‘Most heartfelt ever’: Star’s reveal over toxic obsession, ODI shock in stunning interview

Matt Renshaw used to rush off the field to check the scorecard.

He wasn’t racing to see the number of runs off his own bat though, instead he wanted an update on those who were competing alongside him for a place in the Australian side.

Cricket consumed Renshaw and it eventually won when he was dropped from Queensland in 2020.

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But life has since changed for Renshaw and he’s back in Australian colours — albeit as a different cricketer to the baby-faced Test opener who smothered the new ball.

Renshaw, 29, has burst into the Australian One-Day International side and even found himself back in Test conversations through a mountain of domestic runs.

In a candid interview before the second ODI, Renshaw said his elevation to the ODI came as such a shock that he “had to Google” when the series was on after a phone call from chief selector George Bailey.

He also credited his two kids for adding invaluable perspective on life and said he now counted each run as a blessing.

“You’re looking at different names, how they went, they scored a hundred and you scored a duck and you go, ‘Dammit, I am further back now’,” Renshaw recalled.

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Matt Renshaw shows off his new Australian cap. (Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images

“I think now, the first Shield game, I couldn’t tell you who scored runs in other games – I was just trying to worry about our own game and trying to win for Queensland.

“That’s a better place for me to be, otherwise I just get too caught up in other people and not worrying about myself.”

Renshaw debuted for Australia against South Africa in 2016 as 20-year-old.

That 20-year-old Renshaw based who he was as a person on how many runs he scored.

He looks back with a laugh now however, after trading in cricket scores and news on Instagram for dirty nappies.

“I think knowing it doesn’t really matter, in terms of someone else scoring runs doesn’t matter how I am going to go out and play my cricket tomorrow,” he said.

Matt Renshaw scored a Test ton in 2017. / AFP PHOTO / WILLIAM WESTSource: AFP

“… Rather than, ‘I need to score runs because then I am going to get picked for Australia, then I am going to become a good person’.

“The mentality when you’re young is that’s how you view yourself as a person, whereas now I go home and I’ve got to change nappies, I’ve got to put kids to bed, calm screaming babies down.

“You don’t really have time to look out … when you’re young you’ve got nothing to do so you’re just sitting on your phone scrolling.”

Renshaw pushed away questions about his future at international level as easily as a half-volley outside off stump.

“It’s (knowing) if I get everything else in order, the cricket will just take care of itself,” he said.

“12-year-old Matt, I talk to him a lot and if I told 12-year-old Matt that I was in a room of 30 journalists, he wouldn’t believe you.

“I (now) think, ‘How cool is this, how awesome is it that I get this opportunity’ rather than, ‘If I score runs I will get this opportunity’.

“Even the other night … I was a bit nervous and Virat Kohli made a duck and he’s the best player in this format ever. It’s OK to fail.”