Ashes 2021-22: Perennial Test 12th man Michael Neser’s eternal wait to debut

Tim May doesn’t remember the particular Test, but he recalls the feeling. The Australian team had done their pre-match warm-up, and yet he still didn’t know if he’d been included in the XI.

This was what life was like on the fringes of the Aussie side in the late 1980s and early to mid-90s. May’s 24-Test career was spread over seven years, and as an off-spinner playing in the same era as Australia’s greatest ever tweaker, his inclusion or otherwise almost always hinged on conditions being favourable.

“In my day, I didn’t know I was 12th man until five minutes before the start of play. No idea,” May, says from his long-time home in Austin, Texas this week.

“No one would let you know. It was normally announced in the warm-up as you were doing laps or whatever you were doing, but there were a couple of days when I’d walk back into the sheds and I had to ask Steve Waugh or someone, ‘Am I actually playing?’ They didn’t announce the team out there. Some days I was playing and some days I wasn’t.”

Having been a member of Australia’s 1987 World Cup winning XI, as well as playing five Tests on the successful 1993 Ashes tour, May at least got to savour enough big moments over the course of his stop-start career, not to mention his influential stint as a player union boss.

But he was the “nearly man” almost as much as he was actually in the Australian team, named 12th man in no fewer than 15 Tests across his career. Of Australian Test players, only Andy Bichel (19 Tests) rivals May’s drinks-carrying feats.

There is another Queensland paceman who has entered this territory. The critical difference however, is that Michael Neser is still not a Test cricketer, and is on the brink of slipping through the cracks to become an unwanted footnote in history.

The South African-born quick, also a very capable lower order batter, was a whisker away from making his debut more than three years ago in Dubai. Without Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood – both injured – Australia weighed up whether to go with Neser or Peter Siddle to complement Mitchell Starc in the seam department in the Test now best remembered for Usman Khawaja’s fourth-innings century to save the match against Pakistan.

Ultimately Siddle was preferred, but at that stage time was still on Neser’s side.

Chris Tremain was preferred ahead of Neser for a depth spot in the Aussie Test squad for that season’s home series against India, while Jhye Richardson made his debut later that summer against Sri Lanka.

But then Neser was recalled to the squad for the Ashes tour of 2019. He has been part of every Australian Test squad since: five Tests in England, two home Tests against Pakistan and three against New Zealand the following summer, four against India last season and this summer’s Ashes too.

And yet a baggy green still eludes him. Cummins, Hazlewood and Starc have largely monopolised the fast bowling spots, with James Pattinson and Siddle getting occasional starts. Selectors toyed with playing Neser as a bowling all-rounder for the 2019 Boxing Day Test but that plan never materialised.

What hasn’t helped Neser’s case either is that Test tours to South Africa and Bangladesh have been postponed in that period, as have a couple of home dates with Afghanistan.

All of those phantom matches would have been chances for attrition to run its course and open the door for Neser, but fate has conspired against him.

The photo of Australia’s jubilant 2019 Ashes-retaining squad tells the story for Neser. Sixteen men in baggy greens, and Neser, in what unfortunately for him is becoming a trademark white floppy hat. At least he didn’t have to wear a fluoro vest for that happy snap.

The circumstances should in theory be all working in Neser’s favour now. A tightly-packed home Test schedule, the ghosts of tired Australian quicks – particularly Starc – limping to the line against India last summer. Hazlewood, the frontline quick most similar to Neser (neither are express pace) injured for the second Test. A day-night Test, theoretically favouring skill over outright hostility. And he’s in great form, having taken 5-29 only a few days ago for Australia A against England Lions.

And yet Neser is being widely tipped to miss out. The problem is that the West Australian – six and a half years Neser’s junior – is a jet himself, and makes a compelling claim to be in Australia’s first choice XI.

At 31, and with a glut of Asian Test tours on the horizon in which his seam ability is less likely to be prioritised, Neser is shaping as the eternal understudy.

Neser is not alone among modern-day Australian seamers to have been repeatedly sidelined largely because they have coincided with a golden generation. Before Neser there was another perennial bridesmaid, Jackson Bird, although at least the adopted Tasmanian played nine Tests, bookended by Boxing Day appearances in 2012 and 2017.

May knows all too well what it’s like to be the next man in line.

“It’s bloody frustrating, I can tell you that,” the 59-year-old says.

“But being on the fringe is a lot better than not being on the fringe. My problem was that I had this fella called Shane Warne who was somewhat better than me. I realised that if the pitch didn’t look like spinning, or spinning very much, then I was going to miss out. That made it a lot easier for me to accept. It wasn’t any fun playing a Test, doing well and then the next Test is at Perth or something and you’d miss out again, and you were scared they were going to forget about your last performance.

“You’ve got three outstanding quick bowlers in Starc, Cummins and Hazlewood, it gets hard to get into. You have to rely on someone getting injured or they have these rotations these days.

“You sort of feel like when you get in the team, if you do, you’ve really got to do bloody well. Two wickets here, three wickets in the second innings, just isn’t going to be enough to keep you going. They have to remain unfrustrated and sooner or later they’ll get their chance. So it’s frustrating, but it’s a lot more frustrating if you’re not near the edge of the team and not getting your name mentioned. So chin up, get going and they’ll be OK. They are both bloody good bowlers.”

There is an argument to say that if the selectors believe it is a lineball call between Richardson and Neser, the latter should get the nod as a reward for being so close for so long.

Just last week Australian coach Justin Langer described Neser as the “heartbeat” of the team.

But May says that as harsh as it might feel, sentiment cannot play a part.

“If I was in that circumstance, I would say, ‘Yeah, I deserve a chance!’ But if I had my selector’s hat on, I’m just going to pick the best team,” May says.

“There were blokes in my day that should have played a lot of Test cricket and were always knocking on the door like Jamie Siddons, Jamie Cox. You didn’t feel sorry for them and give them a baggy green, unfortunately.

“I’d love for him to be given an opportunity. I know the frustration he must be feeling. He’s certainly done enough, he’s certainly done something recently. He’s in form. I suppose as a player also, you’d want to really earn that spot rather than, ‘You’ve been around the scene for a while, we’ll give you a cap’. That probably doesn’t go down too well.”