Ashton Turner Eager to Make Presence Felt Against Pakistan & Sri Lanka

Australia have called all-rounder Ashton Turner back into the scheme of things for the home T20I series’ against Sri Lanka and Pakistan, and he is eager to leave his mark with less than a year to go for the T20 World Cup that will be played in Australia.

The all-rounder last played white-ball cricket when he helped Australia turn around a 0-2 deficit in a five-match ODI series against India to 3-2 earlier this year. It was Australia’s first bilateral series win in India after 2009.

In the fourth ODI of the series, in Mohali, the 26-year-old had scored a stroke-filled 43-ball 84* to help his side chase down India's 358/9 with 13 balls to spare.

With Steve Smith and David Warner back and he himself having sustained a finger injury, Turner hasn't been in Australia's national set-up since, but is keen on making a noise on his return.

"Probably the most exciting moments of my cricketing career have come from playing for Australia, and it’s an environment that I loved being in," Turner told cricket.com.au.

"All of my team-mates were so welcoming, and I remember once I got into that squad I thought 'this is the place I want to be, this is the team I want to be playing for'.

"I've had some injuries and a bit of time at the WACA gym recently, running laps, doing my rehab. But that whole time I had, in the back of my mind, playing for Australia again. It's certainly a big goal for me, and I don’t care what format it is, I just love playing for Australia."

The all-rounder however has not been bowling recently due to a shoulder injury and has been playing as a specialist batsman in domestic cricket.

"I'm not too far away from getting back to bowling, and I'm hoping that particularly in T20 cricket it won’t be long before I can play as an all-rounder again," he said. "Throwing is going to take a bit more time, but by the start of the Big Bash, I fully expect to be bowling again and be able to play a role for the Scorchers, or for Australia. It's a really important part of my game, particularly in white ball cricket.

"I've got a pretty serious shoulder injury and it meant that I've played a lot of games not at one hundred per cent, and my bowling and throwing have been really restricted. That's well documented, but on the other hand, I’ve actually been really fortunate because I've had a really serious injury and yet I haven’t missed a game of cricket because of it. I've been able to play as a batter."