Haddin: Get ready for another onslaught
BRAD Haddin was a consistent thorn in England’s side throughout the 2013/14 Ashes – and now he’s hoping that the current Australia side can blossom under the leadership of Steve Smith.
The former Aussie wicketkeeper was appointed as the country’s fielding coach back in August, taking over from Greg Blewett who left his post to take up a coaching role with South Australia.
The sight of Haddin in the Aussie dressing room will bring back some painful memories for those England players involved in the 5-0 whitewash four winters ago.
And he’s confident that Australia can recreate the atmosphere that served them so well under Michael Clarke last time out – despite Smith’s sides’ struggles in Bangladesh and India in recent months.
Australia could only draw 1-1 with Bangladesh and had to battle back from losing the opening match of the two-Test series in Dhaka. They were then soundly thrashed 4-1 by India in an incongruously timed one-day tour on the eve of the Ashes.
That, though, will be forgotten by the time the two teams step out at the Gabba on November 23.
“We lost the first Test against Bangladesh which shouldn’t have happened but we fought back in the second – we’ve got some work to do before the big one,” says Haddin, who topped the Australian batting averages on England’s last tour Down Under.
“I’m not sure it’s going to have too much of an impact, though. Last time we played a World Cup we lost to Zimbabwe, leading in, when there was some jostling for positions and we were trying to get our combinations right.
“Now we’ve got a full Sheffield Shield programme before the Ashes start, I don’t think what happened in the winter will mean much.
“If anything, maybe it will make them a bit more hungry, which we need. Teams always talk about just focusing on what’s in front of them but when you’ve got a Test series as big as the Ashes in front of you, that can be easier said than done.”
Haddin knows better than most the emotions that come hand-inhand with the Ashes.
He cut a crestfallen figure when he fell to Jimmy Anderson in the sensational opening Test of the 2013 series at Trent Bridge, with his faint nick behind handing England a 14-run win that paved the way for Alastair Cook’s side to retain the urn. He then, at times single-handedly, defied England’s bowlers that winter as the Aussies gained revenge with a 5-0 hammering of the tourists.
That’s the benchmark that Smith’s side will be aiming to hit again over the next three months.
“We decided we were going to go at the English batsmen but the only way that was going to work was if Peter Siddle and Ryan Harris shut the scoreboard down,” he says.
“That would allow Mitchell Johnson free rein to do what he liked. It was interesting from where I was because you could see the nervous energy in grown men’s eyes.
“They were walking out thinking,‘I’m in a real contest here – you’ve got a guy bowling 150k’s and he’s going after me’.
“Mitch’s series was one for the ages but the response of some of the batters just got you thinking. Guys like Kevin Pietersen have said in their books that that was as intimidated as they’ve ever been and from where I was standing it looked exactly like that.”
Haddin probably had the best seat in the house as Johnson tore into the England batting in every Test he played. At Brisbane he was close to unplayable and even on a placid pitch in Adelaide he utterly dominated England’s batting line-up.
Any plans England had of retaining the Ashes were clearly ripped up and replaced by something far more prosaic – namely saving their own skins against the kind of pace bowling that none of that line-up had ever come up against in the past.
Each ball that thumped into Haddin’s gloves was another knife through the heart of a top order that had been brutally exposed.
“Mitch has retired but now I think there’s a really good core of bowlers on both sides,” says Haddin. “You look at James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Chris Woakes and you’ve got three really experienced bowlers there.
“On the flipside, we’ve got some really exciting quick bowlers as well. Pat Cummins is as exciting as anyone in the world at the moment and he has raw pace and the potential to really hurry up the batsmen.”
After the last series, England’s batsmen will need to show their mettle early on – and steel themselves for a familiar Aussie onslaught.