What was a casual catch-up with mates can be traced as the first step towards the hard-hitting opener getting his chance in the Big Bash League with the Adelaide Strikers.

The ACT Comets captain and fellow Canberra recruit Ben Oakley could both make their debuts in the national Twenty20 competition after being named in a 13-player squad for Sunday's first-round Big Bash clash with the Hobart Hurricanes.

A video posted online showed Dean's immense hitting power as he belts a ball out of Adelaide Oval to the amazement of his Strikers teammate and the world's No.1 ranked Twenty20 batsman, Englishman Alex Hales.

But Dean, raised in Bathurst, was almost lost to the game.

The former NSW under-19 representative hung up his pads for a couple of years before a chance meeting with former Comets player Adam Heading when he arrived in Canberra at the age of 23.

''I was at a stage in my life where I needed to have a break and enjoy things other than cricket for a couple of years,'' Dean said.

''When I moved to Canberra I wasn't even looking to play cricket, I just happened to run into Adam Heading at a pub one night and we got talking.

''I started to get the itch back and all of a sudden I was standing next to Higgsy [former Queanbeyan and Comets captain Mark Higgs] at second slip and have been there ever since.''

Now 29, Dean has taken his game to the next level in the past year.

An unbeaten triple century in a day for Queanbeyan wrote him into the history books of ACT Cricket, but it was a destructive 51 from just 40 balls against the West Indies for the Prime Minister's XI broadcast on national television that put him on the radar of the Strikers.

''I gained a lot of confidence from that knock,'' he said.

''I've always known I've had the ability, but sometimes it's about performing at the right place at the right time and I managed to do that, which helped me gain this opportunity.

''Hopefully I've ticked all the boxes and the next one will be getting selected for a match and doing well out in the middle.''

Dean has quickly struck up a friendship with Hales, the 24-year-old English international renowned as one of the biggest hitters in world cricket.

The pair are living in the same apartment complex and could form a destructive partnership at the top of the order.

''We've been living in each other's pockets and pretty much sharing a car and have got to know each other pretty quickly,'' Dean said.

''He seems like a good lad, he's had quite a bit of experience playing for England in the T20 arena, so he's been good to have around.

''He's been copping a bit of banter about the Ashes, but is taking it pretty well.''