CAMERON Bancroft is trying to feed off his opening partner’s insatiable self-belief as he fights to play his way out of a form dip and into Australia’s Test squad for South Africa.
The 25-year-old rookie has struggled ever since his debut Test and there is pressure on him to fire in Sydney as batting candidates Joe Burns, Glenn Maxwell and Peter Handscomb lodge their claims.
England have gotten on top of Bancroft, particularly with the short ball.
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Bancroft said he won’t waste energy worrying about his job security, instead he wants to be a man of action who simply goes out and does something about it at the SCG.
David Warner is a man who always views the game with a glass half full, and even when he’s going through a lean patch, he will back himself until the big hundred is made.
Bancroft has witnessed Warner do just that this series, bouncing back from missing out in Adelaide and Perth to producing a blazing performance at the MCG.
Renowned as perhaps the hardest trainer in all of domestic cricket, Bancroft hasn’t found his work ethic short of par in the Australian set-up, but he looks at Warner and realises how he must strive to understand his game just as deeply.
“I’ve learnt he brings a lot of positive intent to the crease and that’s been really, really good for me to be part of and for me to be able to bat with him,” said Bancroft.
“He’s scored a hundred and an (86) in the last game, but even he’s gone through periods early in the series where he was challenged.
“To watch him learn from that and keep trusting himself and keep backing himself, he’s got no fear to go out and play his game.
“He plays differently to me but just to be able to watch that … he’s been absolutely fantastic.
“There’s other people out there in the world who can do all that worrying for me.
“Playing at this level it’s all about confidence and all about belief. The only way you can do that is by action.
“Life rewards action.”
Bancroft believes a season in county cricket last winter was the catalyst behind his incredible rise into the Australian XI, and says he’ll be returning to England this year in a bid to sharpen his credentials for the next Ashes on UK soil in 2019.
“I attribute a lot of my development and improvement, particularly in the past 12 months, to being able to expose myself (to different conditions) and play over there,” he said.
“It’s been a great learning curve (this summer) and I think I’ve been starting really well, it’s just about trusting that and knowing that I’m good enough to go on and get a really big score.”
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