Despite sporadic opportunities, Ellis keen to 'keep throwing my hat in ring for selection'

Nathan Ellis has admitted his sporadic appearances in international colours have been a challenge, even as he forges an outstanding T20I record.

Ellis claimed 3 for 25 in the second match against South Africa in Durban, including a double-wicket maiden in his opening over, to take his T20I tally to 18 in seven outings at 9.11 with an economy of 6.30.

However, his opportunities have come in a stop-start manner. He was unfortunate to miss out on last year's T20 World Cup in Australia and the two matches against South Africa have been the first time he has played consecutive games.

"It's something that I've… not struggled with, [but] you sort of have to try and become accustomed to," he said. "I haven't played consecutive games and have got one game here, one game there, so it's definitely easy to fall into the mindset of 'this is my only chance' or 'this could be my last chance', that sort of thing.

"So for me, one, trying to get that mentality out of my mind is a challenge, and two, I'm just trying to do the best I can any time I wear the colours. I'm under no illusions that at the current stage I'm not in the first XI, so it's taking the opportunities when they come and doing the best I can and keep throwing my hat in the ring for selection."

The other significant aspect of Friday's performance for Ellis was his impact on the powerplay where, along with Sean Abbott, he helped cut down South Africa's promising start courtesy Temba Bavuma.

Ellis has made his reputation as one of the best death bowlers in the T20 game - 91 of his wickets in the format have come at the death (overs 16-20) compared to 30 in the powerplay - but he is eager to become a bowler for all situations.

"In T20 cricket, it's very easy to get pigeon-holed in certain roles and I've been spoken about as a death bowler for a little while now," he said. "So a big goal for me was... trying to make an impact in the powerplay, so to do that last night was obviously really great."

Ellis' opportunities in ODI cricket have been even more limited than in T20Is, with just four matches so far. But he is part of the preliminary 18-player squad for next month's World Cup, which will be trimmed to 15 on Tuesday. The squad can still be amended until September 28. It may be that he is in a race with Abbott, who was the Player of the Match on Friday, for the final pace-bowling slot.

Ellis also has a promising red-ball record - 43 wickets at 29.33 in ten matches - but first-class ambitions may take a back seat, at least this season, with the ODI World Cup followed by the T20 event scheduled next June, all while he is also becoming a sought-after name on the global T20 circuit.

"It's definitely something I have had to think about," he said. "I've had a little bit of red-ball experience with [Tasmania] and it's something I really love doing and I've done okay… but on the flip side, all my opportunities for Australia have been on the white-ball set-up so it has been kind of hard to balance the two.

"You add the physical element of trying to get back to Tassie and play [Sheffield] Shield cricket, you can't really just go back after playing T20 tournaments and go straight into a Shield game, so it becomes more of a physical conversation and a risk-reward conversation.

"For me, my opportunity is white-ball cricket for Australia so I sort of feel, at the moment with the World Cups coming up in the next year or 18 months, put all my eggs in the white-ball basket currently then when the opportunity to play red-ball cricket arises, if it makes sense, it makes sense."