Resilient Jhye Richardson raring to go again

When Australia announced their six-strong fast bowling cartel for the Ashes series on Friday, Jhye Richardson's absence slipped quietly by.

One of the stars of Australia's last Test series against Sri Lanka, and arguably the gold nugget find of their toughest home summer in decades, was instead sitting in a hotel room in Darwin preparing for a guest appearance in a club match for Nightcliff the following day, his first outing since dislocating his right shoulder against Pakistan in Sharjah in March.

There was a small hope, after a careful build up, that he might be given the opportunity to be added to the Ashes squad for the back end of the Test series should his playing return go smoothly. But despite getting through Saturday's match, where he took 1 for 67 from his 10 overs, the selectors had already told him two days earlier that they would settle with the pacemen they had in England.

Richardson, 22, has every right to be bitter at the cricketing gods. A selfless act of desperation to save his team a boundary in Sharjah cost him the opportunity of a lifetime, appearing in a World Cup and an Ashes in the same English summer. But there was no bitterness, just a slow realisation and acceptance.

"I think just progressively I got the understanding that I wasn't quite ready to go," Richardson told ESPNcricinfo on Saturday. "But I gave it my best shot. I had a lot of good people around me. I did everything I could. That was in the back of my mind. I said to myself you've done everything you can and it wasn't meant to be.

"When [the injury] first happened, initially I'd like to think I was pretty calm. Obviously your adrenaline is still going because a highly traumatic injury has just happened and you're still buzzing around trying to figure out what's going on. You probably don't understand the true effect of what's just happened at that moment. When I got home, the magnitude of the potential of having an extended time on the sideline probably sunk in a little bit more. But I think with that though, having the plan or the goal to get to the World Cup helped a lot. It gave me a lot of positivity. Whilst it was quite ambitious it sort of allowed me to keep track on something and really put my mind to something."

"While it would be great to go over there it would be just as good to watch the guys go about their business over there and hopefully win an Ashes series. If something goes down, I'll try and get over but if that doesn't happen, we've still got a lot of cricket in Australia as well in the Australian summer. If the pace bowling stocks do get tested a little bit then I'm ready to go."

Unlike Josh Hazlewood, who found it hard to watch the World Cup having also missed selection, Richardson's only trouble was staying up late enough in Perth. "I watched a bit of it," he said. "Most games on the TV. I didn't quite make it through all of them."

He watched while the Ashes carrot was still dangling in front of him. Cricket Australia's selectors and medical staff liaised with the WACA high performance team in Perth to put a program in place. He did join the Australia A squad for their training camp in Brisbane in early June and then returned to Perth to progress to eight to ten-over spells in the nets ahead of Saturday's game in Darwin. CA even sent cameras and an analyst to Darwin to record data on his return.

Despite already knowing he had missed his chance, he was upbeat about his performance in his comeback clocking the mid-130kph mark.

"Obviously I was very, very rusty," Richardson said. "It was the first game in three or four months so I couldn't expect miracles. In terms of shoulder wise, I coped fine. The pace was okay. Probably a little bit better than I expected. From all reports here, the day's gone well. After today, it gives me a little bit more confidence that I'm ready to go. Practice is always good, but just being able to play in a game over bowling in the nets with no batter, just gives myself a better idea of where I'm at, and where I'm at I'm pretty happy with."

Richardson will not stay in Darwin to play more cricket. Instead he will head back to WA to resume pre-season training with the Western Warriors. He has no shortage of inspiration within the WA squad. Nathan Coulter-Nile suffered a shoulder dislocation in a BBL game in December 2015, and returned to play international cricket in March the following year, while Ashton Turner is also currently recovering shoulder surgery after missing World Cup selection.

Richardson's durability is another source of confidence. Last Australian summer he played more days and bowled more overs than Pat Cummins in all formats. Five consecutive Shield games before Christmas, where he delivered 190 overs and took 27 wickets, propelled him to his Test debut.

"Everyone speaks about needing to be in such a good rhythm to bowl well," Richardson said. "And they say you bowl your fastest when you're not trying to bowl your fastest. So bowling a lot of overs takes a bit of pressure off steaming in trying to bowl as fast as you can. It's a big mental game. It's trying to get on top of the batsman and figuring out what their weaknesses are. I think bowling a lot of overs does help get your body accustomed to bowling a lot so the more balls you bowl the better you're going to get. It definitely helped in that respect."

The development of his fast bowling craft has been the most impressive feature of his meteoric rise. As a teenage tearaway his radar was not always on song, but he has learnt the value of control at the professional level.

"It's just been a thing over time," Richardson said. "Obviously coaches are there to help you, but on a personal level, bowling to the best batsman in the world it doesn't quite work trying to bowl as fast as you can because they still have the most time to hit the ball where they want to. You feel like bowling 145kph is still not quick enough. I kind of just, over time, gained an understanding that it's not the be all and end all of fast bowling. There's probably something else that you need to work out, whether that's swinging the ball or seaming the ball or have a few variations."