Nathan Coulter-Nile was a regular in the Australian squad till 2014 before a series of injuries put a halt to the fast bowler’s career.
All of this started in the IPL 2014 when he made an effort on the field and tore his hamstring while playing for Delhi Daredevils. Since then he has been in and out of the Australian limited-over squad, and for the last one year was almost forgotten by the public and the Australian selection committee.
Coulter-Nile recently revealed he had almost given up on his dream to play Test cricket and wanted to shift his focus primarily to T20 cricket. The 29-year-old came back into action at this year’s IPL where he played for the Kolkata Knight Riders and took 15 wickets in eight matches which got him back in the reckoning for the selection.
His performance in the IPL earned him praise from the former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting. He said,
“He’s a highly-talented player, and he’s probably someone who’s been a little bit forgotten in Australian cricket because he’s been injured so much. Anyone who can bowl above 140kph and swing the ball in India is going to make an impact.”It’s not what the Indian top-order players are used to seeing and even for overseas top-order players, you’ve still got to be good enough to score runs and not get out against high-quality fast-bowling like Coulter-Nile’s.”
Coulter-Nile’s dream to play Test cricket would have had come true, if injuries wouldn’t have struck him and put a pause on his career. Most recently being the time when he was picked for the West Indies series down under and was all set to make his debut when a cruel shoulder injury while playing in the BBL ruled him out of the series.
But this time he is quite optimistic that about his fitness and went onto say,
“I don’t think there’s any reason I can’t play (Test cricket),” he said. “It’s just whether or not the opportunity is there.”