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Injured Haddin in a race against time

Boof says national 'keeper needs to play before Test series

Update

Cricket Australia are hopeful that Brad Haddin will be fit for the Commonwealth Bank Test Series against India despite being ruled out of all five matches of Australia's Carlton Mid ODI series against South Africa.

Haddin badly injured his right shoulder while wicketkeeping in Australia's 2-0 Test series loss to Pakistan in the UAE and underwent further assessment this week.

Cricket Australia physio Alex Kountouris said despite Haddin responding well to treatment, he was unable to return to training to prove his fitness for the series against the Proteas.

"Whilst it is disappointing that Brad will miss the ODI series, the CA medical team are still hopeful that he will recover in time for the first Commonwealth Bank Test against India," Kountouris said.

Matthew Wade has been selected as Haddin's replacement for the first two matches in the 50-over series against the Proteas and will be among a handful of serious contenders for the Test position should Haddin be ruled out of the first Test, which begins on December 4.

NSW's Peter Nevill and Queensland stalwart Chris Hartley are strongly in the mix, while WA's Sam Whiteman and Tasmania's Tim Paine are also highly regarded.

Earlier

Australia's selectors will continue to sweat on the fitness of vice-captain Brad Haddin as the clock ticks on opportunities for the veteran 'keeper to prove he's ready to go for the summer's first Commonwealth Bank Test against India next month.

X-rays have cleared the 37-year-old of a fracture but the damaged shoulder joint sustained significant bruising.

The pressing issue is whether he will be passed fit in time to play in the final round of Bupa Sheffield Shield matches prior to the first Test against India which begins at the Gabba in Brisbane on December 4.

Australia coach Darren Lehmann, a member of the four-man National Selection Panel that will decide on the team for the Test series opener, indicated Haddin would need to prove his fitness in competitive cricket before he could be considered for Test selection.

Haddin's unavailability for the Carlton Mid ODI Series, the last game of which is on November 23, ensures he won't play in NSW's upcoming Shield match against the my FootDr Queensland Bulls beginning at the Gabba on Sunday.

Which means, as Lehmann suggested in a radio interview this week, the Test vice-captain will need to play in the Blues' subsequent fixture against South Australia at the SCG beginning November 25.

"He would have to play some cricket before the first Test starts," Lehmann told Brisbane radio station 4BC.

"There’s a Shield game before the first Test, so if he misses all the one-dayers then he would probably have to play that I would think."

While the selectors await the medical prognosis before considering their options for the first of four Tests against India, Haddin's Australian teammate Peter Siddle had no hesitation in declaring his vice-captain would shrug off the shoulder problem.

Siddle told reporters in Melbourne that the question of who might be best placed to fill Haddin's gloves should he fail to make muster would be made redundant by the veteran 'keeper's powers of recuperation.

"Brad's one of my best mates, so obviously I'd like him to be fit," Siddle said.

"Knowing how strong a bloke he is - and watching him try to bat in that last Test (in Abu Dhabi) - I know he won't want to give up the chance to play a Test.

"I doubt he'd miss, I'm 99.9 per cent sure he won't miss.

"We won't have to worry about (questions of) who's going to keep. You'll just be looking at him."

While Siddle’s Victorian teammate Matthew Wade has been named as Australia's 'keeper for the first two Carlton Mid Series matches in Perth and played 12 Tests from 2012-13, the selectors have a number of in-form ‘keeper-batsmen to consider should Haddin be forced to miss through injury.

Haddin's replacement in the NSW Shield team Peter Nevill, Tasmania's Tim Paine (who has played four Tests), South Australia's Tim Ludeman and highly-rated Western Australian youngster Sam Whiteman have all pressed claims.

And Lehmann was asked whether veteran Queensland 'keeper Chris Hartley, who starred for the Bulls as an opener in the recent Matador One-Day Cup, could come into calculations for a Test debut in front of his home crowd in Brisbane.

If that were the case, Hartley (currently aged 32 years and 174 days) would be the oldest Australian to receive a baggy green cap since Bryce McGain in South Africa in 2009 when the leg-spinner was six days shy of his 37th birthday.

"Chris has obviously started the year really well from a Queensland point of view and he'll certainly be talked about if Brad Haddin's not there," Lehmann said when asked about Hartley's prospects should Haddin fail to prove his fitness.

"I would think he (Haddin) would probably miss the whole (Carlton Mid) one-day series but they'll decide that, the medical staff, and then we'll just make a call from there."