No one thinks of Nathan Coulter-Nile first. When Australian cricket supporters woke up on the morning of their World Cup match against the West Indies, no one was drawn from sleep by curiosity about what Coulter-Nile would do that day.

When the West Indies did their planning, they wouldn’t have had Coulter-Nile as the first subject on the whiteboard. Or the fifth. He might have scraped into the top 11. Australian selectors tend to think of him 14th, maybe 15th. He has been in more squads than he has played internationals. Sometimes he nudges his way up to 12th man.

Every potential run in the team has been derailed by injury. Another hamstring, a calf, more soft-tissue problems than the Sorbent puppy. A shoulder rebuild, a back problem, one of the parade of ailments that shadow the contortions of fast bowlers.

Every comeback was followed by a maybe, a possibly. Another squad, another mention as one of the next in line. Somewhere along that line. A conveyor belt that never delivered. Walking up the down escalator.

For a long time he was a back-up for raw pace. When injury eroded that quality he became a back-up for white-ball smarts. He was athletic in the field and could give the ball a biff.

He was able to sneak in the occasional game. His T20 debut for Australia was at the start of 2013, playing with Adam Voges, George Bailey, Ben Rohrer and Clint McKay. His ODI debut at the end of that year was captained by Michael Clarke, his bowling tended by a young new wicketkeeper named Matthew Wade.

In the seven years between then and the current World Cup he managed 26 one-day games. Never a Test, despite often popping up in conversation. Conversation was where he did his best work; he came into them the same way he came in as a batsman, towards the tail end and without huge effect.

Throughout those years there was always a premier trio of fast bowlers. Johnson, Harris and Siddle. Johnson, Starc and Pattinson. Hazlewood, Starc and Cummins. And somewhere behind them, somewhere in a squad or in the reckoning or in a fitness test or in the gym – gee, that Nathan Coulter-Nile looks a prospect at some stage, doesn’t he?

Across white-ball formats through 2018 and 2019 he started stringing games together. Starc was often injured, Cummins often rested. Coulter-Nile became the more consistent name on the team sheet. But still one that felt like a back-up, one holding a place.

Meanwhile, the team around him kept crumbling. The batting in a T20 series in the United Arab Emirates was disassembled by Pakistan. The same in both formats against South Africa and India at home. Then the start of the 2019 tour to India.

But something else was happening. All those bowling injuries can leave a person time to work on their batting. So a steady selection was also becoming a steady presence with the blade.

In Abu Dhabi last October, Australia was 6 for 22 when Coulter-Nile came in. He made 34 and top scored. In Dubai days later it was 6 for 73, and he made the second-best score with 27. A November game in Melbourne was 6 for 74 when he clouted 18 to be third-best on the night.

In the 50-over form, while South Africa were bowling out Australia for 152 in Perth (and how long ago does that seem?), Coulter-Nile came in at 7 for 89 to top score with 34. Against India in Hyderabad in March it was 6 for 173 when he made 28 to drag Australia towards respectability.

Respectability was what he kept offering. Rather than holding a place he was holding a team together.

He did his job with the ball – 10 wickets in five ODIs in Asia this year, seven wickets in four in 2018. But it was bat that mattered when the World Cup came around and the West Indies reduced Australia to 6 for 147. There were 19 overs to go when Coulter-Nile arrived. He had to make the most of them. And did, swatting his highest score in any professional match to end on 92.

He changed the mood as soon he came in. Oshane Thomas had been bowling short and sharp and fierce deliveries all day, but did the sensible thing and pitched up to the lower order. Coulter-Nile squeezed out a yorker to third man for four, then whipped off his pads for the same. Steve Smith at the other end was reassured, so played a supporting hand as the shots kept coming.

At the crease, Coulter-Nile has the most casual stance. He could be an American who’s been roped in for a park match. He stands completely upright, the backlift just left there like a discarded shirt on the floor. At the last moment he dips his knees into a bit more of a batsman’s configuration, then swings through.

Another off the pads from Andre Russell carried for six. The West Indies pace battery tried the bumper, so Coulter-Nile hooked and top-edged happily for runs. Even the off-spinner Ashley Nurse tried to bounce him, and Coulter-Nile pulled hard and flat to deep midwicket to be dropped by Shimron Hetmyer. It was his only life, and the Australian already had 61 on the board.

When the West Indies bounced back with a scarcely believable boundary catch by Sheldon Cottrell to dismiss Smith, ending a hundred partnership from 88 balls, Coulter-Nile just kept going on his own, drop-kicking sixes. A century wasn’t to be, held on the straight boundary in the second-last over as the rush continued. But two points on the World Cup table were much more valuable. He had given Australia enough of a total to keep the West Indies 14 runs short.

For once, coming into this World Cup, Coulter-Nile was firmly in the top three, designated to do the pace job with Starc and Cummins. And while there wasn’t reward with the ball, the bit-part player for so long was still the most important on the day. After years of waiting, Coulter-Nile became the man Australia needed.