Brad Haddin won't back down in war of words
Former Australian wicketkeeper Brad Haddin is amused by the unnecessary hype being given to the “newfound form” of England cricket in the limited overs. Australia’s arrival in England was followed by headlines about England beating New Zealand, 3-2 in the ODI format, which left the Aussie, amused and puzzled.
After winning the World Cup a few months back, the Australians are perplexed by the hype created by the English media. Haddin’s words indicate that the team intends to give a fresh perspective to the England team by the end of the five-match series.
"I don't really understand the hype around that one-day series, we'd just come off a World Cup. I don't understand what the excitement is about, and what this newfound form England found in that format.
"I'm a bit puzzled by it. We'd come off the World Cup and everyone had played - it was just like they were a couple of months too late. We played them in the first game of the World Cup when it counted and the pressure was on. I don't really understand the talk. Did they not enjoy cricket before then? I don't know. I don't really get where they are coming from. That might be my naivety." Haddin was quoted saying by ESPNcricinfo.
He was also amused after hearing about England wanting to follow New Zealand’s footsteps and avoiding instances of sledging. Haddin has been the key player to instigate sledging in the World Cup and stated that he wouldn’t back down in the war of words.
"I don't understand where they're coming from with this. I don't understand this 'pleasant' thing. I don't know what it is. I don't know what I'm meant to say to it. If you could explain to me what it is.
“ We fixed that [New Zealand] in the World Cup final, didn't we? Ashes campaigns are always played in the right spirit. Everyone's obviously highly competitive and there has never really been any dramas with sledging. I don't really see the need to talk about it," the wicket-keeper batsman added saying to ESPNcricinfo.
All-rounder Watson joins Haddin
Shane Watson also questioned how much it would be possible for members of the “new England” to change their prolonged approach on the field.
"I'm not sure if that's exactly in Alastair Cook's DNA, to be really able to put a game on the line. It's going to be interesting to see how now that Alastair Cook comes in and takes over the Test team, how they continue to evolve as a team, because it's very obvious in the one-day series they've played how they've really started to take on the game.”
"But you've also got to have the calibre of players and the quality of players to be able to do that so it'll be interesting to see how their game's evolved. I'm just very confident in the team and squad we have. I know if we play our absolute best I know we're going to be incredibly hard to beat. Wherever England are at, if we're at our best they're going to be doing well to beat us," Watson said.
The all-rounder also observed that England found their form in ODI cricket a little too late and is interested to see how this attitude would be palpable in the Test series.
"England have obviously turned things around a bit and we've seen the flair they've started to play with in one-day cricket, which is unfortunately for them a little bit too late because the World Cup has just been," he told ESPNcricinfo.
"They've got another three and a half years to go until the next one but it's good to see that they've moved with the times with how cricket is being played these days and they're going to have to do the same in Test cricket as well. They've got the quality of players no doubt to be able to do it, like what we've seen in the recent one-day series, but it's going to be interesting to see how they try and take us on."
Australia are set to play England in the first Ashes Test on 8th July in Cardiff.