“We haven’t had success in England for a long time”

Image courtesy of: Zimbio

With the Ashes series just under a month away, Australia wicketkeeper-batsman Brad Haddin is determined to ensure that the Baggy Greens beat England in their own backyard for the first time since 2001.

Haddin has toured England three times now and each time has returned home without the coveted urn, but he expects that to change this time around.

“From an Australian cricket point of view, we haven’t had success in England for a long time,” Haddin said. “No matter where you’re ranked … the theatre and everything behind an Ashes campaign and the pressures that I feel are totally different.

“You get off on it a bit, an Ashes campaign. They are so different. I’ve never had the privilege of holding the urn up over there [in England]. That would be a dream for not only me but this group. We’ve come a long way as a team over the last 12 to 18 months – one way you can see that is the way we’re starting to field. You can see everyone is wanting to play for each other. I’d love to hold the urn up over there.”

Haddin, who announced his ODI retirement after Australia triumphed in the World Cup, also revealed that he has not thought about whether he will retire from Tests after the upcoming Ashes series. The 37-year-old also has no idea what path he will go down once his cricketing career does come to an end.

“I know there’s speculation with the age I am,” he said. “I haven’t really sat down and had a really good think about it. I’m enjoying my cricket where it’s at at the moment. We’ve got a massive campaign coming up after this with the Ashes. You can’t have any clouded views on ‘I might finish here’ or anything clouding your thought process going into a campaign like that.

“You’ve got to give it the respect it deserves. A series like that is as big as you get. The hype and the theatre around that whole campaign, I wouldn’t do myself justice or my teammates justice if I was thinking about anything else.”