Renshaw rules out Ashes buzz

Matt Renshaw is blocking Ashes speculation and focusing on his own game to give himself a chance to reopen the battle for Australia.

The chances of the first of 14 Tests have dwindled in recent years, but things are looking up after a surprise call-up to the one-day squad to face India. With Sam Konstas under pressure to retain his Test place after a poor tour of the West Indies, Renshaw is among the names being tossed around as a candidate to open with Usman Khawaja against England in the series starting in Perth on November 21.

“There’s been times in my career when I’m leaving after a (Sheffield) Shield game and obviously all the Shield games are going on at the same time, and you’re looking at the scoreboard, you’re looking at different names, seeing how they’ve done,” he told reporters on Wednesday.

“Now… I couldn’t tell you who scored runs in other games. “I was just trying to worry about our own game and trying to win for Queensland. “I think this is a better place for me to be, otherwise I just get too caught up in other people and not worry about myself.”

Not unlike Konsta, Renshaw, who is left-handed, was once one of the country’s brightest young prospects when he was called up to the Test squad aged 20 to play South Africa in the 2016 series.

He scored 184 against Pakistan in his fourth Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground and looked set for a long stint at the top of the order. However, he slumped after a poor scoring run in the subcontinent in 2017 and has played just four Tests since then, his last against India in Delhi almost three years ago.

Now 29, Renshaw is hoping for another shot at Test whites and believes being a father of two young children has helped give him a sense of perspective. “Now I go home and I have to change diapers, I have to put the kids to bed, I have to try to calm the screaming babies,” she said. “When you’re young, you come home, you have nothing to do, so you sit on your phone and scroll.”