Have always loved the challenge of opening the batting: Matt Renshaw

Australia batter Matt Renshaw has been among the runs at the first-class level in the recent past. He has scored six hundreds in the last 12 months, two coming in the recently-concluded two-match series against New Zealand A at Lincoln.

Opening the batting for Australia A, Renshaw registered scores of 112, 78, 2 and 140, further boosting his credentials for a place in the upcoming Ashes. With David Warner not in the best form in Tests, it could make way for Renshaw, who played three innings in the middle-order in the series against India, to open the innings with Usman Khawaja.

Renshaw managed just four runs from the three innings in India, but given he has opened the innings for Australia 19 out of 24 times, it would not be far-fetched to imagine that he could be given as an opener at some point.

"It's feeling like a really nice time in my career and I'm probably feeling the best I have in a long time in the red ball," Renshaw said on WWOS Radio.

"I've always loved the challenge of opening the batting. It's where I started my career. 

"Fortunately, careers can go in certain different paths, and for me that was an experience in the middle order with Queensland, which I think strengthened my game quite a bit and gave me that opportunity to bat in the middle order in recent times. 

"But yeah, I think opening is always somewhere where I want to be. It's normally the toughest conditions and it's the most satisfying when you succeed."

Since his double hundred against South Africa at MCG in December last year, Warner has managed scores of 10, 1, 10 and 15 in his next four innings. Before getting the double, Warner had scored just a couple of fifties in 2022 in 19 innings. 

In a further boost to Renshaw, the selectors could be persuaded to have him open given that he had scored a couple of hundreds in County cricket last year. With the Ashes said to be played in England, it could not have come at a better time for the southpaw.

"I felt like I was feeling pretty good, especially early on in the season when it's quite green," said Renshaw.

"I got a 90 and a hundred there. I feel like I've done pretty well over there when I've had my opportunities but it's just looking to now and how well I'm going at the moment."

The Ashes is set to get underway from June 16 onwards with the first Test scheduled to be played at Edgbaston, Birmingham.