NSW wicketkeeper Peter Nevill may have established himself as Brad Haddin's heir apparent to the Australian gloves but he says there was a time he wondered whether he could cut it as a first-class batsman.
Nevill wrote his name into the record books by making 235 not out against Tasmania this week, the highest Sheffield Shield score by a `keeper.
It was a timely knock as questions remain how much longer 37-year-old Haddin will remain behind the stumps for the Australian team.
Nevill's innings rocketed him to sixth on the Shield run-scorers list for 2014-15 with 484 runs at 121.
The 29-year-old said he hadn't heard from Australia's selectors or coaching staff to gauge where he sat in their plans.
"It's not something I really try to worry myself with, people can go crazy worrying about those kinds of things ... I don't need to be asking those questions," he said.
"I'll just try to go out and do my best every time I go out and play cricket.
"If those things look after themselves, then that's fantastic."
He is considered a leading contender for the Australian Test and one-day team alongside Queensland's Chris Hartley, Western Australia's Sam Whiteman and Victoria's Matthew Wade.
Hartley is considered the rock of the Bulls team but at 32, there are questions about his age.
Whiteman is a player of the future but at 22 and with just 27 first-class games under his belt, Australian selectors may feel he needs more time to mature.
Wade has played at both Test and ODI level and filled in for Haddin when a shoulder injury ruled him out of Australia's tour of the UAE last year.
Nevill is also having a fine year with the gloves, sitting third on the Shield list for most dismissals with 20 catches and one stumping.
With Haddin also part of the Blues squad, Nevill has played as a specialist batsman on occasions that the Australian keeper has come back to play Shield cricket.
However Nevill said he had no thoughts of giving away the gloves in an attempt to establish himself as a specialist batsman having devoted himself to his craft for so long.
"I'm a wicketkeeper first and foremost," he said.
"The battle for me was getting my batting up to a first-class standard. From when I was younger that was something I worked very hard on. I'll always be a wicketkeeper."
NSW sit third on the Shield ladder and will take on first-placed Victoria at Robertson Oval in Wagga Wagga starting Friday.
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