"I'm at a real crossroads at the minute actually of whether I decide to pursue a career in Twenty20 cricket and one-day cricket and leave my dreams of Test cricket behind."
Saturday 23 December 2017 15:25, UK
David Willey thinks his dreams of playing Test cricket are all but over as he considers a career as a limited-overs specialist.
The 27-year-old, who is with the Perth Scorchers at the Big Bash, has played 31 one-day internationals and 16 T20Is and is seen as a white-ball specialist for England, but he has harboured hopes of trying to break into the Test side.
However, Willey, who moved from Northamptonshire to Yorkshire in 2015 to enhance his ambitions of playing Test cricket, has not been considered for the longer form of the game, and he has admitted he could be ready to leave his Test ambitions behind.
"I think over the past couple of years, the way the scheduling is now it's difficult to play enough four-day cricket to put your name in the frame for Test cricket," Willey told cricket.com.au.
"So, I'm at a real crossroads at the minute actually of whether I decide to pursue a career in Twenty20 cricket and one-day cricket and leave my dreams of Test cricket behind."
He added: "Certainly, two years ago I still had ambitions to play Test cricket. But right now, I'm at a real crossroads and I'll have some sleepless nights thinking about that.
"For me now it's thinking about my body, my family, how long I want to be away from home and not only that but what sort of a condition I want to leave myself in come the end of my career and how long I can play for.
"They're all things I need to weigh up and yes it would be great to play Test cricket but I'm 27 now and how long would I play Test cricket for? Probably not that long. So, am I better off pursuing a career in the shorter formats?"
Willey is part of England's limited-overs squad to take on Australia in five one-day internationals before featuring in a T20 tri-series involving both the Aussies and New Zealand.
The Yorkshire star has been a keen spectator as Joe Root's side relinquished the Ashes and thinks England's off-field problems have been blown out of proportion.
"I think it's been massively overcooked by the press," he said. "It's a shame really because, ultimately, they're guys representing their country and want to do well and perform.
"So, it's a shame the distractions are about off-field stuff which at times has been absolutely nothing, they're making a story out of rubbish really."
Willey does not believe the off-field controversies will have bothered the squad though, saying: "I think they're pretty happy to close out the noise really. They're a tight bunch, which is great.
"In the past, they've probably not been so tight so I think that's really important, particularly when things aren't going quite as well as they'd like on the field. Then the extra noise off the field doesn't help either so they'll just shut it off and focus on the task in hand.
"It's a long winter for the guys - I think they've been out here six weeks already and some guys won't return to the UK until April.
"So I think it's unreasonable for anybody to think they shouldn't be allowed to let their hair down at some stage. But the guys will just shut it off and get on with the cricket."
