Australia’s vice-captain and senior pro Brad Haddin knows he looked ugly when turning his back on short-pitched bowling from India on Boxing Day. He doesn’t care.Haddin also knows there will be more short stuff coming his way should he survive any length of time at the SCG. He looks forward to it.The awkward evasive action Haddin took at the MCG was so pronounced that even after he swatted away another series of bouncers the following morning, India were adamant he would receive more of the same in future. “We really thought he had a genuine weakness over there,” said R Ashwin during the Test. “We continue to think he has a weakness over there. We will continue to target him in the next Test match as well.”
‘A true gentleman’
Brad Haddin was warm in his praise for MS Dhoni and his unfailingly even temperament, something Australia’s wicketkeeper believes was the key to his opposite number’s survival for so long as India captain.
“The great thing about MS Dhoni was his temperament,” Haddin said. “No matter where the game was going you wouldn’t know. He had a pretty even tempo through whatever situation was going on and that’s why he’s had such longevity in the game.
“I was very surprised [he retired]. He’s been a great servant for Indian cricket, the way he handles himself and the team, the calmness he brings to a very, very big job in captaining the Indian cricket team. He was great to play against and a true gentleman of the game. I think he’s left Indian cricket in a better place than it was when he took over.”
Given their confrontations during the MCG Test, it was no surprise Haddin had less to say about Dhoni’s successor Virat Kohli, though he did acknowledge an “outstanding” innings on the last day in Adelaide. “I’m not here to talk about Kohli,” Haddin said.
A six down the ground from Ashwin was about Haddin’s only moment of poise that evening, and he said he had one thing on his mind – surviving until the second morning in the company of Steven Smith.”I think I’ve said for a while I feel in better touch with the bat than I did leading into last summer. It was good to contribute with the bat the other day but the big thing was we had to get through that night,” Haddin said. “We couldn’t expose our lower order late that night and that was the most pleasing thing from Steven and my point of view – getting through that uncomfortable 10 overs knowing the Indian bowlers had to back up the next day.”That was a pretty big moment in the game where Steven and I had to take responsibility just to get through. I just took the risk out of the game from my point of view. It was about getting through that moment, that was a big moment in the Test match. We know we need their bowlers backing up day after day. And we’ve got a strong tail but we don’t want to expose them to fresh bowlers.”We had a day under the legs of the Indian bowlers, that was the main part of it, getting through and not exposing tail to the new ball and an uncomfortable period. You’ve seen what Ryano [Harris], Mitch [Johnson] and all the guys did when the Indian bowlers got tired. I think we put on over 250 runs and I was pleased to get through that period with Steven to set up the game and make the Indian bowlers keep coming back for more and more.”India’s tactical approach was about as subtle as Ashwin’s words. On Boxing Day night and the following morning, they hared in at Haddin from around the wicket, with a field set so exclusively for bouncers that he barely needed to ponder any other option. It helped that the swifter Umesh Yadav was curiously unused when Haddin began to think more of scoring.”I knew where they were bowling. It was about survival the night before, to get through and not expose our tail late in the day,” Haddin said. “The next day was about changing the momentum of the game. There was no secret where they were going to bowl – it was pretty predictable what was going to happen but the difference was I needed to change the momentum of the game because it was a different stage and we needed to drive the game.”In that respect it was pretty easy to get a plan because we knew what was coming. I hit two fours and they went back to conventional bowling. If that’s their plan, they’ll have plans for it and I’ll combat them whatever way I see fit. If their bowlers want to bang it down halfway for an hour and a half then go for your life.”Haddin was understandably supportive of the tactical rein pulled by his pupil and now captain Smith, declaring only when India’s chances of chasing a final day target had become minimal and thus sealing the series. Haddin’s view is that Australia earned the right to close India out by dictating the direction not only of the game but the series.”We won the series, that’s the main thing we took out of it,” he said. “I think we earned the right to play the way we did in Melbourne. We’ve played India totally out of the series. Come Sydney if we get ourselves into that situation it’d be different because we’ve taken India out of the series. We earned the right to play the way we did.”We knew exactly where the game was going, what path it was, and we were very happy with where it ended up with a series win. We went out there and said if we were to create 10 chances we’ll win the game and we did create 10 chances, we just didn’t take a few.”Those few across two innings were more than an Australian side have shelled for quite some time, and Haddin accepted this as the major area in which the team needed to improve over the course of the final Test. “That wasn’t acceptable for an Australian cricket team,” he said. “We set our standards a lot higher than that and we’ve got to improve. We can’t do that to our bowlers.”Our bowlers are creating chances and we only need them to create 20 chances. We should be doing the best we can to take all those chances and make the job as easy as we can for the bowlers. They’ve got a hard slog out there. It’s not acceptable from us. Everyone knows it wasn’t the way Australians present themselves in the field and we’ve got to be better.”
