Brad Haddin
The Australian wicketkeeper batsman Brad Haddin talks about the upcoming series, losing the legends and the new Shane Warne.
On the massive workload over the past 18 months…
“Everyone’s feeling fine at the moment, we’ve sort of juggled our workloads over the One-Day series against the West Indies and we’ve got Mike Hussey and Nathan Hauritz having a break at the moment. I’ve had a break, Michael Clarke’s had some time. Mitch and most of the players who have played three forms of the game have had an opportunity to get home and refresh so at this stage of the year it’s quite surprisingly but everyone’s feeling quite good.”
On the Australian summer so far…
“We’ve had a pretty big schedule but it’s been an enjoyable summer we’re starting to play some pretty consistent cricket in all forms of the game and we’re really looking forward to continue that going and when you’re playing consistent cricket and you’re finding ways to consistently win cricket games the squad just wants to play more and more, so we’re just looking forward to the opportunity to coming over and play the Twenty20’s and One-Dayers to start where New Zealand have been a very competitive cricket team so it’s going to be a good contest over there in the coming weeks.”
On this being just another tour…
“No it’s far from that, it’s definitely a big tour for our guys, we definitely don’t want to come across and lose to New Zealand. It’s obviously a massive rivalry not only in cricket but in all sports, you look at the rugby and things like that so it’s a lot of pride at stake when we play over there and we definitely take the tour very seriously and we want to make a very good account of ourselves and keep improving the way we have this summer.”
On having time off to rest and recuperate…
“Yeah I think you’ve got to work that on an individual basis. We do play a lot now and at some stage some players do have a lot heavier workload than others especially if they’re playing three forms of the game, so I know I recently had a couple of days off and then came back into the squad. I don’t really know how I feel about that and I’ll have to wait until Friday to see how I come through but I think it’s one of those things with modern cricket. I think you are going to see more and more”
On your memories of the 2007 Chappell/Hadlee series…
“That we won the World Cup after it (laughs). No that was obviously a tour where New Zealand got the better of us. It was a pretty entertaining series I think to watch for anyone involved but from where we were sitting it wasn’t a great result so we would definitely like to turn the tables on 2007 this time we come over.”
On the team losing Warne, McGrath, Hayden, Langer, Gilchrist…
“Yeah there was obviously a lot of talk after we lost a lot of great players around a pretty short period of time so there was a bit of a transition period but I think now that transition period is over we’re now starting to play some pretty consistent cricket together as a group and a lot of us now have played between 10 and 15 to 20 tests and starting to build up near 50 One-Day matches. I think the transition period is all over now and I know from a squad point of view there is no talk about that anymore. It’s more about moving forward with us as a group and trying to be the best Australian team we can be and leave our mark on world cricket.”
On the whether the BLACKCAPS should be worried…
“(laughs) New Zealand obviously is a very competitive Twenty20 and One-Day unit so I think they’ll also be looking forward to the challenge of playing us. i think we were both in the final of the Champions Trophy so it’s going to be a pretty competitive series over there one that should be hotly watched.”
On how the BLACKCAPS rate at Test cricket…
“To be perfectly honest I haven’t really watched to much of what’s going on with the Test cricket. We’ve had a pretty massive schedule of one-day cricket so that’s all we’ve been worried about at the moment - the shorter forms of the game. What I have noticed though is that there’s obviously a couple of new faces that we haven’t heard of in the Test team so I think that with the one-day form of the game it gives us a bit of a chance to look at them and get some notes on them leading into the Test series.”
On the comparison between Steven Smith and Shane Warne…
“If he’s reminiscent of Warney then you’re in a lot of trouble (laughs). No he’s obviously a pretty exciting leg spinner, actually all rounder. He’s had some international cricket and he’s had some pretty solid performances in State cricket and when he debuted the other night in the Twenty20 he showed a lot of composure beyond his years. So he’s definitely someone we have recognised as going to be a very very handy cricketer for Australia and you guys are going to have the first true look at him in the Twenty20 series”
He’s got a couple of hundreds in the longer form of the game with NSW and I think he’s got one in the one-dayers, but he’s picked in our Twenty20 side at the moment so he’s quite an explosive player who with any 20 year old plays with no fear so he’s very dangerous in that form of the game.”
