Photo Credit: Cricket Scotland
Scotland international Jack Jarvis is spending the winter in Brisbane, Australia, continuing his cricket development with Redlands Tigers.
The 20-year-old all-rounder will be detailing his experiences down under throughout the winter on cricketscotland.com:
It was good to get out and make my first-grade debut last weekend, although it was a frustrating result in the end!
We were down in Gold Coast and got them nine down with about an hour to go but couldn’t take the last wicket, so it ended up as a draw.
For myself, I felt I bowled well and took a couple of wickets, and I definitely felt more comfortable, even with the step up in standard from second grade cricket.
When I played my first game I’d just arrived and didn’t really feel very ready playing the first weekend, but now I’ve settled in I felt much better going into this game, having trained with the lads for a good few weeks now.
We all train as one squad, from the first grade through to the third grade, so I’d got to know everyone quite well before this game, and it’s a really welcoming group which helps make the transition a lot easier.
One thing that’s very different about playing two-day cricket over here, is that before the second weekend you have the whole week of training knowing exactly what you’re doing on the Saturday.
I went into this week knowing that unless something really weird happened I wasn’t going to be batting, and that my role was to just play as a bowler.
That allows you to place a real emphasis on the skills that are going to be required, which is different to back home when each weekend you know that you’re going to need to work on all three areas of your game.
It gives you that clarity going into the weekend, but it’s important you don’t neglect the other areas of your game as well.
I still hit loads of balls last week, because whilst I’m out here I want to improve and develop my game, it’s not just about preparing for the upcoming weekend, because I want to improve all aspects of my game.
Similarly, this week, we obviously don’t know what we’ll be doing yet, so I’ll be working to make sure I’m ready for whether we’re batting or bowling on Saturday, which is like back home.
I also had a pretty cool experience training at the Gabba with the Queensland Bulls as a net bowler, and being at an iconic venue like the Gabba was incredible.
There are some quality players there who I got to bowl at, Usman Khawaja was there, although I didn’t bowl at him, but just watching him training, seeing what he does, when he’s one of the best in the world, is great.
Hopefully it’s something that will continue going forward, because I think it’s good to train in different environments and see how different people go about it, and it will only aid my development as a cricketer.
Last week I was able to get down to Gold Coast, after the first weekend of the game we spent a night down there, and headed down to the beach at Burleigh, which was good fun.
I’ve just got sorted with a car now, so I’ll be able to get out a bit more, and hopefully explore a little bit more of Brisbane and Queensland.
