Captain Aaron Finch predicts the future is bright for Nathan Ellis and Josh Inglis after the inexperienced pair played a vital role in Australia's one-off T20 international win against Pakistan in Lahore.
Australia were missing David Warner, Mitch Marsh, Steven Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Matthew Wade, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc from the side that won the T20 World Cup, as well as regular squad members Kane Richardson and Jhye Richardson, who both played in Australia's last T20I series against Sri Lanka.
But the inexperienced side, that featured three T20I debutants in Marnus Labuschagne, Cameron Green and Ben Dwarshuis, got the better of Pakistan by three wickets.
Green and Ellis wrestled the game back in Australia's favour taking 6 for 44 between them after Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan plundered 63 runs in the first seven overs without loss.
Ellis took career-best figures of 4 for 28 in just his third T20I, with Finch predicting he has a bright future at the international level.
"He's someone who brings an unbelievable attitude, an unbelievable work ethic to games and training," Finch said.
"His energy, his intensity, his ability to learn really quickly, whether it be with the new ball, old ball, talking to experienced players, coaches, he's just got an amazing attitude that he brings to the table.
"And he's someone that the boys love playing with.
"When he turns up, he's just got an infectious attitude that he brings and he's just one of [those] guys that will have a super future because he's prepared to challenge himself each and every day, which is a great sign, especially from a guy who hasn't had a huge amount of international experience."
Inglis kept wicket for the first time in T20I cricket having played his previous five games as a batter. He made a valuable 24 off 15 batting at No.3, which was made even more impressive by the fact that he carried the drinks throughout the Test series and then missed the entire ODI series because of a Covid-19 positive test that forced him to isolate in his hotel room.
"He's been fantastic," Finch said of Inglis. "Nothing seems to faze him. The attitude that he brings out in the middle is brilliant. It's good fun batting with him. He's somebody who again takes in so much information and his ability to walk out of a hotel room after seven days of isolation and start off really well was outstanding.
"And he's just someone again, like Nathan Ellis, the guys love being around and love having him in squads. He's a super player. He's got so much talent as well. So yeah, I've been really impressed with Josh."
Finch himself made a nice return to form scoring 55 off 45 balls to guide Australia home in the chase. Finch had gone 16 international innings without a half-century, including 13 T20Is, and had posted nine single-figure scores in that period culminating in back-to-back ducks to finish the recent ODI series. Coach Andrew McDonald had backed the skipper to come good 24 hours earlier and Finch repaid the faith.
Finch used his feet to advance at the quicks early in his innings but then settled into a different set-up thereafter, keeping his left leg planted well outside leg stump to avoid getting trapped lbw.
"It's something that I tend to do," Finch said. "It's after my initial eight to 10 balls, when you start to get a bit more of a rhythm that I tend to go to that one. Especially, when guys are angling in and attacking the stumps quite a bit more on low bouncing wickets in particular.
"I should have gone to it earlier, shouldn't I.
"But it's just one of those things. I mean, you get knocked over early. Today the wicket played really nicely against the new ball. There probably wasn't quite as much swing initially. So, yeah, slight tinkering with technique, but that's nothing uncommon."