Haddin handles Paine to build his legacy
The Sunday Age
Sunday March 27, 2011
ON RESULTS, Brad Haddin's return from elbow surgery has been mostly gloom: series losses to Sri Lanka in one-dayers, England in the Ashes and now the quarter-final World Cup elimination.For a 33-year-old wicketkeeper with a highly rated young rival on the fringes of the team, such a string of results could be disconcerting, for the possibility the negative trend could persuade selectors a clean start is needed. There is one clear reason dissuading them from doing so: runs, and lots of them.Haddin's 53 against India on Thursday was his fourth half-century from six innings in the World Cup and confirmed him as Australia's highest scorer for the tournament. It was also enough for him to pass 1000 international runs for the summer.His position as first-choice wicketkeeper in all formats looked uncertain when, just after Australia conceded the Sydney Ashes Test, selectors revealed Tim Paine, 26, had been preferred for the Twenty20 team. Considering Haddin's impressive World Cup 332 runs at 55.33 the New South Welshman has reason to think he's tightened his grip on the wicketkeeper-batsman position. Confidence, however, is not something Haddin lacks."As an international player you've got to be confident in your own ability. Coming back from injury I knew as soon as I got the elbow right, that I was able to move without any restrictions, that things were going to be fine," he said before flying out of India back to Australia. "I'd had six months of pain in my elbow, which was frustrating, and I knew I just had to get myself 100 per cent right and I have. My elbow's right now and I've got no ill-effects."But like his captain Ricky Ponting who refused to take solace in his drought-breaking century in the defeat by India, Haddin too holds the belief that his batting feats have been rendered largely irrelevant by the team's World Cup failure."It will take a long time [to be pleased] because of the way we've gone out of the tournament in the quarter-finals. All those personal milestones are good to look back on in years to come, but at the moment it's still pretty painful," he said.One of the more fascinating and surprising aspects of Australia's training sessions during the World Cup was the co-operation and camaraderie between Haddin and Paine, the two players duelling for one spot.Both shared wicketkeeping drills, and when the younger wicketkeeper had the gloves on the elder one was not preoccupied about the possibility he could, effectively, be setting himself up for a fall by helping Paine."I get on with Tim as well as any other player in the team," Haddin said. "He's going to be a very, very good cricketer for Australia, and if I can help in any way in training or there's things he can see in my game, it's good."It's always good to have a second keeper around to work with and bounce ideas."At the start of the tournament Ponting highlighted Haddin's habit of wasting good starts, particularly in the home ODI series against England, and urged him to give Australia the robust starts it needed.While passing 25 in every World Cup innings without a century would seem like that goal was not achieved the closest he got was 88 against Kenya Haddin insisted he was more concerned with his opening partnership with Shane Watson, which produced two century stands in Australia's campaign."If you look at Shane and I at the top of the order we're starting to build quite a consistent opening partnership. What I'd like to do is improve on that and keep taking that forward, and if that brings hundreds so be it," he said.
© 2011 The Sunday Age