Daniel Worrall emerges from left-field

Pathways might deliver cricketers ready for the big time, but players can still emerge from off the beaten one. Daniel Worrall is the latest proof. Watch 25-year-old Worrall bowl a single delivery from his unusual angled run-up, reminiscent of Malcolm Marshall jogging in from near mid-off, and you will quickly realise that he does not fit the typical modern template.

But to borrow a line from a popular baseball book of this year, the only rule is it has to work. And Worrall’s method works. It worked to such an extent that last summer he was the Sheffield Shield’s second-leading wicket-taker with 44 at 26.18, and has now earned himself a call-up to Australia’s squad for the upcoming ODI series in South Africa.

“There was a little tree at the end of the garden when I was a kid,” Worrall told ESPNcricinfo on Tuesday. “If you wanted to get that bit of extra pace you had to go around the tree. That’s how it started, and I never really had any significant bowling coaching done until I was probably 19, so I haven’t really changed it much.”

A likely international debut will be a big step up for Worrall, who has played only 12 List A matches in his career, but he is used to big jumps. Four years ago, he was a commerce student at Melbourne University, living on a typically unhealthy student diet, when an offer came …

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