Cameron Bancroft

Cameron Bancroft (born 19 November 1992) is an Australian cricketer from Western Australia. A right-handed wicketkeeper-batsman and former Australia Under-19 representative, Cameron Bancroft first played for Western Australia in one-day cricket in 2011. A first-class debut followed in 2013-14, when he played 11 matches as an opening batsman as the Warriors made it all the way to the Sheffield Shield final. He began the following season in fine style with a one-day century against the touring United Arab Emirates side.

The 2013-14 Sheffield Shield season stamped his authority on the domestic scene as finished third on the run-getters list with 896 runs under his belt. He followed it up with a knock on 150 for Australia ‘A’ on a turner in Chennai against India ‘A’. A national call up followed soon after as Bancroft was picked in the Australian Test squad for the 2015 tour to Bangladesh, which eventually got cancelled due to security issues. He finally made his debut against India in a T20 international in January 2016.

Right from his U-19 days, Bancroft has been rated highly among the pundits in Australia primarily due to his exemplary patience and solid technique - the former being a rare commodity among the modern day Aussie batsmen. Chris Rogers' retirement led to the vacancy of an opening partner for David Warner and Bancroft continued to be on the radar due to his strong domestic performances and his trips with Australia A. However, he had to wait a bit as there were a few contenders tried for the spot. One of those was a young Matt Renshaw who impressed one and all in the home series against Pakistan. He also did admirably well in the tour of India in 2017 which meant that Bancroft had to wait for his chance.

Sometimes in cricket, small opportunities come via luck and an injury to Renshaw was that opportunity. The young southpaw failed to strike form in Sheffield Shield after returning from injury while Bancroft quietly kept on piling the runs. On the basis of international form, Renshaw was an automatic pick for the 2017-18 Ashes series but given the significance of the urn, the selectors opted for current form as they selected Bancroft as the opener in place of Renshaw. The Western Australian immediately seemed at home as he conjured an unbeaten fifty in the second innings of his debut at the Gabba, showcasing why he had been raved about.

Apart from cricketing skills, Bancroft is as tough as they come - not a surprise given that he hails from Western Australia. This was on view when he stoically fielded at forward short leg, copping blows without any signs of being rattled. His sense of humor was evident too at the press conferences when he played down questions regarding an incident with Jonny Bairstow when the Yorkshireman had apparently head-butted him in a method of greeting. All in all, Bancroft has it in him to become a successful opener in Test cricket and given his utility keeping skills, he could also force himself into the shorter forms consistently if he can just work on improving his limited-overs game a touch.

In a quirk of fate, Bancroft's decision making skills came into question after he was captured by the broadcasters trying to alter the condition of the ball during the Newlands Test on the tour to South Africa in March, 2018. Bancroft initially feigned ignorance when questioned by the on-field umpires, but later pleaded guilty saying 'he panicked and lied' at that moment. 'The sandpaper gate' as the ball tampering issue was later called turned out to be one of the most devastating moments in the young career of the opener. He was handed 75 percent fine on his match fees by the International Cricket Council (ICC) and received more sanctions from Cricket Australia (CA) - who laid the charge on him and banned him from any cricket for a nine-month period.

But once Bancroft served the ban, he was handed over the captaincy duties of Durham. And the young man came out with flying colours as far as his own batting was concerned. He tallied 726 runs from 9 division two games to ensure he was in the top 10 of the run-getters list. His re-initiation though at first through BBL 2018-2019 where he played 11 games for Perth Scorchers and scored 298 runs for them at a strike rate of almost 125. A match winning 87* was one of the highlights of the BBL. Bancroft thanks to his exploits in the county cricket has been picked for Ashes 2019.

Written by Haripasad Sadanandan and Kumar Abhisekh Das