Carpenter Quiney carves Test spot

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Late bloomers ... Rob Quiney (L) and Michael Hussey were both in their 30s before getting Test debuts. Source:AAP

Rob Quiney might be on target to become Australia's oldest apprentice carpenter, but compared with one of his new Australia teammates, he has scarcely served an apprenticeship at all before becoming a Test batsman.

A calf muscle injury to Shane Watson opened the door, or as Quiney prefers to think of it, a window, to the 30-year-old Victorian left-hander making his debut for Australia against South Africa at the Gabba starting on Friday.

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Seven years ago, it was another 30-year-old left-hander, Michael Hussey, given the chance to wear the baggy green cap for the first time, also in a Brisbane Test, as a result of a fractured rib suffered by Justin Langer, now Australia's batting coach.

But where Hussey had accumulated a record 15,313 runs in first-class cricket over 11 years before making his Test debut, Quiney has been at his cricketing trade for barely half that time, accumulating 3,092 first-class runs.

And yet, ironically, his Test career is beginning just as he is putting in place plans for life after cricket, as an ageing apprentice carpenter.

"The one thing that was doing my head in was what happens after cricket, so I wanted the transition to be fairly smooth," Quiney told The Australian.

"It's a four-year apprenticeship to be done over six years, so fingers crossed I can stay in cricket for a while and knock off a few more years."

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Quiney is adamant he had never given up on his dream of wearing the baggy green. Indeed, his conviction that he would one day play for Australia had grown stronger over the years, not weaker, as he developed his game, following up his impressive 2010-11 season (724 runs at 42.58) with an even more imposing 938 at 49.36 in 2011-12.

But all the while he was becoming more and more aware that he had responsibilities to others, not just himself.

"It wasn't that today (Test selection) wouldn't come but I wanted to be prepared ... now that I've got a daughter, I've got to be mindful that I have to support the family once cricket is done," he said.

Girlfriend Helen and daughter Amelia will be in the Gabba stands on Friday watching proudly as Quiney is presented with his treasured Test cap. And if Cricket Australia has any sense of occasion, they will arrange for the batsman he most admired when he was growing up to present it to him, Allan Border.

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As fate would have it, Border was captain of the last Australian side to lose a Gabba Test, against the West Indies in 1988, but that's not what Quiney remembers about him. Rather, he had Border's poster on his wall as a child because of the way he always fought so desperately, never surrendering. It's a quality Quiney has built into his own game.

"I don't think I've modelled my game on anyone because I've got a different technique to others but Allan Border was someone I loved watching as a kid, just the way he went about it," Quiney said.

Border had to contend with Malcolm Marshall, Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh in that long ago Brisbane Test but Quiney won't be doing it any easier against the Proteas pace trio of Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander and Morne Morkel.

Steyn, in particular, worked up frightening pace against Australia A in Sydney on the weekend, and even though Quiney stood tall to score 85 in the first innings, he was more than happy to allow Phil Hughes to bear the brunt of Steyn's blistering burst in the second innings.

"Everyone knows how good a bowler he is and how fast he can be, so it's good to have a bit of a taste," Quiney said.

He's certain to get another taste at the Gabba, and while his cricketing apprenticeship might fall short of Hussey-like extremes, Australia's new apprentice carpenter batsman should be able to build an innings.

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