For a man who has discovered that thinking less about his cricket has helped rejuvenate him at the crease, it might sound strange that Jason Sangha was preoccupied with mastering spinning decks earlier this month.
But it is not just the ‘Bunsen burners’ that Sangha, a former Australian under-19 captain now flourishing with South Australia, found intriguing when batting in India as part of a development trip over a fortnight.
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Late in an extended interview with foxsports.com.au while he was in Chennai as part of a Cricket Australia development squad, Sangha whipped out a device he considers crucial to allowing him to show his best form at the crease.
Some might question the merits of packing a DJ deck on a tour but Sangha understands the importance of having a hobby to distract him from cricket. And with the national team entering a period of flux, it might yet catapult him to the big time.
Ordained from his early teens as the next big thing in Australian cricket, the 26-year-old has learnt through a range of experiences that being too focused on mastering the sport ultimately proved detrimental to his cricket.
“I think just with age, you start to realise … like when I was young, I think cricket was almost everything. It was what I lived and breathed, and it definitely got me to a certain point, but … I’ve probably received a lot of advice that there’s more to life than just cricket and you probably can’t eat cricket ball sandwiches every day,” he told foxsports.com.au.
“When you come to training, there’s times to really switch on, and I’m probably someone who’s quite intense at training, but I was probably pretty intense off the field as well and constantly thinking about the game. So, for me, it’s just better to have some other outlets in life.
“I’m really into my music at the moment. I’m really into my fitness. I probably go a bit too hard on the fitness side, but it’s probably more just the ability to be able to switch on when I’m at training – you’re never not going to think about cricket, well, I’m probably never not going to think about cricket away from the field – but just (getting) to understand that my game is in a good place.
“If the cricket game is on Saturday and it’s now Monday, (it is important to) go and find a nice coffee spot, to go pick up the phone (and call someone), to go down to the beach with some mates. Whatever it is, just be able to find ways to not constantly think about cricket, constantly think about ways I can keep getting better, because that stuff happens organically when I’m at training anyway.”
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Rediscovering some of his youthful passions has been beneficial to Sangha, who has starred in the middle-order for South Australia in their recent back-to-back Sheffield Shield triumphs.
The DJ decks were there when he was the leading run-scorer for Australia when captaining a run to the final in the 2017 under-19 World Championship in New Zealand.
Those in the know still talk about a rap skit Sangha performed with Austin Waugh, the son of former Australian skipper Steve Waugh, in a squad featuring Nathan McSweeney, Will Sutherland and Lloyd Pope among others.
And now he has pulled the decks back again while touring India with a new generation of Australian talents.
“It is funny you ask (but) I have got my DJ set with me,” he said.
“During the 19s World Cup, actually, I (mucked) around with a bit of DJ stuff just because we were young and whatever and then probably about six months ago, I thought, ‘Oh, maybe I should try it out again and just see what happens.’
“There was a photo of me doing a little bit of mixing and it got around the group chat, and the boys gave me a bit of stick for it, which was pretty funny. So I just thought, ‘Ah, well, let’s just keep mucking around.’ I’m not playing any gigs or Coachella anytime soon. But … it is something to muck around with and have a bit of fun.”
The seam, the spin and the sizzle
Being around aspiring Australian cricketers on their first visit to the subcontinent gave Sangha time to reflect on his own path while filling the laundry bag with his whites.
It was the middle of summer in Chennai and bloody hot. So hot, in fact, that there were excessive heat warnings in place and the Aussies are running through several shirts a day while training and playing.
“I think the boys have all been packing three or four shirts … when we’ve been batting and bowling. It’s been pretty intense,” Sangha said.
“We’ve only got a certain amount of clothes … for this trip so, yeah, they’re all getting a run through. They’re all just sticking to you and dripping wet. So it’s, ummm, it’s fun.”
Sangha should only now be entering the prime of his career aged 26 but on this tour he is an old-stager keen to provide a guiding hand to those transitioning into senior cricket.
“We (had) some boys here who just finished the under-19 World Cup as well in Steve Hogan and Aryan Sharma (and) it’s amazing to think that like obviously I was once in their shoes, just finishing that under-19 age group and transitioning into a full-time contract with the state,” he said
“I mean, I didn’t know where my path was going to go, but I didn’t think I’d probably be where I am today and that’s just from a life point of view, not even just from a cricket point of view.
“I think when I was that age I’d probably just moved to Sydney from Newcastle, and now I’m playing for South Australia and living in Adelaide. It’s a nice reminder that you never really know where the journey is going to take you. But cricket has been great for me and so has South Australia.”
Learning from a Rhino
It feels like a lifetime since Sangha, who honed his eye as a kid facing a ball machine his dad used to lug up a hill near their home in Newcastle, was signed by New South Wales.
A decade has passed since he made his under-19 debut for Australia and later represented a CA XI against South Australia aged 16 before moving to Sydney as a 17-year-old.
