The Silent Spinner

As the focus has turned to Australia’s fast bowlers, the injuries, performances and selections, the spotlight has finally gone away from our spinner dilemma.

And in the shadows, one man has quietly gone about his business and made the spinner spot his very own.

Throughout the year so far, we have seen Nathan Hauritz undertake a journey of vast improvement. He was good in the Ashes and his performances in the shorter form of the game after that have been outstanding. He has transformed from someone who Ponting would be reluctant to turn to, to a crucial part of keeping it tight mid innings.

He has done enough to make himself a permanent name in the Aussie squad. I feel that he is starting to become somewhat of a Brad Hogg in one dayers – probably even better than he was, and a more than capable permanent spinner in the test team.

After spending a lot of my time ripping into the selectors, for deciding on Hauritz and sticking with him I have to commend them, as it appears to have been the correct choice.

Reflecting on his performances since the Ashes, we see 9 wickets taken in the ODI series against England. Averaging 29 and bowling at a tight 4.46 runs an over.

He was spectacular in the Champions Trophy taking 5 wickets at 23.20 and crucially only going for 3.76 an over. He was instrumental in New South Wales’ triumph in the Champions League Twenty20 (not international and below standard but he was still really good) taking 7 wickets at the superb average of 14 and more importantly his economy was 6.25.

And finally in the recent demolishing of India, he took another 4 wickets and only went for 4.4 an over.

All the hype has been over our batsmen and fast bowlers, but I would put a large part of our recent one day success down to Nathan Hauritz. I can’t wait to see him in action in Oz over the summer.