Will Pucovski: The talk of the town

Dene Hills remained a vital cog in Tasmania's wheel back in the golden era of the 90s, a stodgy left-handed opener whose watertight technique laid the platform for his 21 first-class centuries. The most prominent feather in his cap was the record of consecutive double tons which came during the 1997-98 season, with Victoria and South Australia bearing the brunt of his marathon efforts. While Hills scripted history at Hobart, Will Pucovski was kicking his mother's womb in a red-cross hospital in Malvern. A couple of decades later, the heroic feat found its successor in Pucovski, the new kid on the block who's taking the cricketing world by storm. 

The young prodigy hogged the limelight at Under-19 level scoring four centuries in the national championships and registered his List A debut in a tour match against Pakistan in January 2017 as a sweet reward of his purple patch. A Sheffield Shield call-up was lurking around the corner and he made a seamless transition to the big boys' club with a hefty 188 against Queensland in his second game. The maiden of his dizzying tryst with concussions arrived later against New South Wales when he was substituted after copping a blow flush on the helmet grille. Despite the monkey of the short ball hanging on his back ever since, runs continued to flow like a water jet from a hose pump. Through text-book cover drives and whippy flicks off the hip, on featherbeds in Yarra Park and on swing-friendly, notorious terrains in Buderim.

In the curtain-raiser of the 2018-19 edition, Pucovski became just the eighth Australian after the legendary Don Bradman, Ian Chappell, Clem Hill, Darren Lehmann, Norm O'Neill, Ricky Ponting, Paul Sheahan and Doug Walters to batter a Sheffield Shield double hundred before the age of 21 when he made 243 against Western Australia at the WACA. There was no 'basking in the glory' as the devils in his mind wreaked havoc, the mental health issues forcing a six-week-long rehabilitation. However, his class and consistency had already banged ajar the selectors' door. He was primed to don the white flannels versus Sri Lanka but Kurtis Patterson gatecrashed the party at the eleventh hour. Pucovski needed to leave the squad during the Canberra Test because of further mental health problems. Insult to injury. 

Normal services did resume for the top-order rock on his homecoming to Victoria. Plying his trade at number three, he finished the Shield with an exemplary 649 runs at 54.08 from just seven matches and got selected for both the ODIs and four-day leg of Australia A's tour to England in 2019. Although it was in the next year, after mankind danced to the tunes of the novel coronavirus, that Pucovski engaged his beast mode. 495 runs seethed from his willow at an incredulous 247.5 in the early rounds of the domestic league and fetched him a well-deserved baggy green for India's blockbuster visit Down Under this summer. His recent exploits read 255*, 202, 38. Let that sink in. 

While pundits wax lyrical about his seemingly boundless potential and the chorus for his international debut grows louder, Australia's latest batting sensation might have to wait in the wings before his name appears on the team sheet. Notwithstanding regular opener Joe Burns holds a pedestrian average of 11 so far across six innings for Queensland in the Shield hub at Adelaide, the incumbency sphere works in his favour. Warner and Burns did combine for two century stands - including a 222 in Brisbane against Pakistan - and an overall tally of 523 runs at 65.37 over the five Tests Australia conquered on home turf. Albeit nothing's cast in stone and the final verdict on determining Warner's opening partner shall be passed in accordance to how both the competitors for the opening slot fare in the two practice rubbers, the first at Drummoyne Oval and the second with a pink ball under lights at the SCG.

The chairman of selectors Trevor Hohns didn't nail any colours to the mast in his statement to a bunch of journalists on Thursday, November 12. "We'll continue to monitor the form of both players through the unofficial games. Will's in fantastic form. He's not just in good form, he's in great form. I think that's undeniable," he sung Pucovski's praises before reiterating that "At the moment if you're talking the direct competition up the top there, Joe Burns is the incumbent."

The answers will present themselves as clear as crystal when speed demons of the ilk of Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami load their guns come December. Though on the face of it, Pucovski looks the top-flight cricketer manor born. More of a racehorse than a one-hit-wonder. 

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