Not long after he became the second-youngest player behind Sachin Tendulkar to score a century in a match against England during the 2017/18 Ashes when representing a CA XI.
He captained the Sydney Thunder in his early 20s but after a testing period in domestic cricket in 2023/24, where he slipped from the NSW side and agonised over every ball, let alone every dismissal, a fresh start was in order.
Former Australian fast bowler Ryan Harris, who was Sangha’s co-coach alongside Chris Rogers in the under-19s, had assumed the SA role and lured the former prodigy to Adelaide.
For a player Fox Cricket expert analyst Kerry O’Keeffe likened to former South African star Hashim Alma given his silky technique and sweet timing when in full flight, he arrived in South Australia bereft of belief.
“Looking back, it has definitely been a pretty crazy journey and one that I think I have definitely learned a lot from,” he said.
“Rhino had been my … Aussie coach from juniors onwards, him and Bucky Rogers, so I think he’d obviously seen the overthinking young me wanting to really dominate, the intense sort of 17 to 19-year-old Jason, and probably when I came to South Australia, (I was) probably low in confidence and probably doubting my ability a little bit, (which was) the complete other side.
“So he’s definitely seen a few different phases of me through my career and I think the conversations with him … you know when you can be very vulnerable to a coach about how you are, how you’re feeling and where your game is at, and for him to have no judgment but to really try and help you on that journey, that’s the most empowering thing for a player, to be able to have that trust and to be able to have that vulnerability with your coach.
“There’s a lot of history and there’s a lot of trust that’s been built. With that, I think he’s just trying to really get the best out of me and (teach me) not to put too much pressure on myself. I think he’s seen, and I’ve seen when I was quite young, that I did put a lot of pressure on myself and nowadays it’s just about trying to make sure that there’s one part of me that wants to keep playing my best cricket, and thank South Australia for giving me that opportunity.
“I want to keep doing it for the state and for the people and for my teammates. But there’s another part as well that just wants me to, you know, just realise that cricket’s obviously one part of life, but just really wants me to just to keep remembering there’s more to life than just cricket as well, so I can’t speak highly enough of Rhino.”
The chemistry has worked, with Sangha striking the winning runs for SA in their drought-breaking Sheffield Shield success in what was a stunning 2024-25 season.
Despite playing only six matches after being encouraged to earn a spot in the Shield team, Sangha finished seventh on the competition’s run list when scoring 704 runs at an average of 78, including 151 on debut for the state.
The runs were harder to come by last year – and that was the case across the board in the Sheffield Shield – but he still finished 11th on the run-scoring list highlighted by a century against NSW in March.
An education like no other
Harris has highlighted Sangha as a prospect for higher honours and his second trip to India in 12 months is part of a learning curve aimed at helping him mature in spinning conditions.
O’Keeffe, too, told foxsports.com.au in January that Sangha was the type of talent who, if he managed to string some good scores together, was more than capable of pressing his claims to become a Test player for Australia.
The trip a year ago proved a startling experience given the contrast between pitches in Australia when compared to the spinning decks in India but he is loving the education.
“I think it was a big eye opener for me last year and it probably bought the way that I play spin – it’s very different over here playing spin than how you play it back home – so I took some good learnings and hopefully coming back this year, I’ve got a bit more understanding of how to go about it a second time around. It’s been good so far,” Sangha said.
“In Australia, obviously, the ball still spins, but it probably doesn’t get that exaggeration that you see when you watch a Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test where balls are either staying low (or) balls are jumping up and jagging across the crease.
“Even the way the spinners bowl in Australia … because of our wickets, they get over the ball. You see guys like Nathan Lyon who has quite a big overspin. All the offies coming through now, Corey Rocchiccioli (is an) example, they all get quite up and over the ball and use their bounce, whereas over here … even the really tall spinners, everyone goes quite square with the seam.
“Those are the ones where if it hits the seam, it might jag sharply, but other times it just skids straight through, and that’s probably why guys like (Ravindra) Jadeja and (Ravi) Ashwin have had such good success over the years, with the way they bowled with the side spins.”
With the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series starting in January and the certainty of a changing landscape in the Australian Test team in coming years, the experience Sangha is gaining could prove critical if he can fire in the infancy of the Sheffield Shield.
Irrespective of that prospect the Novocastrian, who is of Indian descent, has loved furthering his own expertise and said talking to local batters had proven illuminating.
“The best experience I probably received was talking to some of the guys who played a bit of first-class here, local players, about how they go about it and a lot of it is obviously they’re scoring quite square of the wicket,” he said.
“They use the sweep shot when they need to but I just think their ability to be able to have really good foot work, to hit the ball square (is important). And, also, when bowlers do miss, they always hit for four or six, whereas I would probably take those sort of ones and twos. But when the bowlers miss, they definitely find the boundary, so I think the whole experience has been a bit of an eye opener as to how different it is to playing in Australia.”
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