Brad Haddin : Australia's Dark-horse?

He started off years ago as a reserve wicket-keeper for Adam Gilchrist for several years often called in for his services when Gilchrist got injured or rested. Then he went on to become Australia’s frontline regular keeper for a period from 2008-12 where he did pretty well but inevitably effects of aging crept up slightly and Cricket Australia as eager they are to infuse youngsters into the side at the expense of experienced ones, cashed in dropped him from both the Australian test and one-day sides. We are of course talking about Brad Haddin here, who since 2011 has been in and out of the Aussie side with concerns of form, fitness and better younger substitutes. In the meanwhile, wicket-keepers like Tim Paine and Graham Manou have been tried in vain while in Matthew Wade Australia got a good keeper-batsman. However, as it has panned out none have been able to cement their place in the side as well as their predecessor. Although Wade continues to do well in one-dayers with his attacking batting and safe glove work, after the Ashes series in England in mid-2013, he lost his place in the test team to the veteran, Brad Haddin.
Starting his career in 1999 with New South Wales and then going on to make his ODI debut for Australia in 2001, he was unlucky to have someone like Gilchrist in his playing time or else he would have had a much longer career for the baggy greens. The same was the reason for him not making his test debut until 2008. Haddin has always been a top-class keeper and a very able batsman, better than the likes of Ian Healy and Rodney Marsh. He has been someone who has gone about his job quietly without getting the adulation of a Dhoni or a Gilchrist or a Healy. He has had very few bad patches with the bat in his career and has always been someone who can control the middle-order in both tests and one-dayers. His exploits and ease in playing spin bowling has been particularly noteworthy in his career. When his teammates have often struggled in sub-continent conditions, Haddin has stood out along with a very few of his teammates, as far as tackling spin in the slow, low surfaces. At 36, he might be at the fag-end of his career but you never know with wicket-keepers, how long they would last and hence Australian cricket should make the most of his expertise and experience for some time to come, especially when they do not have an established test keeper. In fact, they realized it after the Ashes in England last year and drafted him straight into the side, with Australia needing someone who could bring in some experience into that rather fragile batting order and that decision has done wonders for them with Haddin performing at his best since then and his performances especially against England in the just concluded Ashes series at home was absolutely splendid and helped Australia complete a 5-0 clean sweep. Haddin finished with the highest average of 61.62 for the series between both the sides and scored an aggregate of almost 500 runs with one century and five timely half-centuries. Apart from that, his glove work as usual was exceptional, notching up many scalps behind the wicket. This series would have been really fulfilling for the wicket-keeper batsman as since his test debut, this was Australia’s first Ashes series win and that too a clean sweep. He has given a lot to Australian cricket in his career, ready to provide his services whenever called in and so it’s time Cricket Australia reciprocate that by keeping faith on the veteran as long as he is performing and let him decide when to call it a day and deservingly so for a man who has been a true Dark-horse for Aussie cricket over the years.