Just two ODIs old in his national team, the explosive opener has handed DC 4 wins in the five games he has played in the IPL
The extent to which IPL performances should influence the selection of India’s T20 team is a routine discussion at this time of the year. It is all the more relevant given that this year’s T20 World Cup will be held immediately after the annual T20 extravaganza. Perhaps it is a point for Australia’s selectors to also ponder when they pick their squad for the marquee event, for young opener Jake Fraser-McGurk is taking the tournament by storm with his sublime hitting.
Yet to play for Australia in the shortest format, the 22-year-old’s international experience is just two ODIs against West Indies at home in February. The second game at Canberra — where he hit 41 in 18 deliveries — was enough though to indicate that here was a raw talent who fits the ultra-aggressive demands of white-ball cricket. That has only been reinforced by his impressive IPL initiation — he has 247 runs in five games including three fifties (average 49.4, strike rate 237.5).
HT launches Crick-it, a one stop destination to catch Cricket, anytime, anywhere. Explore now!
His impact on Delhi’s fortunes can be gauged by the swing in results. When he made his debut against Lucknow Super Giants on April 12, Delhi had only won one of five matches. Since then, they have prevailed in four and lost one, a turnaround that has lifted them to fifth in the standings (before Sunday’s matches) and bolstered their chances of entering the playoffs.
On Saturday, he was in belligerent mood as he struck a 27-ball 84 to take Delhi to 257/4 for a 10-run victory against Mumbai Indians. His half-century took just 15 balls, the second such instance in the space of a week having played just as briskly against Sunrisers Hyderabad.
What he has also done is help Delhi make light of the absence of David Warner in three of their last four matches. With a mega-auction in store before next year’s IPL, it suggests that a transition in the Delhi ranks from one attacking Australian opener to another may be imminent. Fraser-McGurk scores at a rate faster than even Warner, a sign of how much T20 cricket has moved forward since the latter’s debut a decade-and-a-half back.
Fraser-McGurk, of course, may not have been basking in the spotlight had South African pacer Lungi Ngidi not been ruled out with injury. A few blistering knocks for Dubai Capitals, a franchise in UAE’s ILT20 which is also owned by the JSW Group, in January also helped in Delhi opting for the Australian when the need arose.
“He played three games for Dubai Capitals. Our scouting team was very keen on him,” Delhi Capitals assistant coach Pravin Amre said on Saturday. “Once we got an opportunity for a replacement, there were a couple of choices but he had played a couple of match-winning knocks. We decided we should back him. Yes, he had to wait for 4-5 games. Watching him in the nets, he has that X-factor.”
Nothing illustrates the Australian’s audacity more than his inclination to take on Jasprit Bumrah, MI’s spearhead and far ahead of the other bowlers in this format, in Saturday’s match. “He believes in a stable base and he has excellent hand speed,” observed Amre. “When you are batting in the powerplay, there is only one fielder in the leg side. That is a good area to hit. He hit a couple of sixes in the off side too. His shot selection is very good.”
Among Fraser-McGurk’s growing list of admirers is Delhi Capitals coach Ricky Ponting, who said in February that the batter can go on to become an all-format option for Australia. So impressed is the former Australian captain, in fact, that he hopes to work with the youngster on a one-on-one basis after the tournament. It seems remarkable now that the Victorian was uncertain of his future a year ago when his contract was downgraded at his home state. It resulted in a move to South Australia ahead of the 2023-24 season in the hope of starting afresh. He didn’t take long to settle though — in October 2023, he broke AB de Villiers’s record for the fastest List A hundred by scoring a 29-ball ton against Tasmania in the domestic 50-over competition.
“There’s been a huge turnaround in Jake’s career in the last 18 months. The main change was he moved from Victoria to South Australia. Everyone would agree with me that he is a serious talent. So far, he’s not anywhere near the finished product. I said to him right at the start of this tournament that I would love to spend more time with him and work on his batting. Not just his ball-striking but how he thinks about the game,” Ponting said at a media interaction last week. “We have already made some pretty significant technical changes since he’s been here that have worked wonders for him. His range of strokes around the ground is a lot more than when he first got here. To be able to work with him for a couple of weeks and change things like that says how quickly he can learn.”
If Fraser-McGurk isn’t yet certain of making Australia’s T20 World Cup squad, it’s only because Warner, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis are likely to constitute their top five. A problem of plenty that Australia’s selectors won’t mind as they aim to simultaneously hold the major trophies in all three formats.
IPL 2024
