South Australian fast bowler Brendan Doggett’s seven-wicket haul to start the Sheffield Shield season didn’t move national selector George Bailey to pick up the phone and chat ahead of picking the Ashes squad this week.
But the 31-year-old is adamant he’ll be ready should that call come having been next in line twice already in 2025 without cracking it for a Test debut.
Doggett was called as cover for an injured Josh Hazlewood during last summer’s Test series against India and was also part of Australia’s squad for the World Test Championship final against South Africa in England in June.
But sitting fifth in a pecking order behind Hazlewood, captain Pat Cummins, Mitch Starc and Scott Boland, Doggett knows he has to be patient for his chance.
Watch The Ashes 2025/26 LIVE and ad-break free during play with FOX CRICKET on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1 >
After overcoming a hamstring injury that curtained his start to the domestic season, Doggett opened with a bang, taking 6-48 first-up against Western Australia at the WACA to press his claims for inclusion in at least the squad for the opening Ashes Test in Perth, with Cummins sidelined by a back injury.
But he’s still waiting for Bailey to call.
“No word yet,” Doggett said on Tuesday.
“I have been waiting for this for a long time so I feel like if I do get a call to join that squad, I’ll be ready. We’ll see what happens.”
Doggett showed his big-game prowess, snaring 11 wickets in South Australia’s Sheffield Shield final last summer, helping the Redbacks win their first title in nearly three decades.
He finished the season with 33 Shield wickets and if it wasn’t for the presence of some of Australia’s best-ever bowlers in Cummins, Starc and Hazlewood, there could have been more opportunities.
But Doggett has the right perspective while also hopeful of bowling with them and getting a baggy green at some stage.
“We have got the best bowling attack in world cricket and we have done for a long time,“ he said.
“So it’s just great for me to be able to share a changeroom with these world-class bowlers and watch how they go about it, how durable and professional they are.
“It’s great for Australian cricket, those guys have won pretty much every trophy you can win.
“So I can look at it and feel sorry for myself or you can go, ‘Well, what a time to be around these sort of guys’.
“They’re going to go down in history as the best to ever do it, so it’s pretty cool to be able to rub shoulders with them.”
Discussion about this post