Daniel Sams' Big Bash surge propels quest for Australia honours

The postponed men's 2020 T20 World Cup is an unfortunate outcome of the chaos in the sporting world created by Covid-19, but for a player like Daniel Sams it could yet work in his favour with the chance of another Big Bash season to push his claims.

Sams, the 27-year-old left-armer who plays for the Sydney Thunder and New South Wales, was one of three uncapped players named in Australia's enlarged 26-man training squad ahead of a potential tour to England in September.

He earned his call-up on the back of a prolific BBL last season where he claimed 30 wickets for the Thunder - comfortably ahead of the next-best haul of 22. The BBL's recent expansion to a full home-and-away season makes record hauls of wickets and runs somewhat skewed, but Sams' success is put in further context by the fact that only four players have ever taken more wickets in a T20 league anywhere.

Whether he makes the final cut for the England trip which will include three T20Is - should that tour get confirmed as is expected - will be decided in the next few weeks when the squad is trimmed to 18-20 players but even if he doesn't make it, Sams knows he's firmly in the mix and has the next BBL season up his sleeve.

"It doesn't hurt me, put it that way," he told ESPNcricinfo of the extra year he now has in hand. "It gives me more opportunity to put performances on the board. If I can have another good BBL, it pushes my case forward a bit more so probably does advantage me a little bit more."

The chance to play international cricket in the next couple of months is something that took Sams by surprise when he received the phone call from national selector Trevor Hohns while he was on a week off from New South Wales training.

T20 has been his dominant format so far with just 11 one-day and five first-class matches under his belt. He began with the Sydney Sixers in 2017-18 as an injury replacement, taking what remains a career-best 4 for 14 on debut, before switching to local rivals the Thunder where the last two seasons have brought 45 wickets.

"My biggest goal is to get to the Australian team, however that looks, and at the moment that looks like white-ball," he said. "That isn't to say I don't want to get there with red ball, that could be a little bit away, but I want to play for Australia so am trying to take this opportunity as far as can."

Learning how to stay "level" in the middle has been a key part of his development and before last season, he started focusing a lot more on the mental side of the game which he believes has been a significant help.

"I've always done a little bit of it, but I really started to get into it at the start of last season," he said. "Working on mindfulness and awareness, being aware of what your body is feeling whether that's at home or on the cricket field and they need two runs to win off the last ball. If you can be aware of what's going with your own body, you are aware if there's tension and you may not perform.

"I'd like to say more times than not I'm in control of what's going on with me, because I can't control other things, but there's definitely times where the situation can get the better of you. That was something I was feeling with the ball in BBL last season, it didn't matter if I got hit for six or got a wicket that confidence stayed level which helped me focus on the next situation."

Sams' success with the ball last season was in stark contrast to his batting where he made just 55 runs in 15 innings. However, he has taken that as another experience to learn from and views himself as a genuine allrounder. In his last competitive innings in March he made 80 in a four-day game against the England Lions.

"The confidence and control I had with the ball was really good but with the bat in hand the situation overtook me," he said. "I can have these two different feelings in one game by doing two different things. I'm not necessarily putting any more focus on my batting than my bowling or vice versa, it's just been a lot of mental work on control when I'm batting."

He also thinks back to a conversation three years ago when he made his first-class debut, which was for Canterbury in the Plunket Shield as an overseas player before he was left out for an allrounder called Ben Stokes during his international suspension.

Sams averaged 40.16 with the bat and 31.00 with the ball during a three-match stint and words from Gary Stead, who was then the Canterbury head coach and is now in charge of New Zealand, have always stayed with him.

"He just said I don't care about the situation, whatever happens happens, I just want you to bat the way that you think you need to in this situation so we can win the game," Sams recalled. "I'd never had a conversation with a coach like that before, basically freeing me up to do whatever I thought needed to be done. I was able to go out there and get 80-odd and we ended up winning the game. That conversation has stuck with me, whenever I'm free and relaxed is when I'm playing I'm best."