Mahli Beardman: How lightning-quick West Australian bowler rocketed into calculations for national team

A shock international debut is not beyond the realms of possibility for one of the biggest bolters in the history of Australian cricket. West Australian teenager Mahli Beardman was rushed to England on Monday to join Australia’s travelling party for a five-match one-day series. While he has not officially been added to the national team’s squad yet and it is understood the trip is largely a development opportunity, the 19-year-old is one of only five genuine pace options in the group. Mitchell Starc has joined Josh Hazlewood and Sean Abbott for the 50-over leg of the trip, while Ben Dwarshius was flown over as a left-armed reinforcement after Xavier Bartlett, Nathan Ellis and Riley Meredith were all caught up in something of an injury crisis. With the series crunched into just 11 days on the rapid-fire trip, it is unlikely Starc and Hazlewood — who is fresh off a minor calf strain — will play five games each. Australia does have the seam-bowling cover of WA allrounders Cameron Green and Aaron Hardie. But a debut for Beardman isn’t out of the question. He would be the seventh man — after Hardie, Green, Tim David, Josh Inglis, Lance Morris and Cooper Connolly — to make a debut for Australia in any format since 2022. It’s a rapid and unexpected ascension from country cricketer, to first-grade sensation, domestic rookie and now Australian fringe player. Beardman, from Cowaramup in the State’s south, also spent time growing up in Dampier, where he and fellow State-contracted quick Josh Vernon lived around the corner from each other and would clatter cricket balls into the back of a shed on scorching hot days. It’s a similar path to the one trekked by Morris, whom Beardman watches like a hawk at training. The greatest leap in Morris’ career was the addition of control and guile to his blink-and-you-miss-it speed. Beardman has made the same strides this winter, according to teammates. He bowled at 115km/h at 13. Now, mentored by the great Dennis Lillee, he has the speed gun ticking over 140km/h. “The amount he has improved in the last 12 months has been amazing,” WA red-ball skipper Sam Whiteman said. “He has always sort of had that pace, but his control and accuracy has come along way. You can tell the way he is thinking about his cricket a bit more, leaning on the guys like Matt Kelly and Joel Paris, you can sort of tell that in the middle.” Beardman was firming to play white-ball games for WA later this month amid the dominant team’s stacked bowling attack. Fellow seamer Kelly said Beardman fits perfectly in the all-conquering group. “Mahli has been really impressive this year. He has worked really hard in all aspects of his game physically, tactically he has been brilliant and I think just for him to be around guys who have played a lot of cricket and for him hopefully to play a lot of cricket this summer will be really important,” he said. “Just looking at him from the outside, there is a lot of promise there and I’m really excited about what he is going to do. “And more importantly, put the cricket aside, he is a really good kid and we love having him in our group. He is someone that can have a really good career for WA.”