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Second Innings! Australia A leg-spinner Bryce McGain at the Chinnaswamy Stadium yesterday. |
A regular club level player in Victoria for more than 15 years, McGain decided to concentrate full-time on cricket last year, at the age of 35.
"Yeah, it's kind of taking a step back considering my age," said leg-spinner McGain, who took three wickets on Day Two of the three-day match between India A and Australia A.
"But I feel it's a good step because I have experienced life working for 17 years and had a career. Now, I have a window of opportunity to play a little bit of full-time cricket. At my age I do need to take care of my body and hopefully I will be able to play for four, five years or more," said McGain, who worked as an IT professional in a bank.
He did get a chance to play for his state Victoria in 2001-02 but had to go back to club cricket because of the presence of a certain Shane Warne. Cameron White is another Victorian leggie, who was a regular in the side and now leads the team.
"It was always tough to get into the Victorian side and it's been just 18 months since I've been a regular. I quit my job this March and it's only cricket for me now," McGain said. And such has been McGain's rise in domestic competitions that he's already being looked upon as their No 1 spinner for the series against India. He was the leading Pura Cup spinner last season with 38 scalps at 34.15.
Australia chance
"There's an opportunity to play in the Australian team. It would be great if I get that chance but at this stage, I just want to make most of this chance and prove that I can bowl consistently and take wickets," said McGain, who has picked 54 wickets from 17 first-class matches.
McGain now has a great chance to impress the selectors as Australia A will play one more three-day game in Hyderabad from Tuesday.
"It was great to pick up three wickets considering that all of them were top-order batsmen (Robin Uthappa, Parthiv Patel and S Badrinath). It's my first time here and I just tried to think how Shane Warne would bowl here. So, I decided to keep it accurate, straight and give it a bit of air. It seemed to have worked here," he said.
India A were bowled out for 284, out of which Mohammad Kaif scored 94. Australia in reply were 113 for eight.
"But one session does not make the whole tour. Australia is going to pick the best spinner they have and hopefully I can keep performing well and keep myself in the running," McGain said.
