Renshaw tells of his ‘surreal’ Test recall

MATTHEW Renshaw woke yesterday, packed his bags for South Africa and then hit the winning runs in a Sheffield Shield final for Queensland.

He is likely to land in Johannesburg this afternoon and open the batting in the fourth Test on Friday.

Renshaw admits the circumstances surrounding his return to a squad squirming from the Cape Town balltampering scandal are surreal.

But he insists he isn’t concerned by the storm that awaits and is in the perfect place to exploit the most sudden of second chances.

“It’s pretty surreal; people dream about winning a shield their whole cricket careers and managing to do it at 21 and obviously what’s coming [in South Africa], I can look forward to that, but I’ve got to enjoy a thing that not many people manage to do,” he said.

“I haven’t really been concentrating too much [on the ball-tampering incident], just been putting all my emotions into winning and it’s a relief.”

Renshaw, who will turn 22 while on the flight, was told of his call-up to the Test squad on the morning of the final day of the shield final against Tasmania at Allan Border Field.

He kept the news to himself until word came through later in the afternoon while he was at the crease.

Renshaw finished unbeaten on 81 off just 83 balls, pumping a massive six over mid-off and a few overs later cutting for four to secure an eighth Shield final for his state.

Hundreds in three consecutive shield games earlier this year launched him back into the Test frame, and the Bulls into the final, after a scratchy start to the summer.

He said that sort of batting was representative of how far he has come since being dropped in favour of Cameron Bancroft for this summer’s Ashes series.