Why Brad Haddin should not be recalled

By Adrian Meredith

MELBOURNE, Australia (TheSportsNEXT) October 23, 2012: Australian captain Michael Clarke, vice captain Shane Watson and even chairman of selectors Inverarity have all said that Brad Haddin is in the mix for selection for the Australian test squad.

So allow me to say why this is a very bad idea!

First off, there is his age. At 34 years of age, Brad Haddin is far from a young fellow. Indeed, he is turning 35 this week. That is just about retirement age for professional cricketers. Matthew Wade, in comparison, is 24, soon to hit his expected peak (about age 28 or so). Wade should be getting better and better while Haddin should be getting worse. If all things were equal, you would pick the 24 year old ahead of the 34 year old every time.

Next, Wade is in great form. In his last match he scored 89 and took 7 catches (4 and 3). He averages 39.60 in his 3 test matches and has been taking dismissals well.

Wade is a far superior keeper. Wade is clearly the best keeper in Australia, while Haddin at best was number 4. Wade has always been 1st or 2nd best - most dismissals in a season and most dismissals per match.

While when Wade first started out, Haddin was a better batsman, right now Wade is superior.

Wade is in the team. Why drop him?

Haddin left the team due to his poor form. Granted that he finally left due to family reasons but he was likely to be dropped anyway. If you are dropped due to poor form, you need to do something astounding to return. Haddin hasn't done that.

Brad Haddin's recent form has him scoring 114 & 7 (as well as 2 catches) in the last first class match - and has followed that up with some decent scores in T20s. But in his 7 first class matches before that he failed to get to double figures once!

As far as having Haddin in as a specialist batsman, he isn't good enough, not by a long shot. At his peak, Haddin could have played in T20s and even ODIs but now there is no justification for him to play in any version.