Cam Bancroft: WA teammate Aaron Hardie says opener is ‘most determined’ player to fight back into Test team

Teammate Aaron Hardie believes no one is more determined than Cam Bancroft to return to the Test team, five years after his last match for Australia.

Bancroft is in the thick of a horror run of Sheffield Shield form at the worst possible time, with the selection spotlight on domestic openers ahead of this summer’s five-Test series against India.

He scored eight and two in this week’s win over Tasmania at the WACA Ground after a rare pair in a clash with Queensland earlier this month.

And now the veteran left-hander isn’t the only WA name in the selection conversation. Josh Inglis has scored centuries and been named player-of-the-match in back-to-back matches and New South Wales coach Greg Shipperd has floated him as a potential opener.

Bancroft will have two more auditions before the Test squad is picked, with the opener featuring in an Australia A series against India starting next week.

“Cam Bancroft has played a lot of cricket, he’s played a lot of cricket for WA. I don’t know how many first-class hundreds for WA, he’s got a lot of hundreds everywhere he has played — in county cricket — so he’s super experienced,” Hardie said.

“He’s got a really great support network around him. He will rely on the batting coaches and some close friends.

“I spoke to him yesterday, he is in a really good place. He has experienced those sort of moments before. He has been close to the Test team before, he has found himself in, he has found himself out.

“He is certainly well equipped to handle what he’s going through at the moment.”

Hardie, who plays with Bancroft for WA and Willetton said the 31-year-old was “absolutely” up to the job of facing India’s pace attack if given the chance.

“Out of everyone that I know, he’s probably the person most determined to fight his way back into the Test squad,” he said.

“Obviously the season hasn’t started that well for him, but you look around and there are lots of high-quality players that miss out and I think that’s just cricket.

“We’re still backing him to go out next week against India A and put the runs on the board.”

Bancroft appears to be in a race with teen sensation Sam Konstas and Victoria’s Marcus Harris if selectors were to pick a specialist opener. But with all the top-order candidates tripping over themselves in first-class cricket this week, some more inventive ideas have been thrown up.

Hardie’s name was tossed around early as a like-for-like replacement for injured all-rounder Cam Green, and now Inglis has emerged as a possible candidate.

Inglis could open the batting in WA’s one-day match with Tasmania at the WACA Ground on Friday, with Sam Whiteman out injured.

“He has been awesome. We were watching him the other day and himself and Cooper Connolly through the middle, it’s certainly good fun to watch from the changerooms,” Hardie said.

“They are very different players, but they hit the ball to different areas and they are free-flowing, so very happy to have them both in the team and not bowling to them.

“Ingo has made runs in international cricket, he has got a couple of hundreds in the Twenty20s playing for Australia, so he is obviously international quality.

“I don’t think he has opened the batting before in red-ball cricket, but I’m sure if they asked him if he’s willing to I’m sure he’d say yes.”

Hardie returned to bowling for the first time since Australia’s white-ball tour of England in the win over the Tigers.

The all-rounder pulled up well and is set to bowl again on Friday in a one-day cup match. He then joins the national team for a one-day international series against Pakistan.