In late February, as New South Wales headed into their third-last Sheffield Shield game of the summer, the Blues' selectors faced a dilemma: the pitch for their must-win game in Coffs Harbour would require a frontline spinner, but with Steve O'Keefe injured and Nathan Lyon on Test duty, a replacement had to be found.

They plumped for an uncontracted 17-year-old off-spinner by the name of Arjun Nair.

Great moment today! Thanks to my family and friends for all the support ☺👍👍 #Repost @cricketnsw with @repostapp ・・・ The moment you take your first First Class wicket! Well done Arjun Nair! A photo posted by Arjun Nair (@imarjunnair) on Feb 25, 2016 at 1:05am PST

Nair, the boy from the western suburbs of Sydney, had just finished high school and was surprised to be picked. After all, he had barely any four-day cricket experience – he'd played just the one Futures League game, in which he'd taken 9-70 in a 302-run victory at Manuka Oval in early February – and with NSW sitting fourth on a congested Shield points table and needing a win to keep their season alive, he thought that the selectors would "probably go with somebody with experience".

However, Nair had long impressed the powers that be in NSW and Australian cricket with his work ethic, temperament, character and cricket brain – not to mention his consistent match-winning performances for NSW and Australia at under-age level.

Nair takes 6-24 in Under 19s

As such, the NSW selection panel, with their commendable philosophy of promoting young, home-grown talent, was happy to back the teenager.

Less than three months earlier, in his final match as a NSW Metropolitan under-19 representative, Nair had been named the Player of the 2015-16 National Championships grand final after leading his team to their third-consecutive national title. He single-handedly turned the 50-over match on its head with the ball, dismissing six of ACT/NSW Country's top seven batsmen to reduce them from 0-66 to 6-113, before putting on a blistering 70-run opening stand with Jonathan Rose. This ability to break games open was seen first-hand (and duly noted) by Australia's National Talent Manager, Greg Chappell, on Australian under-19 tours of England (in the winter of 2015 when Nair was just 17-years-old) and the UAE (in January 2016).

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Different is a word that you'll often hear used to describe Nair – both as a bowler and a person.

"Arjun's not your traditional off-spinner," said David Freedman, NSW's State Talent Manager, "and that was part of … what earned him selection.

"He's not your Nathan Lyon type off-spinner … looking to pitch (the off-break) outside off-stump and come in and hit the stumps. He's got tremendous variety (and) he bowls a very much stump-to-stump line – probably doesn't turn the ball as far as a normal off-spinner but (he) can beat the bat on both sides."

The reason he can do that is he has a delivery which no Australian finger-spinner before him has mastered – a front-of-the-hand carrom ball that turns away from right-handed batsmen. Although the carrom ball is most definitely not Australian in origin, the manner in which Nair acquired it certainly hews to what Gideon Haigh calls the "Australian tradition of autodidactism": he taught himself, as Freedman is quick to point out.

Big smiles all around 😆👍👌🌞#Dubai A photo posted by Arjun Nair (@imarjunnair) on Jan 27, 2016 at 12:22am PST

A few years ago, Nair tuned in to an Indian Premier League match to watch his favourite cricketer – Adam Gilchrist – play and happened to see Sunil Narine bowl for the first time. The West Indian off-spinner took a bag of wickets and greatly impressed the then 15-year-old Nair who started to follow him closely.

Nair was already a fixture in NSW's state under-age squads as a batsman who dabbled in part-time leg-spin, but, inspired by Narine, he switched to off-spin and started trying to teach himself the carrom ball.

"I went on YouTube," he explains, "and (I would) pause, stop, pause … any video I could get (of Narine) … (to) try and work it out."

Then, he went out into the backyard of his family home in Girraween and "bowled a lot of balls".

"It was like a hobby for me," he explained. "I spent a lot of time doing it because I enjoyed doing it." Soon, he felt confident enough to bowl the carrom ball to his dad in their backyard synthetic nets. "We were using a rubber ball," Nair recalls, "and he couldn't really pick it."

About a month later, Nair felt comfortable enough to bowl the carrom ball in a grade game for Hawkesbury. Not long thereafter, the lifelong batsman was picked to make his first grade debut at the tender age of 15 – as an off-spin bowling allrounder batting in the lower-middle order.

A photo posted by Arjun Nair (@imarjunnair) on Nov 3, 2014 at 6:43pm PST

"I couldn't believe it!" laughs Bill Madden, the recently retired Sydney coaching legend who picked a 12-year-old Nair in Hawkesbury's under-16s AW Green Shield team – as a batsman – and was Nair's batting mentor between the ages of nine and 15.

Nair credits his bowling coach, the former NSW off-spinner Anthony Clark, for his rapid development; after he completed his month-long carrom ball experiment in his backyard, it was Clark whom he turned to for advice.

"He's helped me a lot," says Nair. "He's my go-to man because he knows all about my bowling."

The duo first met at Madden's coaching academy nearly a decade ago and have gotten "much closer" over the last three to four years as Nair has progressed through the NSW under-age teams which Clark coaches.

How times change... 😆 A photo posted by Arjun Nair (@imarjunnair) on Mar 10, 2016 at 12:59am PST

"He's a very smart and great coach," says Nair. "I have to thank him a lot for my bowling so far."

No-one is under any illusions as to the difficulty of the road ahead for Nair as a finger-spinner in Australia.

