It’s the best essay he’s ever written.
Will Salzmann’s fierce dedication to cricket was apparent during his late teens, when he successfully convinced his parents to let him quit school and pursue the sport full-time by writing a 3500-word essay, outlining why he should fully commit to the game he loves.
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Ironically, he didn’t enjoy forging essays during his schooling years, preferring the freedom of creative writing, which remains a passion of his.
Salzmann has been keeping a journal since he was 14, which started with scribbles on the spare pages of his school exercise books before his mother began gifting him an annual diary for Christmas. He’s still in possession of all his diary entries.
“I do look back at them sometimes,” Salzmann said.
“It is a little cringe. It can be a funny read.”
The hundreds of pages are crammed with bits of advice he’s received, while journalling allows him to vent about his problems and anxieties, whether they be cricket-related or otherwise. He’s found it to be a therapeutic ritual, especially when navigating the dizzying highs and agonising lows of being a professional cricketer.
This season alone he’s experienced plenty of elation and heartbreak, making his Sheffield Shield debut before an injury ruined his maiden Big Bash League campaign with the Melbourne Renegades.
“It’s a big part of who I am,” he added.
“Whenever I have that moment to catch my breath and I want to get something off my plate, it’s just my way of working it out before I talk to people and get advice.”
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Salzmann, a Campbelltown junior that now represents Sydney University, was Australia’s leading wicket-taker at the 2022 Under-19 World Cup with 12 scalps at 19.41, soon after earning a rookie contract with Cricket NSW. The seamer made his state debut later that year before taking 4-48 in a one-day contest against reigning champions Western Australia in 2023, a breakout performance for the all-rounder.
With just three List A matches under his belt, an 18-year-old Salzmann was a surprise nomination for the 2023 Indian Premier League Auction, ultimately going unsold.
Just as he was starting to establish himself in the Blues’ first-choice one-day team, having taken 16 List A wickets at 17.56, Salzmann suffered an ankle injury in 2024 that forced him to the sidelines.
But with every setback comes opportunity – Salzmann spent a large chunk of the 2024/25 season focusing on his batting with the assistance of childhood coach Neil D’Costa, famous for mentoring the likes of Michael Clarke, Phillip Hughes and Marnus Labuschagne.
And while D’Costa has helped develop his batting technique, Salzmann credits him for strengthening the mental side of the game as well. “He doesn’t care about (representing) NSW or Australia or anything like that. He’s in it for me. He’s in my corner,” Salzmann said.
“Every session I’ve walked away from him, I’ve believed that I’m a better cricketer than what I was before the session.
“As much as he’s helped with what everyone can see, and that’s the technique side, I think he’s also helped behind the scenes with building belief in my own game.”
Salzmann started his 2025/26 summer with a century during a warm-up match against Victoria before making his first-class debut in October, a Sheffield Shield clash against Western Australia on a tricky WACA deck.
All eyes were on incumbent Test opener Sam Konstas ahead of the Ashes campaign, but Salzmann stole the show by top-scoring in both innings with 43 and 72 while batting at No. 7, named player of the match after the low-scoring affair. Former Australian spinner Kerry O’Keeffe compared him to the legendary Steve Waugh after the eye-catching performance.
“He lines the ball up well, he makes really good decisions,” Blues teammate Kurtis Patterson said of Salzmann.
“He’s got a good sound technique. Our first game in Perth on that diabolical wicket, he was the best player out of the 22 blokes that played that game.”
Later that month, NSW coach Greg Shipperd floated the idea of elevating Salzmann to opener, a role he hadn’t fulfilled in a red-ball match since he was a child. He had never previously batted higher than No.7 for his state, although he had opened in a handful of one-day games for Sydney University.
“It did catch me off guard,” Salzmann recalled.
“When it was raised to me, it was something that I jumped at.
“It was obviously going to be a new challenge and something that I haven’t faced before, but I think they gave me a lot of belief in my ability. That gave me a lot of confidence.”
The promotion proved a masterstroke; facing the new ball during October’s drawn Sheffield Shield match against Queensland at the Gabba, Salzmann cracked 65 and 31 not out to prove his credentials as a first-class opener.
Albeit a small sample size, he was outperforming many of the nation’s Sheffield Shield openers ahead of the Ashes, including Konstas.
“I’ve enjoyed opening the batting,” Salzmann said.
“I’ve enjoyed going out with the scores even and I can play my way from ball one.
“It obviously wasn’t what I expected, but I’ve just relished it.”
With just three first-class matches to his name, Salzmann was suddenly being touted as a candidate to replace veteran opener Usman Khawaja in the Test side, courtesy of his knack for scoring runs in challenging conditions.
He admits he could have handled the media attention better than he did.
“With all that was going on and that build-up to the Ashes, I was maybe putting a bit too much pressure or expectation on myself,” Salzmann said.
