Black Cap Bevon Jacobs is waiting to make his international debut. Photo: Alan Lee / www.photosport.nz
Auckland batter Bevon Jacobs has big ambitions but this year he has been on periphery watching, learning and biding his time before he gets the breakthrough to take the next step in his cricket career.
Jacobs has been close to making his international debut and close to playing in the Indian Premier League (IPL) but he has yet to get on the park for the Black Caps or the Mumbai Indians.
He was a surprise pick up in the IPL in November as the lowest priced New Zealander in the auction and the only one not have played for the Black Caps yet. The following month he also caught the attention of the national selectors and was called into the New Zealand side for a T20 series against Sri Lanka.
Jacobs did not get game time in his first stint with the Black Caps but is hopeful that will change next month during a T20 Tri-Series in Zimbabwe under new coach Rob Walter.
Included in a touring squad for the first time, Jacobs sees this as the first step towards the goal of being selected for next year's T20 World Cup.
The 23-year-old believes his experience in the IPL, despite not playing a game, was valuable. He trained alongside Indian captain Rohit Sharma, faced fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah in the nets, travelled around with Black Caps captain Mitch Santner and former Black Cap Trent Boult and watched big-hitting English wicketkeeper-batter Jonny Bairstow in action.
He said it was "pinch me moments" mixed with recognition of what being alongside that calibre of player and their "crazy amount of knowledge" could do for his own game.
"I got three months there to learn new facets of my game and I definitely think I've made those learnings and improvements. Obviously, implementing it into my game is going to be a longer work in progress but taking away from the technical stuff there is also a lot of mental mental learnings that I've got from it as well, which I know will change me, just for the time being so hopefully I can bring what I've learned from there into into the series."
Jacobs is unsure what it will take to make a Black Caps playing 11.
"If I had the exact answer I'd give it to you, but for me, at this stage, it's just about doing the 1 percenters right, doing what I can, and putting my best foot forward, and if that leads to me getting selection, and if Rob thinks I'm ready, then I'm happy to go about it."
Jacobs is versatile, which could be in his favour.
"I've had almost two different sort of roles, starting off in that finisher role that's where Mumbai picked up a point of difference for me, which I find really cool.
"And then obviously, when I came to Auckland, a little bit more moving up into the middle order. Either way, I think for me, maybe that skill set, what's seen at the moment is trying to finish off an innings I'm just going to try and get better at that, step by step and hopefully that's what gets me into the side."
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