A year ago Peter Forrest was dumped from NSW’s one-day cricket team. Twelve months later he’s the shock batting selection in Australia’s tri-series squad.
Following in the footsteps of Ed Cowan and Dan Christian, Forrest is the latest former Blue to prosper interstate, this time a move to Queensland that quickly paid off.
The 26-year-old debuted for the Bulls with a bang in October and is currently leading the Sheffield Shield run-scoring list with 581 at 58.10, including three centuries.
But Monday’s tri-series call-up still came out of the blue for Forrest who fully expected controversial omission Callum Ferguson to be rewarded for his one-day form.
Ferguson, who averages a superb 41 for Australia in 30 ODIs, has 286 one-day runs at 71.5 for South Australia this season – well in excess of Forrest’s 176 at 29.33.
But Forrest’s Shield success and form in the Big Bash League, captaining the Brisbane Heat, lifted him to national honours.
“It’s a massive surprise,” he told AAP.
“I guess if you’re scoring runs in any competition then you’re a chance but I thought I’d be more of a chance playing for Australian in a Test match given my Shield form, not that I thought I’d be close there.”
Forrest was quick to thank Queensland Cricket boss Graham Dixon on gaining selection – 18 months after the Bulls first came knocking.
At the time the Australia A batsman was contracted to NSW but made the jump after playing less than half of the 2010-11 season in both Shield and one-day cricket due to the quality of the Blues’ star-studded top-order.
“It was a no-brainer,” he said.
“I remember the last time I got dropped and I remember my (one-day) stats – I was averaging 41 and striking at 88 (per 100 balls) and that still wasn’t good enough to get in the team.
“It was extremely frustrating.
“I think they saw me as a top-order player but when you have guys like (Phil) Hughes, (Usman) Khawaja and (David) Warner and (Simon) Katich who all bat up the top it was hard to find a spot.”
Like Heat team-mate Christian, who moved to Adelaide from Sydney, and Tasmania-based Test opener Cowan, Forrest said NSW’s strength showed how consistent he needed to be to play for Australia.
“I don’t hold anything against NSW,” he said.
“They have a wealth of talent down there and I wasn’t good enough to crack it.”