Since the end of the Second World War, Australia has produced a grand total of four finger-spinners who have taken 100 Test wickets – Bruce Yardley, Ian Johnson, Ashley Mallett and Nathan Lyon – and Nair does not have the advantage of height and natural bounce that Lyon and Mallett possess.

"I think, in general, spin is hard to bowl in Australia," Nair said. "You have to be really good at it. You need to be different. Shane Warne was different in many ways. He was smart, he had subtle variations, and he landed the ball very accurate(ly)."

On the upside, Nair has a potential advantage that most of his Australian spin-bowling predecessors lacked – batting ability good enough to potentially target a top six spot in Shield and Test batting line-ups.

Very serious indeed 🙍😂😂 A photo posted by Arjun Nair (@imarjunnair) on Feb 18, 2016 at 12:33am PST

According to Freedman, it was Nair's batting which got him the nod over the other strong candidates for the vacant spinner's berth in NSW's Shield XI in February. The NSW selectors' reasoning proved to be sound: although, in his two Shield games to date, Nair has only taken two wickets, in both games, he was involved in big lower-order partnerships which supplied his team with crucial runs.

On his Shield debut in Coffs Harbour, Nair walked in with NSW teetering at 8-119 in their first innings – 179 runs behind South Australia – and calmly compiled ninth and 10th wicket partnerships of 71 and 21 with Ryan Carters and Doug Bollinger respectively to swing the must-win match – which NSW ultimately won by five wickets – decisively in the Blue Baggers' favour.

Photoshoot from the past 📷📷👍👌 A photo posted by Arjun Nair (@imarjunnair) on Mar 21, 2016 at 1:50am PDT

Everyone involved with Nair's development – including, crucially, Nair himself – agrees that he must continue working as hard on his batting as his bowling.

"At present, (NSW) see him as a bowling allrounder, but that's not to say that mightn't change," Freedman explained. "There's no doubt he has the ability to bat six or seven in a Shield team down the track."

Nair himself hopes to become "a genuine allrounder" in the long-term, but is happy to perform "whatever role" the team needs in order to fulfil his dream of playing for Australia.

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What has most impressed those who have worked closely with Nair is not his immense talent with bat and ball, but the intangible traits which ultimately determine whether a cricketer will make it at Shield and Test level: character, temperament and work ethic.

"He's just a good young fella that loves his cricket (and) loves a bit of fun," says Chappell.

On the field, Nair's laidback demeanour belies a fierce competitive drive and a deep hatred of losing. He remains disappointed in himself for not bowling anywhere near his best in his two Shield games last summer, but is using that disappointment to motivate himself to "work harder this off-season" to make himself "a better player".

What a season!! 👑😊😊 #thundernation #champions A photo posted by Arjun Nair (@imarjunnair) on Jan 24, 2016 at 11:23pm PST

"I think I've got to work on getting the pace of my stock delivery right for each (different) surface," Nair added. "(Without a stock ball) there's no point having variety – it defeats the purpose of it."

In the past year or so, he's worked to make significant strides in the three areas where he had clear room for improvement – fielding, fitness and diet – and was rewarded with a full NSW contract a fortnight after his 18th birthday in April.

"I used to eat whatever. But I think now I'm slightly older," he adds, with his tongue nowhere near the vicinity of his cheek, "I won't be having the high metabolism that I used to have, so I'm watching what I eat now."

So that means chips, Nutella and the club cricketer's post-training ritual of a Macca's drive-through dinner are now out.

Chappell has been deeply impressed by Nair's fearlessness.

"A lot of the best players of any era were blokes who liked centre stage and if there was a bit of a challenge on, they enjoyed it more," the Test great said. "He's like that."

In January, Chappell moved Nair up the batting order to open as the Australian under-19 team tried to chase down an imposing target of 311 set by Pakistan in a 50-over game in Dubai.

Just arrived in Dubai ✌✌ A photo posted by Arjun Nair (@imarjunnair) on Jan 7, 2016 at 12:40am PST

He wasn't surprised when Nair responded with a scintillating 106 off 89 balls, saying it "only confirmed what we thought: the greater the challenge, the better he responds."

Nair explains: "I enjoy pressure. I enjoy being the man to do the job."

However, he says, the hundred itself felt "worthless pretty much" because Australia still ended up losing the game by 109 runs.

Off the field, Nair doesn't take things too seriously and is known for being a prankster and a stirrer in the dressing room.

"I like to joke around a fair bit," he admitted with a chuckle.

Chappell believes that Nair's quirky character is reflected in his bowling. "I think (being a mystery bowler) appeals to his sense of the ridiculous," he explained. "He's got a little bit of … contrariness. He likes to just be a little bit different, and it's endearing."

Life is all about smiling 😊😊 #lovinglife 👍 A photo posted by Arjun Nair (@imarjunnair) on Sep 15, 2015 at 12:37am PDT

Nair enjoys dressing room banter and is happy to cop a ribbing from the boys – as he frequently does – for his love of bling and buying new clothes.

Thus, it seems apt that his sporting hero is Cristiano Ronaldo, the three-time FIFA World Player of the Year famed for, amongst other things, his goals, work ethic, workplace perfectionism and perpetually immaculate physical appearance.

Has Nair ever tried to imitate Ronaldo's reported regimen of 3000 sit-ups per day?

"Nah, I haven't," he laughs, before he quickly (and correctly) adds: "I think one day (Ronaldo) woke up with a lot of abdominal pain and had to go to hospital … (because of) overworking with the crunches!"