Renshaw explains 'brave' shift in journey to ODI call-up – cricket.com.au

Queenslander on the cusp of 50-over international debut with Australia eyeing new-look middle order
Matthew Renshaw’s previous stint in Australia’s ODI squad was so fleeting that even he couldn’t remember it at first.
Called up as batting cover after several Aussie players contracted Covid during the Pakistan tour in 2022, Renshaw reckons he spent more time quarantining in the hotel in Lahore than with the actual squad.
The upcoming home series against India wasn’t on his radar until recently either; he admitted he had to “Google” the three-match schedule when informed of his elevation by head selector George Bailey.
But there will be no forgetting his involvement this time around, with several strong white-ball seasons for Queensland and his BBL club Brisbane Heat putting him on the cusp of a one-day international debut in Perth on Sunday.
“George Bailey was actually at the game and he just pulled me aside during the last Shield game and said, ‘You’re in the one-day squad’,” Renshaw recalled on the Unplayable Podcast in an episode to be released on Saturday.

“I didn’t know there were any one-dayers on; I made sure I looked on Google to see when the games were on. I was like, ‘OK cool, this is a bit different to what I was planning’.
“It probably wasn’t on my radar after the last couple of games (scoring 20 and 5 in Queensland’s first two one-day games of the season), I was more thinking of going down to Adelaide, playing the Shield game (this week) and trying to score some runs.”
Runs are something Renshaw has plenty of in the 50-over format in recent times, forcing his way into contention to fill a void in Australia’s middle order following the recent ODI retirements of Steve Smith, Marcus Stoinis and Glenn Maxwell.
While well-known for his red-ball exploits that have earned him 14 Test caps predominantly as an opener, the left-hander has dominated at No.4 in domestic one-day cricket for Queensland over the past four seasons.
Since the start of 2021-22, the 29-year-old has maintained an average above 50 in the One-Day Cup while striking at better than a run-a-ball, finishing last summer as the competition’s second-highest run-scorer (305 at 50.83).
He backed that up with scores of 80, 106 and 62 for Australia A against Sri Lanka in July and his BBL form has also been impressive since rejoining the Heat from Adelaide Strikers in BBL|12.
Renshaw has been the cub’s leading scorer across those three seasons combined, batting exclusively in the middle order – a spot he is now aiming to make his own in the national side as Australia begin to plot their defence at the 2027 ODI World Cup.
“With one-day cricket, everyone wants to open the batting,” Renshaw said. “Everyone wants to bat at the top when there’s only two fielders out.
“Whereas I really enjoy coming in in the middle when there’s four fielders out, when the spin is on and trying to work out the game scenario: whether I need to go hard, whether I need to conserve some wickets in hand.
“I enjoy that part of one-day and T20 cricket of trying to control those middle overs. I feel like I’ve got those gears in my game to be able to do that.”
Tellingly, in a one-day side featuring explosive hitters all the way through that posted Australia’s second highest total (2-431) in their most recent ODI, Renshaw’s scoring rate was at a career-high in both the One-Day Cup (114.5) and BBL (169.7) last summer.
He increased his strike-rate considerably in BBL|14 from the previous Big Bash campaign (123.2 in BBL|13), a jump he credits to his bravery rather than anything technical.
“With my one-day game, I’ve always felt my explosive game has been there,” Renshaw said.
“But I think when you come on the scene as a 20-year-old who scores 100 off 300 balls, you’re not really expected to do that.
“So there was always the stigma around whether I could actually hit the ball off the square, but I felt like I had that and once I got the opportunity, I’ve enjoyed (showcasing) that.
“It’s more (been) the real trust in myself and that bravery of when I feel like I’ve got the match-up, knowing that the team and the support staff around me … (back me to) go for that.
“The ability to hit boundaries where (previously) I probably would have just tried to rotate the strike if there wasn’t the right match-up, just having that bravery has (helped) the way I went about (one-day batting).”
More one-day runs against India also wouldn’t hurt Renshaw’s chances of a Test recall with an opening spot up for grabs ahead of the Ashes after he started the Sheffield Shield season with a century (128) alongside Marnus Labuschagne (160) in Queensland’s high-scoring draw with Tasmania.
“I try and keep away from all that sort of stuff … I can’t really control that,” Renshaw said.
“I’m just going to go out there and try and have fun. That was something last week in that four-dayer, whether I got 120 or 20, the way I went about things and the way I want to bat is how I’ve gone about my cricket this year, rather than just looking at the runs.
“I think that cricket’s sometimes problem is we just see the runs and it’s like, ‘Oh, he made a hundred, he must have batted well’.
“But I batted terribly for my first 15 runs last week.
“It’s just the way that cricket is – everyone just looks at the runs rather than the way you went about it.”
And that’ll no doubt be Renshaw’s mantra on Sunday if handed his maiden ODI cap, to replicate how he’s gone about his 50-over cricket for Queensland in recent times.
Australia squad: Mitchell Marsh (c), Xavier Bartlett, Cooper Connolly, Ben Dwarshuis, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Matthew Kuhnemann, Mitchell Owen, Josh Philippe, Matthew Renshaw, Matthew Short, Mitchell Starc. Game two onwards: Adam Zampa, Alex Carey, Josh Inglis
India squad: Shubman Gill (c), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, KL Rahul, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Mohammed Siraj, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Dhruv Jurel, Yashasvi Jaiswal
October 19: First ODI v India, Perth Stadium, Perth, 2:30pm AEDT
October 23: Second ODI v India, Adelaide Oval, Adelaide, 2:30pm AEDT
October 25: Third ODI v India, SCG, Sydney, 2:30pm AEDT
All matches live via Kayo Sports and Foxtel
Your No.1 destination for live cricket scores, match coverage, breaking news, video highlights and in‑depth feature stories.
cricket.com.au is a production of CA Digital Media – a division of Cricket Australia.

source