As Victoria eyes the grandeur of the Shield, Will Pucovski wants to “repay the faith.”

Will Pucovski is seeing his current return to cricket as a “second chance” and is becoming an important part of Victoria’s quest to make it to three consecutive Sheffield Shield finals. At the Sydney Cricket Ground on Saturday, he ended his three-year drought without a century by hitting 131 runs off of 302 balls against New South Wales. Despite this accomplishment, bad weather ended the match before Victoria needed to win by taking just two wickets.

Will Pucovski century was a bright point, especially in light of the fact that it came so soon after his eleventh concussion, which he had on January 21 during a Second XI match against South Australia. The 26-year-old is confident about his quick two-week recuperation after the event.

I was struck with a bouncer, so it was a fairly typical concussion. Most likely merely made a technical error on that one specific ball. was struck, and had a very typical reaction to the concussion, which was, in a way, a major plus. Though Pucovski admitted on SEN Radio that “it was obviously frustrating that I missed that first Shield game back, it was a pretty simple concussion (and) return-to-play process in terms of the doctors and working with them and getting through all that.”

Since it was probably the first time I had been hit, I wasn’t unduly alarmed by it. All I could think was, well, it is what it is. I experienced symptoms for two and a half weeks, but as soon as they subsided, along with the physical program I was following to improve my tolerance, everything fell into place, allowing me to prepare for the Shield game for a few days before joining the team.

Therefore, in that sense, it was incredibly beneficial to experience what was essentially a typical concussion and to go through the normal course of events. That’s actually as basic as it was, but it’s difficult from the outside because people may think there’s more going on,” he continued.

He carried on talking about the difficulties he’s been facing lately. Interestingly, this century is his eighth in first-class cricket, and he said he views this as a breakthrough effort. It also confirmed that he can continue to rely on his tried-and-true strategies for attention, preparation, and scoring runs.

It’s been a long trip with many notable highs and lows. Considering my past experiences, I view getting my first hundred back as a sort of second shot at a career, which I’ve been really fortunate to have thanks to the support I’ve had from my state, my colleagues, and everyone else in my immediate vicinity. I hope that I may begin to repay the faith that many people have placed in me at times when it would have been easier for me to give up—at certain points, I was very near to giving up on myself. In that sense, it did feel especially unique. It was a very pleasant experience, almost like being the first hundred,” he continued.