Kurtis Patterson's telling move with baggy green as forgotten Test player bolts back into frame
Patterson's baggy green is the first and last thing he sees every day.
Kurtis Patterson keeps his baggy green cap on a hook in his bedroom as a daily reminder of where he once was and where he'd like to get back to again. Five years after playing two Tests for Australia – scoring an unbeaten century and finishing with an average of 144 from just two innings – the NSW top order batsman finds himself back in national team conversation just a few weeks after playing club cricket in Sydney.
Patterson was dropped from the Blues side following a string of poor returns last season and thought he may be finished in the first class arena. Drafted back into a side missing players to Australia A duties last month, the stylish left-hander has gone on to scored 360 runs in five innings at an average of 72.
He is now being thrown up as a left-field consideration to fix Australia's top three batting wobbles. "Kurtis is an interesting case study ... in form, has a Test hundred, I don't think you pick him but all of a sudden if he gets a hundred next game (he's a chance)," ex-Test opener Ed Cowan said on The Grandstand Cricket Podcast. "It shows you the game can move quickly in one direction or another."
No one knows that more than Patterson. "I'm not in (Test) contention just yet but it's a nice thing to be spoken about. You’d rather be talked about than not talked about," he told Yahoo Sport Australia.
"I remember our former (NSW) coach (and ex-Test opener) Phil Jaques saying – and I think it's a really true point - that you're only three hundreds away from the next level. Things can change quickly in cricket."
They changed for the worst when Patterson was dropped from the Blues side towards the end of last season, a demotion he not only saw coming but fully accepted after a lengthy run drought. At 31, it could have been all over.
He said: "I wouldn’t say I was confident I would get back. I had to simplify things and put faith in the process and go about scoring runs for (club side) St George. "As many reasons as you can find to get yourself back in the team, there's none better than scoring runs. That's how I got my baggy green (in 2019), by making two hundreds in three weeks."
Kurtis Patterson's baggy green serves as a reminder
That prized possession had sat out of sight, out of mind until Patterson came to the fork in his cricketing road. "When I was dropped from the NSW side there was a line in the sand where I had to decide where to go with my cricket and whether I wanted to dive back in and try to play for Australia again," he said.
"I actually got my baggy green out of the wardrobe and installed a little hook in my bedroom to place it on. It's the first and last thing I see every day. It's my north star, if you like.
"Every state cricketer wants to play for Australia and I'm no different. (2019) was a time of a lot of joy and happiness – not only for me but for those around me – and I'd love to get back there one day." That quest continues from Friday when Patterson and the Blues line-up against Western Australia in the final Sheffield Shield round before the BBL-enforced break.
