Joel Paris, the uncapped left-arm fast bowler from Western Australia, who has been named in the ODI squad against India said that injuries at the earlier stages of his career made him doubt his entry into the teams at the international levels.
Hid doubts were soon cleared by his bowling performance in his second first-class match when he got 6 Tasmanian batsmen out. Paris came into the picture when he took 13 wickets in the 2014-15 season for WA in Matadors BBQs One-Days.
He couldn’t play the final of the tournament due to a torn quadriceps muscle and was out the whole summer and further with fractures in his foot, his first class debut was delayed.
His debut in Sheffield Cup was a brilliant one when the 22-year-old bowler took 6 wickets against Victoria and repeated the same against Tasmania a week later with magnificent bowling figures of 6-23.
Paris, after being selected, told reporters, “Having a couple of injuries over the last couple of years that have kept me out, you have that thought in your mind whether or not you're good enough to perform at that level.”
“(The match against Tasmania) was icing on the cake to tell myself that I can compete at that level and do well.
"I knew if I got myself out on the park and stayed out there I would be able to perform pretty well.
"And touch wood this year's been fantastic. I've loved playing for WA this year and hopefully there's a lot more to come,” Paris said.
A couple of days before his thrashing performance against the Tigers, Australian selector, Rod Marsh had kept him under his radar of 20 fast bowlers who could be given a national cap in the upcoming years. But out of the 20, Joel was the luckiest one when he got called up for the national team on Sunday.
Paris told that he had a very short conversation with Rod Marsh and took a while and some deep breaths to communicate the news to his family.
He said, “It was a very short and sharp (conversation). He just said to enjoy it, congratulations, you've deserved it and we want to see what you can do at this level. He said it's nothing different to what I've done over the last couple of years.”
The youngster added, “You don't plan for these things to happen, but you always dream that they'll come true. I'm still young and I've still got so much of the game to learn and every opportunity I get to learn a bit and get some understanding is a positive."
Having played only 2 first-class matches, he is certainly a prospect for the Test squad too, as the test team selector Trevor Hohns mentioned he liked whatever he has seen of him till now.
Hohns said, “We need to balance our attack for Test match cricket. He may need some more long form cricket but he is high on our agenda. He is coming along nicely. We find him exciting, particularly being a left-armer. Possibly not quite as quick as Starc and Johnson but he swings the ball and he is tall and gets good bounce. We would like to encourage him as much as we can.”
With the Australian team not having many options in the fast bowling attack due to injuries, Joel will be up against another uncapped player Scott Boland, Kane Richardson and the fit Josh Hazlewood to make it to the playing team sheet against India on 12th of January.
Marsh showers praise on Paris
His Perth Scorchers teammate and friend, Shaun Marsh said, “He's not much fun. He bowls quite quick and swings it quite late.”
"It's not so bad for a left-hander because he swings it away, but for a right-hander, it's a bit ugly.”
Marsh also told how fantastic it will be for the young quickie to play against India at his home ground. Marsh added, “He's a really good young guy and I'm really happy for him. He's pretty level-headed and it'll be fantastic for him to play in front of a home crowd hopefully come the 12th of January.
"He's been fantastic over the past couple of years and he's certainly one of the young up-and-coming fast bowlers in Australian cricket. I'm absolutely wrapped for him and I'm sure he'll do a really good job.”
India will play two warm-up matches in Perth against WA XI. India play a T20 on 8th January and an ODI the next day. The series flags off on 12th January with five ODIs and three T20Is.
Brand-new app in a brand-new avatar! Download CricRocket for fast cricket scores, rocket flicks, super notifications and much more! 🚀☄️
