It felt inevitable really. Nathan McAndrew, again, doing a bit of everything and doing it well enough for people to start wondering – loudly – why he still hasn’t worn a baggy green.
South Australia wrapped up back-to-back Sheffield Shield titles on Monday, the all-rounder walking off Adelaide Oval with Player-of-the-Match tucked under his arm. He had scored 17 in the first dig, 60 in the second, and squeezed 6 for 121 across the match. Practical numbers that win finals rather than light up social media.
Former Test quick Ryan Harris, never one for cheap sound-bites, was blunt. “I think he probably should have already done it [play Test cricket] by now, to be honest, personally,” Harris said. “If you speak to him, I don’t think he’s too worried about it. I just think he wants to keep winning here, which for me, that’s a great attitude to have.”
A simple case, perhaps, of supply and demand. Australia’s fast-bowling stocks remain healthy, yet there are 20 Tests scheduled in the next 18 months. Bodies break. Schedules bite. Harris suspects the selectors will have to widen the net and, in that context, McAndrew’s consistency becomes hard to ignore. “We have got some pretty good cricketers playing up in that Test team anyway. But should he have been given a chance? Maybe,” Harris added. “He’s been the leading wicket-taker or not far off it four of the five years he’s been here. And he’s pretty handy with some runs.”
The numbers back him up. Since shifting from New South Wales to South Australia in 2021, McAndrew has played 42 Shield matches – more than any other quick – bowling 1,000-plus overs for 181 wickets at 23.52, with 11 five-fors and a ten-for. Stamina, control, a bit of seam both ways; nothing flashy, everything repeatable.
Victoria skipper Will Sutherland faced the brunt of it in the final and offered a telling assessment: “I think he is [the ultimate] professional that just rarely misses. Credit to him for getting player of the match. He’s a super player, and he batted really well as well. For me, facing him, he’s just pretty relentless. Very accurate.”
Relentless was probably the word on day four. South Australia were seven down, 59 ahead, game tilting Victoria’s way. McAndrew joined Alex Carey, blocked what needed blocking then drove and cut anything loose. Their 105-run stand flipped the script, the target bumped to 196. McAndrew’s second-new-ball spell that evening – two wickets in fading light – left Victoria 35 for 3. By the time he pinned Mitch Perry lbw next morning, the chase had unravelled at 139.
That kind of all-round influence echoes last year, when Brendan Doggett snaffled 11 wickets in the final, caught the selectors’ eye, and debuted during the Ashes. Could the same pathway open for McAndrew? Possibly, though the 30-year-old sounds in no rush.
“I know where I sit,” he said earlier this summer. “If the chance comes, brilliant. If it doesn’t, I keep doing what I’m doing for the Redbacks.”
It is an outlook shaped by a late arrival to first-class cricket. McAndrew’s Shield debut came at 28, after seasons of Sydney grade toil and a curious three-match stint for Auckland back in 2016 – “randomly,” as he put it. Those years, friends say, toughened him up. He bowls long spells without fuss, fields hard, bats as a genuine No.7 or No.8 rather than a token hitter.
Selectors have dabbled. Three Australia A games, a couple of Prime Minister’s XI fixtures, BBL opportunities with Sydney Thunder then Adelaide Strikers. They know what he can do; the debate is whether it scales up to Test intensity. At 30, he is not the romantic “next big thing”, yet neither was Michael Hussey or Chris Rogers when they finally got the call. Sometimes production outweighs projection.
Technical types like that he hits the seam from a high release and has developed a reliable outswinger to right-handers. Casual fans just notice he keeps taking wickets. Either way, the Redbacks are benefitting and, for now, that seems enough for the man himself.
There is, of course, a queue. Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland form the established quartet, with Lance Morris and Xavier Bartlett lurking. But tour fatigue, injury management policies and the low-key retirement of Nathan Lyon’s understudy role mean spots can open quickly. When they do, bowling coaches often trust steady hands.
McAndrew fits that mould. Not express pace – he sits 135-140 kph – yet he moves the ball both ways and rarely drifts in length. Add the useful lower-order runs and you have an old-fashioned seam-bowling all-rounder, a type Australian selections have historically embraced.
For now, he returns to club cricket, grabs a breather, maybe tinkers with a slower ball for white-ball duties. The rest of us, meanwhile, kick around the perennial question: what else does a bloke have to do?
A measured answer came from Harris, who has seen plenty. “He’s showed now,” the former quick said, “that if you keep performing, eventually someone upstairs can’t ignore you. That’s how I got in.”
Fair summation. Nothing more sensational required.
