It's hard to reinvent yourself as a cricketer at 29. But that is exactly what Sam Harper has done, and it's helped put Victoria on the cusp of their first Sheffield Shield title in seven years.
Harper has been Victoria's star performer in the second half of the season in arguably the toughest role anyone can play in first-class cricket: as a wicketkeeper/opening batter.
A perfect storm of events has occurred to put Harper in position to succeed. His first foray happened out of a one-off circumstance prior to the BBL when Matt Short made what loomed as a lone Shield appearance around his international white-ball commitments. It created a squeeze in Victoria's middle-order. Harper was backed to open. He delivered with 85 off 115 against Queensland facing a pink-ball on a fresh Gabba pitch.
"I think conditions like the Gabba sort of suit my game," Harper told ESPNcricinfo. "And I actually really enjoyed that. And I let Buck [Victoria coach Chris Rogers] know, and he backed me in a lot to do that."
Victoria lost the game, one of only two defeats for the season. But it planted a seed with the hierarchy as to what might be possible.
Two months later, after Harper had a stellar BBL season where he was player of the tournament while keeping and opening for Melbourne Stars, he found himself walking off the MCG with the scoreboard reading 11 for 5. Michael Neser was near unplayable on a difficult batting surface.
The conclusion from Rogers and batting coach Ben Rohrer was that something had to change. No one was blaming Victoria's top-order batters for the failure. Trying to survive the new ball in Shield cricket through defending was simply deemed a fruitless endeavour. Pressure had to be re-applied differently.
Harper was promoted to open in the second innings. He scored 14 runs off Neser's opening over.
"We tried to throw a little counter-punch in the second innings, which sort of worked." Harper explained.
He only made 19 off 11 before being adjudged lbw, perhaps unfortunately, for the second time in the game. Victoria lost again. But the pressure Harper had exerted back on Australia's Ashes star in seam-friendly conditions was enough to show it could work.
"We just ran with that into Perth," Harper said. "I loved it. I made it pretty vocal to them that I really enjoyed it and was reciprocated with them really backing me in to do it."
What happened in Perth against Western Australia was vindication. Harper produced one of the greatest individual performances in Shield history. He made 119 off 109 deliveries in the first innings and 141 not out from 156 in the second, while also completing five catches across 125.1 overs of keeping, including one up keeping up to the stumps off seamer Fergus O'Neill. He followed that performance with 93 in the first innings on a verdant green pitch in Hobart against Tasmania where the next highest score across four innings was 66.
"I went in really clear about how I wanted to play personally," Harper said. "And I've sort of not really changed that the last few weeks, and I won't be changing that this week [in the final]. It was sort of just a challenge about how long I could stick really clear to that game plan.
"I feel like I did a really good job ... I was scoring when they weren't bowling in my strength zones, I still actually found a way to get through.
"There was a period there in the second innings [in Perth] where I thought Jhye [Richardson] bowled me a really good spell for six overs. I just shut it down a little bit and didn't score as much. I sort of felt like I mixed between the tempos a little bit. And then certainly when I got some balls to score from my area, I took full toll.
"I think the best thing you get from that is just complete belief and confidence out of that. So that was the biggest thing I walked away with."
Harper's long-time team-mate Peter Handscomb is in awe of what he's doing.
"He's smacking it everywhere," Handscomb said. "It's awesome. I think the beauty with Harps at the moment is that he just seems so clear. What he did in Big Bash, he's taken that out into red-ball cricket. He's understanding where he wants to score, he's understanding how he wants to put pressure back onto the bowlers, and he's just backing that in 100%. It's as clear as I've ever seen him in the 10 years I've played with him."
That clarity has come out of necessity in some ways. Less than 12 months ago, Harper was left out of Victoria's final Shield game of the season when selectors had become frustrated with a 12-innings run that had yielded seven scores above 20 but none higher than 44. He also was left in limbo regarding his BBL contract with Stars.
At 28, after nearly a decade in the system and two kids under three, Harper, who has also had to deal serious cases of concussion through his career which have led to extended periods on the sidelines, was staring at an uncertain future and it forced him to rethink his approach.
"I was on a one-year deal with the Stars, and I had one year left here with Victoria," Harper said. "I was like, right I've got a year left on each, let's throw all the chips in, and at the very least, let's just do it my way and try and bat how I know best, which is to be positive and take the game on.
"As cricketers in your early 20s, you spend 80 or 90% of time thinking about what you're not good at, and 10% on what you are. And then I flipped that this year and just spent 80 or 90% focusing on my really good shots and even just training my good shots.
"I don't have Kane Williamson or Cheteshwar Pujara's forward defence. I know I don't have that defence to stand up necessarily through those hard things, but I feel like I've got other ways to put the opposition bowlers under pressure, and they certainly miss more when you're doing that.
"I think what I'm most pleased with this year is that I've actually just had a year where I've batted like how I wanted to bat, and taken complete ownership of that, and I've been completely backed in from Victoria and the Stars, which is also nice as well."
That approach has him placed as a key player in this week's Shield final against defending champions South Australia where he looms a matchwinner with both bat and gloves. Such is his thirst for improving, he took Rohrer and bowling coach Rob Cassell to the middle of the Junction Oval after last week's game ended early in a draw to catch some extra offspinners from the spinning surface with a left-hander in front of him, in preparation for team-mate Todd Murphy bowling to Alex Carey again.
Thereafter he is headed to the Pakistan Super League for his first stint in an overseas franchise tournament with Quetta Gladiators where he will link up with two former Pakistan wicketkeeper-batters in Moin Khan and Sarfaraz Ahmed.
Beyond that, there have been suggestions Harper should be considered for higher honours, with the possibility Australia might rest a number of established players for white-ball tours of Bangladesh and Pakistan in June while there is also a dual format Australia A tour of India later in the year. Handscomb believes Harper has done enough to be in the frame.
"Absolutely," he said. "I think his batting has been incredible. Something as well that probably goes unnoticed as how well he's keeping. His keeping has improved dramatically over the last couple of years, and that's through just bulk, hard work and catching a lot of balls.
"His [overall] package now at the moment is really, really strong, and if there's ever an opportunity there for him it would be awesome to see."