Haddin has had a very testing winter
Australia wicketkeeper batsman Brad Haddin believes he has done everything in his power to convince selectors that he deserves his spot on the national team roster again for the upcoming Test series against South Africa in November.
Haddin has not represented Australia since their tour to the Caribbean in March after he was forced to withdraw from that series at the last moment due to his daughter being diagnosed with cancer.
After having a winter filled with personal trauma, Haddin is back on the field and is looking better than ever.
Haddin has been playing domestic cricket with New South Wales, and believes that his excellent performances will convince selectors that he is ready to make his return into the Test squad.
In the few matches Haddin has played with New South Wales, Haddin has looked extremely sharp with the bat and gloves, which is exactly what the selectors wanted to see from the veteran.
Haddin is now in South Africa to represent the Sydney Sixers in the Champions League Twenty20, and he feels that if he continues performing well with the bat and gloves, the selectors will have no choice but to select him over current keeper Matthew Wade.
“Selection is the easy part, if you’re performing well there’s no topic of conversation about it, and if you’re not performing the way you should then it’s open for debate, from that point of view my mindset is the same as when I started playing, I’ve just got to make sure I’m in the best possible space I can be as a cricketer, and everything else takes care of itself. There’s enough to worry about as a team without worrying about selection. If you’re playing well as a team and winning games, more guys get pushed on to higher honours. I’m happy with where my game’s at batting, keeping and just enjoying being back playing cricket,” Haddin said.
During his traumatic winter, Haddin constantly kept in touch with captain Michael Clarke, coach Mickey Arthur and national selector John Inverarity.
Haddin also accepted to be a contracted player when the list was announced in June.
Even though Wade has had flashes of brilliance with the gloves and bat during Haddin’s absence, many cricket pundits are banking on the veteran to make a return to the Test arena in November against South Africa.
“The pre-season has been good. With the way international cricket is shaped these days you don’t often get a long pre-season, so it was good to get a pre-season under my belt and get my body where I needed it to, but the bottom line is cricket’s about performance and that’s what you’ve got to do, you’ve got to make sure you do your pre-season, the reason you do it is to get out on the pitch and perform,” Haddin said.
However, with the Sixers playing in the Champions League Twenty20, Cricket Australia are worried that players like Haddin, all-rounder Shane Watson and pace bowler Pat Cummins will not get enough training before the start of the South Africa series.
But, Haddin stated that the players would be able to deal with the situation, and that he was extremely pleased to be going into the Champions League Twenty20 having played a couple of matches for New South Wales.
“That’s international cricket these days, you chop and change formats and that’s been happening for a long time now, so from that point of view it’s not that big a change, what’s good about it actually is getting the volume from a cricket point of view, the Shield has given us a chance to get some cricket and some miles in our legs. I find preparing for tournaments like a T20 event, there’s no better way to do it than actually get some longer form cricket, so your body gets used to playing cricket again. You can go through all your processes, get all your shapes right, without having to rush into the T20 format. Now it’s just a bit of maintenance and making sure we get the squad together and everyone knows what we need to do once we get to South Africa, because with these tournaments it is very important to start well,” Haddin added.