Former Test opener Cameron Bancroft has overcome a horror slump with the bat by cracking an unbeaten century during Western Australia’s day-night Sheffield Shield match against South Australia at Adelaide Oval.
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The 32-year-old, who played ten Tests for Australia between 2017 and 2019, needed 247 deliveries to reach the milestone, bringing up his 30th first-class hundred in the afternoon session of day four in Adelaide.
He cracked seven boundaries throughout his patient knock of 105 not out before Western Australia declared on 3-243, setting the hosts an unlikely target of 364 for victory.
Bancroft was one of the Sheffield Shield’s most consistent batters across the previous two summers, compiling 1728 runs at 54.00 during that period, including ten hundreds.
Last month, when Cricket Australia confirmed that Cameron Green had been ruled out of the 2024/25 summer due to a back injury, Bancroft was the leading candidate to replace the all-rounder in the Test starting XI for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
However, the right-hander fell out of contention after a nightmare run of form with the bat, compiling scores of 0, 0, 8, 2, 0, 16, 3, 0, 12, 11 and 0 and averaging 4.73 across matches for Western Australia and Australia A. Subsequently, national selectors turned to uncapped South Australian Nathan McSweeney, who made his Test debut in last week’s series opener at Perth Stadium.
Bancroft’s century comes after India’s bowlers embarrassed Australia’s top-order in the West Australian capital, with openers McSweeney and Usman Khawaja collectively scoring 22 runs at 5.50. Meanwhile, No. 3 Marnus Labuschagne posted scores of 2 and 3 while superstar Steve Smith managed 0 and 17.
The second Test against India will be a day-night contest at Adelaide Oval, commencing next Friday. Albeit unlikely, Bancroft notching an unbeaten century at the same venue against a pink Kookaburra has done his chances of a long-awaited Test recall no harm.
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