While the spotlight has shone intensely on several current and former Australia players, seam-bowling allrounder Jack Edwards has had a whirlwind few days.
In what barely caused a ripple in Australia, Edwards' last week was part of a big IPL trade that saw him traded to Chennai Super Kings (CSK) alongside Liam Livingstone in exchange for Khaleel Ahmed and Nathan Ellis who have moved to Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH).
Edwards, 26, never played for SRH after missing all of last season with a foot injury. He had inked a deal with Sunrisers for INR 3 crore (AU$480,000), the only uncapped overseas player to be signed up at the 2025 auction. He is now set to make his long-awaited IPL debut in the 2027 season for CSK.
"Not really," Edwards said on Tuesday over whether he knew the trade was coming. "Just one phone call and, yeah, you're on your way.
"Very excited to get to that point in March next year; it's great exposure. But just take it one week at a time and focus on this week first."
This week might see Edwards make his home debut in international cricket with Australia's ODI series against England starting on Friday at Optus Stadium. Australia will be without a number of their stars, giving some fringe players an opportunity to impress ahead of next year's World Cup in southern Africa.
The strapping Edwards, standing 6ft 5in with long levers, looms as an intriguing figure given Australia don't have much depth in the seam-bowling allrounder position. Skipper Mitchell Marsh is essentially a specialist batter in the twilight of his career, while Cameron Green did not bowl in the South Africa Tests and his workload is likely to be managed in the future.
"I guess this week there may be some opportunities there with Greeny coming back from bowling," Edwards said. "I just try and turn up and do the job that's asked of me each day. I don't try to think too much about the make-up of the side and the balance they're going to go with."
After being an important cog of a powerhouse Sydney Sixers unit for many seasons, Edwards made his international debut earlier this year in the T20I series in Pakistan.
He had a quiet debut with 0 for 25 off 2 overs and making just 5 off 6 balls at No. 8 in a 22-run defeat. But he had a much bigger impact with the ball in the recent ODI series in South Africa, where he bowled well at the death on ODI debut with slower, shorter deliveries before taking 5 for 67 in the next game in Johannesburg.
"I think it's important to me that I can bowl all three phases of the game," Edwards said. "Domestically, I've had those opportunities and those challenges bowling at the death, bowling with the new ball.
"It was nice in South Africa to get the opportunity to showcase that. Hopefully I can keep improving and showing that, from the bowling side of things, I can handle it."
Edwards has had limited opportunities at the international level to show off his ball-striking ability, having initially caused a stir as an 18-year-old by hitting hundreds in the Sheffield Shield and domestic one-day cricket. He did start the Shield season with a century at No. 4 against Tasmania at Cricket Central, sharing a 250-run third-wicket partnership with Ollie Davies.
Edwards has benefited from being able to solely concentrate on his game after stepping down from the New South Wales captaincy.
"From my point of view, it was a very large workload," Edwards said of the captaincy. "Played a lot of cricket last year and trying to captain the four-day stuff was quite challenging as an allrounder.
"I really wanted to push my case to play cricket for Australia and keep being the best player that I could be for New South Wales. I felt like the captaincy was maybe just a bit too much for me at that point.
"I think it's just allowed me to freshen up and focus on myself a little bit more. Just trying to manage the mental and physical load of being an allrounder. I did enjoy the captaincy and might be for me again down the line."
While the build-up to the ODI series has been derailed by the resurfacing of the sandpaper scandal, Edwards is focusing on making the most of opportunities that come his way as Australia starts preparing for the World Cup.
"I think I was still playing second grade at that point," grinned Edwards in reference to the 2018 saga. "Spirits are high and very excited for the week ahead. I've worked really hard to get an opportunity like this, and I want to take it."