Weather closes in as Haddin hints at playing future

If, as Brad Haddin has suggested, there was a Christmas Eve feeling of nervous excitement among the Australia players heading into their tournament opener against England last weekend, then Saturday in Brisbane looms as Christmas morning.

When they will wake in anticipation and hurriedly peel back the wrapping to see what’s been left for them and how that gift will, in turn, impact their demeanour and decisions for the rest of the day.

Now that Michael Clarke’s damaged right hamstring has been proved fixed, the default topic of conversation two days before Australia’s World Cup match against Bangladesh at the Gabba has become – in keeping with the conventions of social niceties – the weather.

And whether that weather being inflicted by multiple cyclone cells forming around the nation’s north-east coast will merely hamper or fully flood the match that was supposed to mark Clarke’s much-debated return to international cricket.

Certainly Haddin was in no doubt as to the role it was playing on his team’s preparation and the peripheral conversation surrounding Saturday’s match that brings together two undefeated teams in Pool B that is currently headed by pacesetters New Zealand.

“It changed (our) preparation a bit yesterday,” Haddin said after Australia’s training session was restricted to a series of fielding drills on the Gabba outfield before the first showers of what is expected to be more than a day of relentless rain forced them to the indoor nets.

“We got a bit more load into us than we normally would, it (training three days before a match) is normally an individual session but we had more of a team session thinking the rain was probably going to play a part over the next couple of days.

“But all it has done is delay the announcement of our team, to be perfectly honest.

“We’re not sure what we’re going to get when we pull the covers up, so the only news I can give you is that Michael (Clarke) is going to play.

“This was the plan all along for Michael to be right for this game – I don’t know what you guys (media) are going to do over the next couple of days because you might have to think of some questions about the World Cup rather than Michael’s hamstring.”

In addition to matters meteorological, that speculation vacuum is being filled by questions about the bowling attack the home team will take into a match against an opponent that’s defeated Australia once in an ODI (in June 2005) but toppled the Black Caps eight times in 17 meetings since that day.

Haddin kept alive the prospect that his team might unleash all four specialist quicks – Mitchell Johnson, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins – against a team that has scored just 21 victories over Test-playing nations in ODIs played outside the subcontinent over the past 30 years.

With 13 of these wins coming against Zimbabwe.

“There’s a possibility,” Haddin said when asked if the deployment of four genuine fast bowlers was the other issue featuring prominently on the radar.

“Probably if there wasn’t any weather around, that possibility would have been slim but now with the weather around there is definitely a possibility that we may go in with four.

“It’s actually hard to give you a team or what we’re really thinking because we’re so unsure of what’s going to happen with the weather and what’s going to happen when they pull the covers up.”

If the Australians opt for the more traditional make-up of three quicks and a handful of allrounders (Shane Watson, Mitchell Marsh and Glenn Maxwell) there is a chance express paceman Cummins might edge out his fellow New South Welshman Josh Hazlewood.

Cummins received a ringing endorsement from Maxwell after Australia’s training session at Brisbane’s Allan Border Field yesterday when the allrounder noted: “I just faced Patty Cummins with a brand new ball in there (the practice nets) and I don't wish that on anyone”.

And during Australia’s emphatic victory in their tournament opener against England last Saturday, former Test leg-spinner turned television commentator Shane Warne pushed the case for Cummins to replace Hazlewood as the 21-year-old offered greater versatility.

“I think he (Cummins) is our best bowler at the death, with Mitchell Starc,” Warne said on Channel Nine.

“I think he can bowl in the Powerplay in the middle, and if you need him to bowl at the top of the order he can do that too.

“Whereas I think Hazlewood is really an opening bowler, I don't think he bowls as well during the middle (overs) and he struggles at the end.”

And while the young fast bowlers battle for berths in an Australian XI that is expected to figure prominently in the knock-out phase of the tournament when that begins a month from now, Haddin remains non-committal on whether this tournament will be his last in Australia’s ODI colours.

The 37-year-old, who was part of Australia’s 2007 and 2011 World Cup campaigns, conceded that day of decision was not far off but hinted that if he was to continue in the international arena that was more likely to be in the Baggy Green Test cap than the lurid gold of the limited-overs game.

“I haven’t really thought about when I’m going to pull the pin but it obviously looks like I haven’t got many one-day games in front of me,” Haddin said.

“From my point of view, I’m just enjoying this whole campaign of a World Cup.

“It would be good to be around in a month’s time at the MCG for the finale but I’m just enjoying this tournament.

“Obviously it would be a great way to sign off from one-day cricket but I haven’t really thought about when I’m going to pull the pin – but it’s getting close, definitely from one-dayers.”