Australia started the year by handing a debut to Tasmania allrounder Beau Webster for the final Test against India at the SCG. Although earmarked with significant potential at the youth level, it has been more than a decade-long journey. Here's a look at his route to Test cricket.
The early days
Born in the small Tasmania town of Snug, Webster made his first-class debut in February 2014 at the age of 20, playing three games in the latter part of the season. Two years later he made centuries in back-to-back Sheffield Shield matches batting at No. 3 which propelled him into the Australia A side to face India A in Brisbane where he made 11, 30 and 79 across two matches. But it was a brief stay on the fringes of the national set-up.
"I don't think my defence is the best part of my game, so ultimately I was pretty inconsistent batting in the top order," he told ESPNcricinfo in an interview in March last year.
Opening the batting against New South Wales in 2018, he scored what was then a career-best 136, but at the end of the first part of the 2019-20 his first-class average stood at 26.78 with the bat and 46.19 with the ball.
The Covid switch
Just a few weeks before the world was shut down in early 2020, Webster had made a run-a-ball 187 against Western Australia. But it was a change of tack with his bowling during the Covid lockdowns that proved to be a major catalyst in his career. Having watch team-mate Jake Doran snag a wicket with his left-arm mediums in the aforementioned WA game, Webster decided to revive his pace bowling which had been shelved by back problems when he was younger.
"If we're going to do it, we're going to do it properly and start from scratch and get your action sorted," his coach Adam Griffith told him.
It took a little while for pace bowling to bring dividends, but Webster has no doubt about the role it has played in his rise to the Australia side.
"I don't think I'd be standing here if I was still wheeling out the offspinners," Webster said. "It's a part of my game I've been really proud to develop in the last four years. It's taken a lot of hard work early doors from being sore at the start and trying to get my body used to bowling a few overs here and there and then bowling lots and lots of Tasmania."
It also fitted well with what Tasmania were looking for at the time, as they moved different eras of allrounders. "There was a need for an allrounder after Luke Butterworth and James Faulkner," Webster said. "We were crying out for an allrounder. I was floating around in the order, settled at No. 6. If I could wheel out some quality medium pace, it would have given the team the ability to play a full-time spinner. I felt like I could impact games with the ball."
Run-scoring explosion
The 2020-21 season was a mediocre one with the bat, but the following couple of summers brought glimpses of what was on offer and he signed off the 2022-23 season with an unbeaten 168 against Queensland. It was a sign of things to come.
The 2023-24 Sheffield Shield campaign for Webster will go down as one of the greats: 938 runs at 58.62 and 30 wickets at 30.80. Only Garry Sobers has exceeded both those figures in the same season.
He was back on the national radar and featured for the Prime Minister's XI against Pakistan in Canberra.
"If someone like [Mitchell] Marsh got injured, he would have to be the next player in," team-mate Matthew Wade towards the end of 2023-24 season. "He'll be pushing for that. He's been huge."
A County Championship stint with Gloucestershire followed and while he wasn't prolific with the bat, his bowling continued to develop with 16 wickets at 21.25 in four matches.
Onto the fringe
Webster began the 2024-25 season with a century against Victoria just around the time Cameron Green was being ruled out for the summer with a back injury. But with Mitchell Marsh secure of his spot and Steven Smith returning to the middle order, there was not yet an opening for Webster.
He featured for Australia A against India A in the two four-day matches he impressed with a pair of unbeaten innings in the two chases and bagged six wickets at the MCG.
Initially called into the Test squad as cover for Marsh in Adelaide and Brisbane, he was officially added to the group for the Boxing Day Test. When Marsh missed out twice in Melbourne, it was form rather than injury that created the opening. And Webster became Test cap 469 for Australia's men.