For someone once so maligned in cricket circles, things certainly are falling into place for Nathan Hauritz. Australian captain Ricky Ponting backed the off-spinner to become a Test mainstay before the tweaker was called into the national one-day and Twenty20 squads on Thursday.
The member of the 2003 World Cup winning squad has not played a one-day international for Australia in nearly six years with Brad Hogg having held a mortgage on the spin bowling spot until his retirement last summer.
The elevation continued Hauritz’s remarkable career revival after packing his bags for NSW in 2006 after Queensland said his services as a frontline spinner were no longer required.
The Blues refused to guarantee him a NSW contract when he first moved down with Stuart MacGill and Beau Casson their preferred spinning options and Jason Krejza also in the wings.
However he has persisted and fought his way into the national team in all three forms, benefiting from Australia’s thin spin bowling stocks following Shane Warne and MacGill’s retirements.
Hauritz was called into the Test side for the last two matches of the series against South Africa and did a solid job for the national team with five wickets at 50.80.
To top off his golden summer, he now qualifies for a Cricket Australia contract.
“Yeah I think he can (be a mainstay in the Test team),” said Ponting.
“He has got all the skills to be able to do that.”
Ponting praised Hauritz’s contribution in Wednesday’s dramatic Test win over the Proteas at the SCG.
“He was probably a little bit disappointed with the way he bowled in the first innings of this game,” he said.
“We sat down and had a good chat about the way he needed to approach things in the second innings and what we wanted to do with fields and how he wanted to bowl to different players.
“He did that really well for us. (Hashim) Amla’s dismissal was a big one in the context of the game.
“The thing about Nathan is he has got such a good cricket head on his shoulders.
“He knows how to get guys out. He knows a more defensive type mindset when required as well.
“I think he has definitely got what it takes to hold down that spinning spot.”
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