heroics were most talked about following the thrilling two-wicket win against Tasmania that booked Victoria's place in Thursday's Sheffield Shield final, it was his 4-31 – his best figures in first-class cricket to date – in the Tigers' second innings that got Vics back into the game.

"I was counting the wickets our young guys got in (the Tasmanian) game and if you include Jake Fraser-McGurk's run out, it was 13 of the 20 from Mitch Perry, Todd Murphy and Will Sutherland," Victorian coach Chris Rogers says of that match against Tasmania.

"That's an incredible effort, they're showing really good signs that they're developing nicely and that's what we need because we've got a young squad, we're building with a lot of these young players, but they're going to have to step up and perform in tough situations."

Renowned for his swing bowling, Victorian wicketkeeper Sam Harper says it's his work with the older ball that has helped elevate Perry's game to the next level.

"There's no doubt that he was a beautiful swing bowler a couple of years ago but now he's getting the relentlessness of line and length and if it's swinging it's a bonus," Harper said.

"If it's not (swinging), he bowls straight and attacks the stumps and he's got a couple of little balls that he was working on with Mick Lewis when he was here and now David Saker that he can go to.

"Even just little things – going wide on the crease, coming over and around the wicket and just different little plans that he has. When it's swinging with the new ball it's great but when it's not, he's still looking really dangerous.

"He's been bowling as well as I've seen him bowl for a long time so he's a great addition to that attack."

Perry says Lewis always said to him 'well, the ball is not going to stay new forever so you're going to have to get better bowling with the old ball'.

"I've gone away from just grabbing the new ball at training and bowling with that, I've been bowling a lot more with the old ball," Perry told cricket.com.au.

"Making myself work harder in the nets and just trying to be relentless on line and length instead of just grabbing a new ball and having it swing around everywhere … just makes me a better bowler.

"It's probably just a change of mindset at training and just grabbing a relatively older ball and seeing what I can do with that.

"If I can take wickets with the old ball then that's going to help my new ball bowling."

Having had two stress fractures when he was just breaking into the system and establishing himself in Victorian Premier Cricket with Richmond, Perry says he's also been doing a lot more technique work to help him hold his action together when he gets tired.

"Hopefully, I got them out of the way, touch wood, but I don't think you're ever going to be fully fit as a fast bowler, you're always going to have little niggles or something going on," he says.

"I'm not with the illusion that I'm going to be injury free for the rest of my life or rest of my career but at the moment the body is feeling really good, I think playing every (Shield) game last year has helped this year being able to be fitter as the season goes on."

Image Id: 48A4EE01451C4BA082E9C3346BE97EC0 Image Caption: Mitch Perry's only List A game so far came in November 2019 // Getty

While the focus is well and truly on winning this week's Sheffield Shield title, Perry also has one eye on adding to his sole List A and Big Bash appearances and can look to someone like Australian star Josh Hazlewood who was a crucial cog in the T20 World Cup success last year without deviating from his own relentless line and length.

"Absolutely, I want to be an all-format cricketer, I don't want to just be pigeonholed into red-ball cricket," Perry says.

"Obviously, that's the pinnacle, I want to be playing Test cricket for Australia but you want to be playing every format so that's probably the next step on my cricketing journey is to break into the Marsh Cup side … and then if I can break into a Big Bash side as well that would be great.

"Josh is a superstar cricketer and bowler, if I can be half the bowler he is I'll take that in my career. Obviously, he played a lot of Test cricket and then has broken into the white-ball setups so if I could do something like that it'd be great."

But Perry says it's not just him having a good season, with his fellow bowlers in Boland, Pattinson, Sutherland, Holland and Murphy also "bowling as well as they ever have".

"These guys have won Shield's and played at the top, I'm very lucky and grateful to play alongside these guys, but even to just share the ball with Patto or Boland and they're at the other end, it's pretty surreal feeling," he says.

"You always dream of that stuff to play with these cricketers and you always looked up to them when we were younger and to be playing with and alongside them is awesome.

"In our attack if one bloke's not getting the reward then the other guy is at the other end … it doesn't really matter who gets the rewards.

"I've been lucky enough the last few weeks to be getting them but I'm sure that'll change and there will be other guys that get their rewards the next few games.

"If I can just keep playing my role in tying the score down then I'm not really fussed if I don't get wickets, it's more just if the team is going well, I'm happy.

"Everyone is pretty up and about, it's not very often you get to play in Shield finals … for us (young guys) to be in our first ever Shield final, just to play in it is pretty exciting and I can't wait."

The Marsh Sheffield Shield final will be broadcast live on Fox Cricket and Kayo Sports, as well as live streamed free on cricket.com.au and the CA Live app