However, there has been no shortage of success in Australian conditions for O’Neill, either. His latest Nottinghamshire spell followed a superb all-round Sheffield Shield season for Victoria where he claimed 35 wickets at 18.80 and scored 472 runs at 35.30 to help the team into the final where they dramatically fell to South Australia. Overall in first-class cricket 25-year-old O’Neill has taken 200 wickets at 19.43.

“My home ground [in England] is a Test venue in Trent Bridge, so I feel like I wouldn’t be too starstruck by the occasion or by the ground and the conditions,” O’Neill told SEN radio. “So, yeah, if that opportunity arises, I think I’d be in a good position to put my best foot forward.”

While O’Neill remains realistic that he may need to bide his time to break into the Test side he is confident his numbers are making a strong case for when an opportunity presents itself.

“With the players you’ve got ahead of you, you can never whinge with what they’ve done and how they’re still cracking on now,” he said. “You know it’s a very tough team to crack, but I think I’m doing the right things to be there or thereabouts for when they do retire and move on or if there’s injuries.

“So I think I’ve just got to keep putting my best foot forward. I’ve done that in England and I’ve done that all right here the last couple of years. It’s about timing though, I suppose. I’ve got to keep doing that at the right time, and probably two, three years’ time, I think there might be some opportunities.”

“I think in England, especially, there’s more probably players that play like me,” he said. “So it hasn’t really happened as much in Tests. Maybe a [Vernon] Philander, if I could be as good as him, I’d be pretty happy. But those type of players, you’re probably trying to model yourself on a bit.

“If I can bring a point of difference to someone else, like a Josh Tongue that I get to play with in Notts, when we’re bowling together, it seems to work well. So I think that’s a bit of my superpower, but also I’ve got to be a lot better than someone that can bowl 145[kph]. I’d love to be able to flick a switch and bowl like that.”

“Yeah, it’s good to see that,” he said. “I’m pretty happy with the keeper up, I might start with the keeper up this year and the Shield stuff. It was a tactic that we used over here on our wickets and then over there with the ball kind of jagging around more at stump height, to see the keeper up and having success, it’s something that’s new to the game, I suppose and it’s obviously a good tactic that’s working. So if that can continue to work, I need to make sure Harpsy [Sam Harper] or whoever’s up to the stumps to me can be on the same page. But it’s definitely something that looks like it’s coming into the game, so it’s exciting.”

Victoria begin their One-Day Cup campaign against Queensland in Brisbane on September 19 before the opening round of Sheffield Shield on October 7 where they will face South Australia in a rematch of last year’s final which brought an agonising defeat from a very strong position.

“It feels like the one that got away,” O’Neill admitted. “It’s a tough one. I think you accept it and it is what it is. You try and put it in the past, but it’s probably not until you get to another final and you get into another winning position do you maybe really consider it. So hopefully that’s again this year.”