The stern self-talk that put Davies on track to bounce back

"I need to f---ing do something, really."

That was Ollie Davies' message to himself at the beginning of the 2022-23 summer.

It'd been a tough 12 months on and off the field for the prodigiously talented 22-year-old as he crashed back to earth following a breakout 2020-21 season that included his KFC BBL and NSW List A debuts, along with two first-grade hundreds for club side Manly-Warringah, one of which was in a T20 match.

From 12 matches across all of last summer – including club cricket, Toyota Second XI and Marsh Cup for NSW, and the BBL – Davies had a top score of 26.

And while his first half of that season was curtailed by a broken thumb suffered while playing for Manly-Warringah in November 2021, Davies is first to admit his returns weren't good enough.

"This year, I need(ed) to actually try and score some runs," Davies told cricket.com.au.

"The last couple years, I feel like I've been a boundary and out type of guy."

Heading into BBL|12 – a competition where Davies first made a name for himself with five consecutive sixes in just his second Big Bash match in December 2020 – the flamboyant right-hander's main aim was to be available for selection for the entire 14-game season with the hope of nailing down his spot in the Sydney Thunder side.

It took him a while to get going this season before he broke the shackles with a maiden BBL half century on New Year's Eve in Albury followed by another in the Thunder's next match.

He then made Australian star David Warner play second fiddle in his first Big Bash appearance in nine years with a 36-ball 52 against Perth Scorchers on January 13.

Ahead of tonight's Eliminator final against Brisbane Heat at Sydney Showground Stadium, Davies sits top of the Thunder's runs tally (and eighth in the competition) for BBL|12 with 333 striking at 133.73.

"It's not often that you get to bat with David Warner and then also face heaps more balls than him and he seemed to just be getting me on strike," Davies said of that 67-run partnership of which he contributed 49.

"It was pretty cool, he was chatting to me every single ball just getting me think about what I was trying to do and where I wanted to hit it, and it was just something that I hadn't really experienced before and it helped me a lot.

"I was pretty happy with my one hundred at Manly for the year, but I've just got on a bit of a roll now.

"I've learnt from the previous years about when to take risks and when to knuckle down a bit more (with my) shot selection.

"It's just basically about giving myself a chance to try to manipulate the field a little bit so that I can get more balls in the areas that I want to get them in."

Davies – who has been joined at the Thunder this season by his younger brother Joel – hopes his BBL form can land him a spot in the NSW Marsh One-Day Cup side and eventually a Sheffield Shield debut when the domestic season resumes in February after the Big Bash.

Traditionally a domestic cricket powerhouse, NSW have struggled this year and currently sit at the bottom of both the Marsh Cup and Sheffield Shield standings with just one win in either competition, which resulted in the state parting ways with head coach Phil Jaques at the end of November.

Davies cracked a red-ball century (115 off 106 balls) in November against the touring West Indians – a team his heritage ties him to and 'always played for in the backyard' with his mother Simone born in Trinidad – to go with his two-day hundred for Manly-Warringah earlier the same month.

"My aim is to hopefully have a crack at some Shield games at the back end of the year," he said.

"That's what I want to do and I know it's white and red ball, but I hope the selectors for the Blues see that it's still a ball and you've still got to hit it and that my form in white-ball will hopefully translate over to red-ball as well."

Davies played in NSW's final Marsh Cup match before the BBL|12 break – a 31-run loss to Queensland – and is confident of retaining his place when the season resumes.

But first is a date with the Heat tonight in a sudden-death Eliminator final where the winner proceeds to face the Renegades at Marvel Stadium on Sunday night.

Thunder squad v Heat: Ben Cutting, Joel Davies, Oliver Davies, Matthew Gilkes, Chris Green (c), Ryan Hadley, Baxter Holt, Nathan McAndrew, Blake Nikitaras, Ross Pawson, Usman Qadir, Alex Ross, Daniel Sams, Gurinder Sandhu, Jason Sangha, David Warner, Sam Whiteman