Krejza goes back to where it all began
From forgotten man to World Cup starter, Australian off-spinner Jason Krejza will return to the scene of his greatest triumph when the reigning champions face New Zealand on Friday.
- Agence France-Presse
- Updated: February 24, 2011 05:45 PM IST
From forgotten man to World Cup starter, Australian off-spinner Jason Krejza will return to the scene of his greatest triumph when the reigning champions face New Zealand on Friday.
It was in Nagpur where the 28-year-old took eight wickets for 215 runs in India's first innings in his debut Test in November 2008.
He finished with 12 wickets in the match. Of Australian players, only swing specialist Bob Massie has enjoyed better figures on Test debut.
But the game also left Krejza with the unwanted record of conceding more runs (358) than anyone in their debut Test and, to make matters worse, Australia lost the match by 172 runs.
He was dropped after only his second Test, against South Africa in Perth a month after his debut, where he finished with unflattering match figures of 1-204 in another Australian defeat as the Proteas, batting last, made 414 for four to win by six wickets.
It seemed he was destined to be regarded as an expensive luxury and during the past two seasons Krejza has often been left out of the Tasmania state side.
But injuries to spin rivals Nathan Hauritz, Xavier Doherty and Stephen O'Keefe saw him make his one-day international debut in Perth earlier this month in the final match of Australia's 6-1 series thrashing of England.
"I never gave up hope, I just knew I was going to be a better bowler," he said before his ODI debut.
He took 2-53 on debut and his next ODI was Australia's World Cup opener against Zimbabwe in Ahmedabad on Monday, where he returned figures of 2-28 in eight overs during a 91-run hammering of the Africans.
Australia captain Ricky Ponting said of Krejza: "He's been pretty excited about coming back. He wanted to come down early to training to tell you the truth and we had to hold him back.
"As an international player it's always nice to come back to a venue where you've had success albeit, with Jason, in a different format of the game.
"But I think just to have that feeling, to know the venue and know the wicket conditions really well will definitely help him."
Ponting added: "I think in all honesty, every game he plays he's got better. Against Zimbabwe, I think he bowled particularly well.
"He's a wicket-taker, we know that. He puts a lot of revs on the ball, he spins the ball.
"There's not many wickets that haven't spun during this tournament, so he could be a really important player for us as it progresses.
"Hopefully, he can get some figures reasonably similar to the ones he had here in the Test match."
Krejza though is fatalistic about his cricket career.
"You can get dropped, you can get picked up out of the blue," he said, according to the website of Australian public broadcaster ABC. "That's how cricket goes. I got dropped from the Test team and here I am again out of nowhere.
"You can only get stronger from the more experiences that you've had. I think I definitely have."
Australia, bidding to win an unprecedented fourth straight World Cup and fifth in all, have struggled to settle on a frontline spinner since the retirement of Shane Warne.
Ponting may be an enthusiast but, not for the first time, Krejza's class is being doubted with former India captain Sourav Ganguly saying: "Jason Krejza is a decent bowler but against quality players of spin bowling, he may struggle."