In safe hands

Of the 16 players in Australia's Ashes squad, only six have previous experience of an Anglo-Australian Test match, and of those, only four - Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke, Simon Katich and Brett Lee - have sampled the unique atmosphere of a Test series in England. In an era when Twenty20 cricket is threatening to turn people's attention away from the game's most venerable traditions, it's a dwindling bunch of cricketers who can pinpoint exactly what it is that makes this rivalry so special.

But the Australian tourist best placed to explain the enduring significance of the Ashes is also the one most used to being overlooked. Few players have waited on the sidelines as long or as uncomplainingly as the wicketkeeper, Brad Haddin, a man whose fate it is to be defined in terms of a man who can never be replicated. When Adam Gilchrist retired from international cricket at the end of the 2007-08 season, he closed the book on a career that transformed the expectations of a generation of glovemen, but his reputation didn't make the vacancy any less sweet for Haddin to fill.

"I think we talk a lot about icon series. You talk about India being the powerhouse of world cricket, and we've just been playing a very successful South Africa side over a pretty extended period," Haddin told Cricinfo. "But as a young kid growing up in Australia, the icon series for us was a five-Test series against England. We're pretty excited about the whole theatre of the event, and from a personal point of view, I can't wait to get involved right from the start of the first session in Cardiff."

Haddin toured England in 2005, but didn't get a look-in, while 18 months later, during the 5-0 whitewash Down Under, he was a distant observer, quietly plying his trade in state cricket for New South Wales. But now, at the age of 31, and almost a decade on from his first appearance for Australia in a one-off ODI against Zimbabwe in January 2001, Haddin is the man in possession and he's revelling in the opportunity. "If the opportunity had never arose I would still have been a happy man," he said. "I did everything I possibly could, I just happened to be behind one of the best ever to play the game."

Haddin has certainly been forced to earn his recognition the hard way. He was limited to just 21 ODI appearances in his first six years in the national set-up, and in that time he never played more than five games in a row. But metaphorically speaking, he managed not to drop the ball whenever he was called upon, and as a reward for his reliability, his tally began to rise after Gilchrist retired in early 2008. His most treasured possession, however, his baggy green cap, was not presented to him until Australia toured the Caribbean in May 2008.

Even then, the hard yards of his journey to the top had not been completed. During his debut appearance he fractured the ring finger of his right hand, but not only did he play on through the pain during the final two Tests of the series, he shrugged off an infection that set in as a result.

"I think Test cricket is the pinnacle," Haddin said. "Growing up in Australia, you want your baggy green cap, and you want to be tested over five days. It's the true test of where your cricket is at. Other forms are exciting and very good for the game, but Test cricket is the pinnacle."

His current Test average of 37.54 is testament to the fact that he's not about to let Gilchrist's vast reputation cramp his style. Haddin's longevity in the eyes of the selectors is down to the composure he brings to his performances. There is little that's flash but there's plenty of substance, as befits a cricketer with nearly 6500 first-class runs to his name.

"I see myself as a wicketkeeper-batsman," he said. "I think Adam changed the perception of how wicketkeepers are viewed, but I think if you talk to him he would also say he's a keeper first and a batter second, and I don't think that's changed. I'm a true believer that you should pick the best wicketkeeper available. You're a keeper first, and then a batsman.

"From a personal point of view, I've spent 10 years keeping to Stuart MacGill at the SCG. They talk a lot here of how the ball wobbles after it goes past the bat. But the beauty of Test cricket is that you do play in different venues, all around the world. I played 10 years of first-class cricket, travelling state to state and getting used to the conditions, but one of the attractions of Test cricket is going to India, West Indies, and all over the international stage, and testing yourself in all different conditions."

It didn't take long for Haddin's first examination of this Ashes campaign to come about. In glorious conditions at Hove on Wednesday, on the opening day of Australia's first competitive outing since the World Twenty20, their batting malfunctioned in the mid-day sun, as they slipped to 114 for 5 against a rookie attack led by a South African journeyman of Italian extraction, Pepler Sandri.

By the close, however, the scoreline had been transformed. Brett Lee and Nathan Hauritz eventually made the game look pretty simple as they piled on the runs in an eighth-wicket stand of 117, but Haddin's performance was the one that made the difference. He top-scored with a cool 69 from 119 balls, an innings of class and intent that reiterated, regardless of the low-key environment, that he has sturdy enough feet to fill some of the most daunting boots the game has ever known.

"I didn't find it tricky at all, stepping into Adam's role," he said. "The one thing I tried to do was make sure I was ready. I couldn't control when Adam was going to retire, if at all, so the bottom line is, all I was trying to do was make sure I was the best cricketer I could possibly be, and if the opportunity came down the track, all well and good, I'd be ready for the challenge of stepping in. I didn't waste too much energy thinking about what ifs, because it's something I couldn't control.

"I enjoyed my time on tours with Adam, because I could look at the set-up of Australian cricket, and learn how the elite players train. But taking over his role wasn't at the forefront of my mind. Six years before that I may have thought about it too much, but for the last five years it wasn't in my thought processes as much as people think."

Haddin was 30 when he eventually got his extended run in the side - coincidentally just two years older than Gilchrist himself had been in November 1999, when he finally took over from his own immoveable predecessor, Ian Healy. If nothing else, the two careers that preceded him proved to Haddin how precious it is to have the opportunity to represent your country. With that in mind, the succession couldn't really be in better hands.