silk photo by Getty Images

The fragility of Australia’s Test batting across the Indian and England tours last year sent shockwaves through Cricket Australia headquarters. Desperate to remedy the problem, the powers-that-be promptly instructed first-class curators to steer away from under-prepared “result pitches” and instead prepare long-lasting decks designed to encourage occupation of the crease. The groundsmen complied and this season has again seen Sheffield Shield batsmen hoarding runs.

None, however, have been more prodigious than 21-year-old Tasmanian opening batsman Jordan Silk. If the Test selectors are looking for a young batsman who has the fortitude – both mental and physical – to drop anchor at the top of the order, they may have found their man.

WHAT'S HIS STORY?

Raised in Glenbrook, in the foothills of Sydney’s Blue Mountains, the young Silk cut his cricketing teeth at the Blaxland Cricketing Club. In 2008, at the age of 15, he headed down the Great Western Highway to join Penrith in the Sydney Grade competition.

The following year the 16-year-old celebrated his first-grade debut with 126 against Blacktown, confirming his place in the Sydney Grade record books as the youngest debutant to hit a ton.

Consistent run-scoring and athletic fielding over the following seasons saw Tasmania offer him a rookie contract at the start of the 2012-13 season. By his own admission, Silk flew south expecting to bide his time in Hobart’s Grade scene. The Tasmanian selectors, however, had other ideas, naming him in the Tigers’ team to face Western Australia in the fifth round of the Ryobi Cup. Although he only managed a ten-ball one in that match, solid showings across the following matches saw him elevated to the Shield team in March.

In his Shield debut, facing a strong Queensland attack of Ryan Harris, Alister McDermott and James Hopes on a green ‘Gabba deck, he performed admirably, grinding out a fighting two-and-a-half hour 25 in the first innings and an equally stolid two-hour 34 in the second.

Since then the youngster has flourished. In his second match he hit 52 and 127 as the Tigers buried the Vics at Bellerive. In his third – the Sheffield Shield final – he again blunted the vaunted Bulls attack, barricading himself at the crease for seven-and-a-half hours as he gathered 108 runs. It was a hard, attritional innings that laid the foundation for a draw – enough to guarantee the Tigers hoisted the Shield.

After a successful tour of the Old Dart with Australia A last winter, he further gilded his growing reputation with tough, wearing tons against Queensland and South Australia in the opening stanza of the 2013-14 Sheffield Shield.

WHO'S HE LIKE?

Ask Tasmania’s talent manager, Michael Farrell, what he saw in Silk when he signed him up 18 months ago, and Farrell ticks the qualities off: “He’s got great powers of concentration. He has an excellent ability to play each ball on its merits. He has a great game sense of when he needs to defend and when he needs to attack. And he’s got a real ability to bat long periods of time on a consistent basis.”

Former Tigers coach Tim Coyle agrees: “The great thing about Jordan is his ability to bat ‘time’. He just loves batting and he loves the contest. His application to the task, particularly in pressure situations, as we saw in the Shield final last year, is outstanding. He tookthe brunt of the new ball in that game and did it really well.”

Both Farrell and Coyle assert that Silk’s strength is square of the wicket, with a powerful cut and natural pull his chief weapons. According to Coyle, Silk “could improve his play down the ground”, although the old coach doesn’t see this as a significant flaw.

“When the bowling’s good, he respects it. That’s a good quality for a batsman. He sits on bowlers and waits for them to bowl in the spots he can score in.”

Suggest that Silk sounds like an Antipodean Alastair Cook and Coyle nods: “Yeah, there are certainly some similarities there.”

WHAT DO THEY SAY?

“He can pick up the length of the ball very quickly and get right forward or right back. Everyone’s always said Ricky Ponting used

to pick up the length of the ball a fraction quicker than other batsmen. Well, Jordan’s a bit like that. You rarely see him caught on the crease.”

− Michael Farrell, Tasmanian Tigers talent manager

“He’s among the best three fieldsmen in the country. He sets the standard in our team. He’s very dynamic, he hits the stumps, he effects run-outs, and he makes very few mistakes.”

− Tim Coyle, former Tasmanian Tigers coach