Ashton Agar - Australia’s forgotten Ashes hero
Imagine you’re a young Australian spinner who has just played a handful of first-class matches. You have now been called up to the Ashes squad. Nathan Lyon is already in the squad, so you’re thinking of getting some valuable experience and preparing yourself to carry drinks for the team.
Then a week before a match, you get called up by the captain, coach and vice-captain who tell you that you’ll be making your debut in the first test. You think it’s a joke, but it’s not.
You then walk into the match not believing what just happened. You get only seven overs to bowl, and you fail to pick a wicket, but you’re still in high spirits because this is more than what you could have ever hoped for. All of a sudden, you walk into bat with your team reeling at 117-9. You stare down the other end, and there is Phillip Hughes, batting on 21*, not knowing what’s going on at the other end, and not knowing if you’re capable of hanging around with the bat.
You finally get your chance to bat, and what do you do? You post the highest individual score for any No.11 batsman ever, stitch a 163-run partnership with your partner at the other end and put your country in a position of command. Now you remember that you’re a bowler, so you come back and bowl, and casually knock over the formidable Alastair Cook. You knock over Jonny Bairstow too, and think you’ve got your third wicket as Stuart Broad smashes one to slip - you know it, he knows it, everyone on the ground knows it - except the one important person, the umpire.
The match ends in a defeat but now you’re now an overnight superstar, and everyone is touting you to be Australia’s next big thing. You have the whole world in your hands. However, despite all the stardom, despite all the glory, you only go on to play three more Test matches for your country. How would you feel? Well, all you need to do is ask Ashton Agar the question. Six years later, despite being in the same country as the team, playing in whites again for Australia looks all but a distant dream for him.
Since his heroics in the 2013 Ashes, Agar has just played a total of 27 matches for Australia in six years, with 24 of them coming in coloured clothing. “The youthful freedom that had helped me succeed became an obstacle when things became complicated. I didn’t have the tools to navigate the challenges that popped up. I didn’t have the experience to adjust my game or mindset,” said the man himself, admitting that he was “relieved” to be dropped from the squad after a wicketless outing in the second test of the very same Ashes series.
In a blink of an eye, 2013 had passed by. 2014 passed Agar by too, but he took a career-turning decision, as he decided to have a shoulder reconstruction surgery to get rid of the chronic shoulder pain he’d been living with. It wasn’t until September 2015 - two years after his Ashes heroics, that he got a chance to play for Australia again. To his credit, in the two years that passed, Agar had turned himself into a reliable white-ball bowler with potent hitting ability - something which he showcased in the Big Bash League and has continued to do so.
He got his chance against England again, but this time in coloured clothing. The unpredictable, flamboyant boy who blasted England away in 2013 had now turned into a reliable and consistent man who exactly knew his role. By mid 2018, Agar had established himself as a “holding” spinner for the Aussie side in limited overs, and was always up to the task, whenever his side required him to do a job. But sadly, as the World Cup came closer, he was overlooked for Lyon and Adam Zampa.
In 2017, Agar had actually got a chance at redemption in Test Cricket, after being picked as the second spinner alongside Lyon for the tour of Bangladesh. While he did manage to take seven wickets in two matches, he was overshadowed, massively, by Lyon, who ended the series with 22 wickets. From the looks of it, one could argue that it summarizes that second-coming of Agar in international cricket. From being the star who made all the headlines, Agar had become a man who silently did his job, while going unnoticed.
It’s 2019 now, and Agar has been excluded from Cricket Australia’s list of contracted cricketers. He was beckoned upon by Australia during the World Cup to help them prepare for the threat of Shakib Al Hasan, and one must imagine he did a pretty good job - Shakib conceded at more than 8 runs an over that day. But all is not lost, as he is still very much in Australia’s white-ball plans - evident from his extended run with the Australia ‘A’ team.
The journey called international cricket has been a rollercoaster for Agar, having seen the highest of highs and lowest of lows. But at 25, he has age on his side, and while the young boy who took the world by storm might be long gone, deep down in his heart, there might be a grown man who desperately wants to succeed, and boy he does have the talent to do that.
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