The social media pact driving envious Rocchiccioli

Corey Rocchiccioli had FOMO (fear of missing out).

He was at home in Perth, his girlfriend was stuck in NSW and many of his mates were off playing in the Big Bash.

And while his own life was going great – he'd made his first-class debut a few months earlier – he couldn't help but feel he was missing out.

That was 12 months ago during KFC BBL|11, and after realising he was wasting a fair chunk of his days away on social media, he decided it was time for change.

"I was spending a lot of time looking at how other people were doing in the Big Bash and (I was) really jealous of the boys being away," he tells cricket.com.au's Unplayable Podcast.

"Having FOMO, I'd never had that in my life before such was the enjoyment of my (own) life."

Those that know Rocchiccioli, or have seen him playing for the Melbourne Renegades during this BBL season, no doubt know how full of life and energetic the West Australian off-spinner is.

Realising himself how that endless scrolling was making him feel, the 25-year-old sought out the WA Cricket psychologist Tom Parker for some guidance.

It was following that conversation that Rocchiccioli made a pact to delete Instagram from his phone until the end of the 2021-21 Marsh Sheffield Shield season and remove even the slightest temptation to check in on what others were doing.

"I was just burning mental energy thinking too much about what other people were doing and not focusing on how I was going to get better and enjoy my moment," he says.

"We live in Perth and Perth is an incredible place to live, I'm so lucky I live there, I live a kilometre away from the beach.

"So I just decided to keep enjoying the present."

***

It's a strict regime he still follows today, even though 12 months on he is now one of those stars of the Big Bash alongside his mates after his debut for the Renegades last week.

On Sunday, he faces the biggest challenge of his short T20 career as the Renegades do battle with a Brisbane Heat outfit featuring Australian stars Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne and Matthew Renshaw in the BBL|12 Knockout final.

"This season, I've had Instagram back, but going into Shield games I'd delete it the night before and don't touch it again until the morning after the four days are finished," Rocchiccioli reveals.

"And then during Big Bash cricket, it's usually around 24 hours before that I'll delete it off my phone, and then I'll re-download it at the end of the game or in the morning after the game.

"It's just so I don't burn mental energy looking at things that don't need to be looked at.

"Sometimes when you're away from home and you've got your friends and your family at the beach and they're doing cool things, even though I'm doing cool things, sometimes you have a want to go and do those things.

"So (deleting the app) just allows me to stay in my bubble and absorb what I need to and focus on playing professional cricket, which is hard enough at the best of times – you don't need to (be) wasting mental energy on other things."

***

Like Australia's other young up and coming off-spinner Todd Murphy, Rocchiccioli stumbled upon the craft accidentally.

And his rise has been just as rapid.

A Sheffield Shield winner in just his fourth first-class game, the right-armer has established himself in a formidable Western Australia side despite the obvious temptation to always play four quicks at the famous WACA Ground.

It was a baking hot 36C day in Perth's northern suburbs when Rocchiccioli fatefully asked his under-13 coach if he could bowl spin at a net session.

"I was short and chubby like most 13-year-olds, and I was bowling little mediums at probably 50kph thinking that I was a top-order batter," Rocchiccioli recalls.

"I decided to bowl one ball of spin.

"And the first ball spun. Or that's how I remember it anyway."

A week later he was bowling spin in a game, and he has ever since, with his off breaks now boasting the wickets of Australia's opening pair David Warner (in the BBL) and Usman Khawaja among his list of 21 first-class victims in his nine matches.

"I got a couple of texts yesterday just saying that in the space of 18 months I'm playing in Shield cricket and now I'm playing in Big Bash finals, so it's been an incredible rise," he says.

***

Ahead of the 2022-23 domestic summer, WA head coach Adam Voges flagged the development of their spin stocks as crucial to ensuring sustained red-ball success after the state broke a 23-year Sheffield Shield title drought last season.

Even though WA mostly plays on pace friendly wickets, Rocchiccioli was to be given continuity and consistency in selection as Voges likes having a spinner in the team, and it would prove especially beneficial when playing away from home.

And Ashton Agar away with national duties for almost the entire season, Rocchiccioli was thrust into the spotlight again, as he was at the back end of 2021-22. He's played all bar their last match when Agar was available and perhaps not even the WA coach could have envisaged how well he would do.

At the Shield's mid-season break for BBL|12, Rocchiccioli is the competition's leading spinner with 16 wickets at 26.31 having bowled his state to victory over NSW with two four-wicket hauls on a raging turner at the SCG.

While satisfied with capitalising in favourable conditions, it's not the performance that he is most proud of so far this season.

"My role at the WACA is to support the big fast bowlers and making sure I'm going at a really low economy rate," Rocchiccioli says.

"Even though I took two four-fors in Sydney, my favourite innings was bowling to Queensland on day one (at the WACA) and going 17 overs, 2-26.

"Because I feel like that's something the boys asking me to do … and that helped to set us up for a win.

"It's been really cool to have the backing of Adam Voges and the rest of the boys at WA cricket.

"It just makes you walk a little bit taller and be a little bit stress free that you're not going to get dropped or not play at home … at the WACA but I'm still going to play regardless of if it's a big green top or a flatty.

"I really enjoy bowling at the WACA (with) the drift that you get when the sea breeze comes in and then the spin and bounce that you get on a day one wicket.

"It helps that I'm a little bit taller and playing grade cricket in Perth, we're not getting big Bunsen Burners, so I've been asked to try and get bounce and use that shape … (which) now I'm building a career around."

***

But such is the strength of West Australian cricket (they currently hold all three men's domestic titles), Rocchiccioli was forced to look interstate for his Big Bash opportunity.

And even then he had to bide his time at the Renegades with star international spinners Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Akeal Hosein available for the first half of the tournament.

Not that he minded too much, though.

"The four weeks with Akeal and Mujeeb, that was incredible," he says.

"I couldn't have asked for a better intro into Big Bash cricket (and) I think I earned my way into playing based off the fact that I got four weeks of a training camp with those two picking their brains.

"For someone like Mujeeb, just how well he uses his variations and the way that he chooses his changes in pace – a lot of that is stuff that I can bring into my game.

"How well that I change my pace, how well that I can use my crease (and) if there's variations I'm going to need to work on in the next couple of years, Mujeeb obviously has about 1000 different balls that spin different ways … there's stuff that I've taken from him that I can practice in the preseason.

"It's been a really big learning experience, which I think is going to help me in my red-ball cricket as well (in) just being able to sum up the conditions really quickly, work out batters, whether I'm being defensive or attacking, that's definitely something that's going to be able to blend between T20 and red-ball cricket."

Rocchiccioli has played a key role in the Renegades reaching the final four of the competition with five wickets since coming into the side in the last three games, as he was with WA when he was recalled two games prior to last season's Sheffield Shield final.

And while he can take confidence from Murphy's rapid rise to the Australian Test squad after fewer first-class appearances, Rocchiccoli is happy just to stay in the present and not get caught up with what others are doing.

"I've learned over the last five or six years that if you stay in the present moment, your own rise happens really quickly," he says.

"I want to play for Australia, but I've got bigger fish to fry and that's playing good first-class cricket for WA, good Big Bash cricket for the Melbourne Renegades and then performing and taking lots of wickets."