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Mitchell Owen is talking about ODIs in exactly the same way he spoke about T20s a month ago – and he insists that is the whole point. The 23-year-old Tasmanian all-rounder has been drafted into Australia’s squad for three one-dayers against South Africa in Cairns and Mackay from 19 August, and he says the move won’t come with a sudden change of gears.
“If I am opening the batting or if I’m batting down the order, not much will change,” Owen said in Hobart on Monday. “Not much really changes in any form of my cricket. I just try and hit the ball and I feel like if I sort of think ‘defend’, I go into my shell a little bit and it just doesn’t work. So yeah, I’ll be keeping that same mindset.”
The selectors clearly enjoyed that mindset in the Caribbean, where Owen’s first four T20Is brought lively knocks of 50, 36 not out, 2 and 37 at a strike-rate touching 193. He operated at No. 6, offering late-innings power and a couple of tidy overs of medium pace, and that combination has fast-tracked him into Australia’s post-Maxwell, post-Smith rebuild towards the 2027 World Cup in South Africa.
There is no firm word yet on Owen’s position in the 50-over line-up. With Mitchell Marsh, Cameron Green and Matthew Short all back from injury, the top four may already be crowded. Marnus Labuschagne and Alex Carey are expected to anchor the middle, so Owen is likely to reprise his T20 brief as a finisher – even though his domestic one-day form came while opening for Tasmania.
That switch to the top of the order only happened last summer. For his first ten List-A matches he lurked at No. 7 and never passed 16. Then the Hurricanes coaching group, who double up with Tasmania, asked him to replicate his Big Bash role and go hard at the new ball. He repaid them with 48 off 19 and 149 off 69 in back-to-back successful chases against Victoria and South Australia, reminders that his range is wider than the finishing role to which he is now linked.
“You’ve got to be ready to play every couple of days” was Owen’s succinct summary of a schedule that has taken him through the IPL, PSL, MLC and the recent West Indies tour. The constant travel, he said, helped him trust a simple method rather than over-analyse formats.
Australia need that clarity in their middle order. Glenn Maxwell’s retirement leaves a late-innings gap that statistics alone cannot fill, and Marcus Stoinis’s exit removes another seam-bowling option. Owen’s ability to roll his arm over could prove just as valuable as his hitting if pitches in north Queensland slow up.
South Africa arrive with their own transitional storyline, but for Australia the bigger picture revolves around identifying who can keep the run-rate ticking after Travis Head, Marsh or Green have set it up. National selector George Bailey has already hinted that the next World Cup cycle will favour flexible, multi-skill cricketers; Owen fits that brief, even if 17 List-A appearances is a modest sample size.
For now the newcomer is content to keep things uncomplicated. “I just try and hit the ball,” he repeated, almost shrugging off the question of whether the white-ball formats demand different plans. That uncomplicated approach has carried him far in a short time. August in Cairns will tell us whether it also survives 50 overs.
