Hayden unconcerned by disrupted start to season

Matthew Hayden is certain his recovery from a broken finger and a dog bite will not disrupt his preparations for the Ashes. And he is confident the mental and physical changes he made to counter England towards the end of the 2005 series will erase his problems against Andrew Flintoff, Steve Harmison and Matthew Hoggard.

Hayden finished the last contest with a gutsy 138 at The Oval, an innings that saved his spot, and he will begin the upcoming event buoyed by last summer's collection of five centuries and 1287 runs in 12 Tests. "I sort of addressed those problems [against England's bowlers] towards the end of the series," Hayden said during the launch of his second cookbook. "I was ensuring I was batting long periods of time. There's been a lot of runs under the bridge since then and there's been great momentum towards the series. I'm very confident in the way I want to play this summer."

Jamie Siddons, the Australia batting coach, has spoken with Hayden and Justin Langer about the need to be more selective with their shots against Flintoff and Harmison while being conscious of playing Hoggard down the ground. "They just need to be a bit more aware outside off stump, knowing what they can and can't play," he said. "The Poms bowled a bit shorter to us than had been bowled to us in the past, so letting a few more balls go early was pretty much the secret. Matthew and Justin worked that out by the end, we were just a little bit slow."

Hoggard was a constant threat with his inswing to the left-handers in England and both batsmen will be wary of moving too far across their stumps and overbalancing. "Hoggard's strength is the one that comes back in," Siddons said. "They have both worked hard on that and on hitting down the ground."

Siddons' time with Hayden has been restricted over the past two weeks after the batsman suffered a broken finger in a state game followed by a dog bite to his ankle during a visit to his parents in Kingaroy. "It was pretty simple, I went for a run and just got hit by one of the neighbours' dogs," he said. "I didn't see it, didn't hear it, and whack. It was a small setback because I was out with my hand, but it's healing up fine now." The dog has since been put down.

Despite being a heavy trainer, Hayden believes the time he missed will be forgotten quickly and his years of practise will kick in, starting with his return for Queensland in a one-day game against Tasmania on Saturday. He was cleared following a fitness test today in Brisbane.

"I don't think the finger injury has set me back at all," he said. "I'm incredibly confident about the way I'm playing and looking forward to getting back on the horse. I'm not worried about it one bit."

Hayden feels his position has also been strengthened after he was recalled to the one-day squad for the Malaysia tri-series in September with only a few days of training, and collected hard-working scores of 49 and 54. "I guess I've been playing so long that over time I know my game so well," he said. "It's not about the skills, performing over there [in Kuala Lumpur] was great, given the adversity of our preparation."