A few days before the most eagerly-anticipated Ashes in over a decade begins, a contributor to a well-known channel in the cricket content creation space described prospective Australian Ashes debutant Brendan Doggett by saying “his mum doesn’t even know who he is.”
A tad harsh, perhaps, for a three-time Sheffield Shield winner with over 250 career wickets to his name, but it is true that most English fans will be largely unaware of the capabilities of the likely next cab off Australia’s seam-bowling rank.
However, there are a few on these shores who have known about Doggett long before the 31-year-old entered the conversation to represent his country at Test level.
Some of those among that in-the-know group are of a Nottinghamshire persuasion, due to the fact that in 2018, Doggett, then aged 24, represented an Aboriginal XI at Trent Bridge.
As part of the first tour of England by an Indigenous group in 150 years, Worimi man Doggett was in a side captained by T20 Blast-winning Notts captain Dan Christian, which also featured Scott Boland, that earned a 62-run victory.
Opting to bat first, the tourists posted an imposing 182-6, with Christian striking a 25-ball 61 and Brendan Smith providing the glue with 43 from 33, as a 19-year-old Liam Patterson-White collected two wickets.
It was a total that ultimately proved too much against a bowling attack led by Boland and Doggett, who neatly both conceded just nine runs from their respective two overs.
Doggett, fresh off his first Shield title for Queensland just a few months earlier, also collected a wicket, seeing Sol Budinger caught by Jonte Pattison for three.
Luke Wood, skippering the side and in the unusual batting position of number two, top-scored with a 30-ball 41, while Patterson-White made 16 and fellow Notts Academy graduate Lyndon James made 14, but the home XI was ultimately bowled out for 121.
Boland, of the Gulidjan people, was also yet to make his Test debut, but became the second Aboriginal, after the Kamilaroi Nation’s Jason Gillespie, to do so in 2021.
He utterly terrorised England with a sparkling second-innings spell of 6/7 to set up an innings win in the third Test in Melbourne.
Boland’s counterpart Doggett is now into his thirties, with his extra wisdom and experience - and two more top-level First-Class titles in his homeland to boot - now clearly counting for a lot in the eyes of the Australian selectors.
In the absence of feted pair Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, who have 604 wickets between them but who are absent for the Perth Test due to injury, Doggett has a clear path to become just the third indigenous man to play Test cricket for Australia.
Whether he matches the six-wicket debut performance of his fellow Aboriginal, Boland, remains to be seen.
Naturally, every England fan on the planet will be hoping he doesn’t, but a starring performance would without doubt be a moment to celebrate for the Aboriginal population down under, which now numbers over one million.
The full scorecard of the Aboriginal XI’s outing at Trent Bridge is available here...
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