Recuperating wicketkeeper Tim Paine admitted he was a little nervous when returning to batting practice this week after a long absence with a finger injury.
Paine has been troubled by a finger injury for the past 18 months and missed the entire summer of cricket.
He has been training at Australia's Cricket of Excellence in Brisbane in preparation for taking his spot in the Australia A tour of England in July.
Paine said his wicketkeeping is back to 100 per cent but he only just had his first session with the bat.
"I was a bit nervous to be honest as it's been a long time," Paine said.
"I've got new gloves and a lot of padding so I have to get used to holding the bat differently."
Paine said it was the first time he has had a long-term injury and he was unsure how to handle the long lay-off.
"I wasn't used to just sitting around but after five or six operations I got pretty good at it," he said.
"Last summer I didn't do a hell of a lot of cricket. I had a bit to do with the Big Bash, with the Hurricanes, but I stayed away from any training and plenty of time off away from cricket and away from Bellerive Oval.
"It's got me in a good frame of mind now. I'm nice and fresh and excited to be back."
Paine plans to work hard over the next four weeks and expects to be ready to play once he arrives in England.
"I'm going to have a really good build-up, so by the time I get to England I'll expect to be playing as well as I was two years ago," he said.
"My goals are to score a lot of runs, keep well and put my name back up there to play for Australia in any form of the game.
"There is some good hard cricket coming up for the Australian team and I'd love to be part of it over the next 18 months.
"For me the A series is the start of that, to try and get my name back up there."
AAP
Tags: cricket, sport, brisbane-4000, qld, australia First posted May 28, 2012 15:42:58