“But I’ve learned now that you can’t predict what’s going to happen when you go out on the field. You can get injured or you can have a really good day.
“I think I’ve developed a better way of handling that sort of stuff.”
On day one of November’s Sheffield Shield match against Victoria at the SCG, Salzmann tore his left hamstring while sliding in the outfield, ruling him out of the remainder of the match. He became just the second player in the competition’s history to need an injury replacement.
It was a shattering setback for the youngster.
“That day is fresh in my mind at the moment,” Salzmann recalled, adding he had written about the ordeal in his journal earlier that day.
“I knew that was the last thing we wanted to happen, and it was the worst-case scenario.
“That was a really tough pill to swallow … it was obviously a very emotional week for me.”
A few days later it was decided that Salzmann would need to undergo surgery, ruling him out of the entirety of the Big Bash season. Three years after signing his maiden BBL contract with the Sydney Thunder, he’s still waiting for a professional T20 debut.
“The Big Bash for me has been very elusive for the last three years,” he said.
“I have spent the last three years watching from the dugout, being held back with injury.”
During the two-month recovery, Salzmann became obsessed with Matthew McConaughey’s bestseller Greenlights, which included passages from diaries and journals he’s been writing since he was 14 – no wonder the book resonated with him.
Although Salzmann has been named in the Blues’ 12-player squad for this week’s Sheffield Shield match against reigning champions South Australia at the SCG, he will only be available as a specialist batter, with no plans to return to bowling until next summer. The risk of reaggravating the injury while trying to get his bowling up to scratch was just too high.
However, he remains fully committed to contributing as an all-rounder next season.
“Everything happens for a reason. I know that can be a bit of a cliché, but I really try to stand by that,” Salzmann said.
“I’ve got a good opportunity to get a decent load of cricket in just as a batsman to finish this year and then really get over the injury without having to deal with the bowling load.
“I want to bowl as well, but I’m pretty happy just to bide my time, rebuild and get a clean run into next year.”
Salzmann is expected to open alongside Konstas at the SCG this week, while his Sheffield Shield return has come at an exciting time. Khawaja has retired from international cricket, while Test opener Jake Weatherald is at risk of losing his spot in the national side after a lean Ashes campaign, meaning there could be a vacancy at the top of the order next summer.
Konstas, Matthew Renshaw and Campbell Kellaway are some of the leading candidates to replace Weatherald if a change was required, but Salzmann acknowledged there’s an opportunity over the coming weeks to once again thrust himself into the national conversation.
“I’m feeling almost re-energised, refreshed, almost like I’ve just had another pre-season going into the back half of this year,” he said.
“I also don’t think it’s a bad time within Australian cricket to be an opening batsman, so I just take it as it comes and really lock in to try and make the most of the next two months of cricket.
“All I can do is just focus on performing for New South Wales, winning career games for them, and I can sort of take care of itself.”
One of the biggest challenges Salzmann faces next summer will be keeping himself fit and firing while juggling the immense workloads of being a three-format all-rounder. While motivated to keep improving his cricket, he acknowledged that he’ll need to learn to listen to his body and rest when required.
“A lot of my injuries have probably come about through overuse and pushing my body more and training hard, which is part of who I am,” Salzmann explained.
“I think it’s just understanding when to turn the dial on sessions or to do that extra session, and then when to also give my body rest.
“I’m fortunate that cricket’s an older person’s game. I’m not too stressed that I’m missing out on opportunities because of injury at this age. I’m building my game and building my body even now for a few years’ time.”
Eventually, Salzmann will be tasked with choosing between two paths – committing to the all-rounder route for the added X-factor or focusing on his batting and becoming a specialist opener. Shane Watson flourished in the Test arena after choosing the latter, while Cameron Green’s recent injury plights demonstrate the difficulty of the former.
“Being an all-rounder’s hard,” Salzmann said.
“There have been very few of them in the game, and that shows how hard it is.
“But that’s something that I’m building towards, and I’m not expecting to nail it or to be able to cope with that workload as a 22-year-old.”
Patterson, who will play his 100th Sheffield Shield match for New South Wales at the SCG this week, confessed he didn’t know whether Salzmann had the makings of a long-term red-ball opener.
“He’s absolutely good enough at the moment to do it,” he told reporters on Wednesday.
“He’s a genuine all-rounder. He burst onto the scene in one-day cricket maybe two seasons ago, bowling late 130s, early 140s in white-ball cricket and he’s one of our most important players during that period.
“It depends on what he wants out of his career. Does he want to go down the opening batter route? It makes sense with Usman retiring at the moment. There’s probably an opportunity for him there.
“Or does he want to be an all-rounder who can offer a bit of the ball too? I don’t know where Will’s at with that.
“It’s probably more a decision for him about where he wants to play his cricket and how he wants to set his career up.”
The Sheffield Shield match between NSW and South Australia gets underway at the SCG on Thursday at 10.30am AEDT.
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