After scoring his first Shield hundred in eight years, the Queensland allrounder’s best years could be still to come
Queensland allrounder Jack Wildermuth is riding a wave of confidence as he heads into the 2025-26 season, courtesy of a couple of dashing Sheffield Shield hundreds and a rock-solid belief in the mindset that underpinned them.
Wildermuth broke an eight-year century drought with the Bulls when he slammed 104 and 111 in consecutive games against South Australia to close out the Shield season in March. The second of those was part a stellar fightback in the competition decider, which kept his side in a contest they ultimately lost.
And his 2025 renaissance has also been evident in the white-ball formats. In February, Wildermuth crunched 83 from 56 balls for Queensland in the One-Day Cup – his highest 50-over score – while in the past month he has been a star of the T20 Max tournament in Brisbane, hitting two hundreds for his club side Valley, including a monster 159 off 70 balls from the top of the order.
The purple patch led to Queensland last week experimenting with Wildermuth opening the batting in their one-day practice match against Tasmania, in which he made 33 from 35 balls. It has also resulted in Brisbane Heat star Marnus Labuschagne predicting the allrounder to enjoy a breakout Big Bash campaign; despite being 32 and having played for Australia in two T20Is in 2018, it’s a format he has never performed particularly well in.
Wildermuth, too, is optimistic his best years are still in front of him, especially now that he has been able to overcome some long-running back issues.
“I’m in probably the best shape I’ve ever been in, for probably the last year-and-a-half now,” he tells cricket.com.au. “Going into last summer I felt in great condition. I’d struggled with my back a little bit … so I got to the last off-season and I got myself a personal trainer and just flogged myself through that whole period.
“That put me in a great space mentally going into the pre-season, I was in great condition, and skills-wise I felt there too, so all that certainly helped getting through a whole season. And things just transpired from there.
“I’m getting a bit older now, I had a few years where I just had some lingering stuff going on, so it’s nice to have built that foundation and have a couple of strong pre-seasons – it’s set me up nicely I reckon.”
Wildermuth enters his 12th summer with Queensland with the wisdom acquired from many lessons across those years – some of which were difficult, with injuries and form, and others which were highly successful; see the two Shield titles and five Australia A caps to his name.
And he insists it’s his refreshed mental approach – with an emphasis on using his considerable power game – that has been behind his recent batting transformation.
“That’s been the big change for me,” he says. “There’s a freedom in the way I’m going about it. I feel like I’ve had the backing of the players and the staff about how I want to go about my cricket – taking the game on – with a team-first mentality – is applauded, in a sense.
“In that allrounder position, you’re trying to have an impact on the game, and everything in my training has revolved around that. It’s not always going to happen, but I think having that mentality consistently, across every format, allowed me to have the season I did. And I backed it all the way in – just trusted that process – and then fortunately it paid off at the end of the season.
“The clarity now is how I go about playing my cricket. Not necessarily where I bat, where I bowl, but there’s a mentality that I’m there to try to get Queensland into winning positions. I’ve seen that as a bit of a gap with Queensland in the last few years – there hasn’t really been someone who’s brought that, so that’s definitely something I’m trying to bring.
“I feel like if I’m coming in at eight and batting the way I know I can bat, the boys up above are going, ‘How good is this?’ To me it doesn’t matter where I bat, I’m going to be consistent with how I go about it, and that’s the mentality.”
Wildermuth’s aggressive approach seems readymade for T20 cricket, and having ignored overtures from rivals to sign a two-year deal with the Heat in June, the allrounder from Toowoomba is hopeful his run of form across the formats can help him push his way into the BBL|13 champions’ starting side.
“I haven’t had an opportunity the last few years – unfortunately I’ve been stuck behind an overseas player and a great local player,” he adds. “But I’m confident that with the way I’ve been playing I can have an impact in the T20 arena – my game does feel suited to it.
“I’ve had to be pretty patient though. I did (have offers from elsewhere) but I chose to stay home; I’m feeling like (Queensland Cricket are) going to back me in here as a cricketer, and hopefully I’ll get some good opportunities in the next couple of years. I’m excited by that.”
