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As bizarre as it sounds, Mitchell Johnson might win four man-of-the-match awards and still not be man of the series.
Johnson has walked away with the prize in three of the four Tests so far, and already has his first of what could be another bag of wickets here in Sydney. He currently has 32 for the series. But in terms of players who’ve consistently had an impact, Johnson has an equal in Australian wicketkeeper Brad Haddin.
The numbers are one thing: with 465 runs, he’s the second-highest scorer from either side, and his 66.42 is the best average.
He’s also nine runs from the all-time series aggregate for a ‘keeper batting outside the top six. But that still doesn’t convey how influential he has been.
Without Haddin, Australia would not have regained the Ashes.
Time after time, his counterattacking batting has rescued Australia’s stuttering top order, especially in the first innings of matches. Haddin’s lowest score across those five first innings is 55. Overall he’s had seven innings, and crossed 50 in six.
While Australia’s top six have made eight centuries between them, only three have been in the first innings. Those batsmen have rarely clicked at the same time. Every match has seen the side in a vulnerable position.
In Brisbane, Haddin came to the crease with Australia at 100/5. He found a partner in Mitchell Johnson, and took the score to 295 by the time he was last man out for 94.
In Adelaide, Australia’s best start of 257/5 could still have ended up in the low 300s, but Haddin scored 118 and it ended up at 570.
At the WACA in Perth, 143/5 became 385, with Haddin’s 55 moving the score on to 267/6 by the time he was dismissed. Steve Smith carried the total further by scoring a hundred.
Melbourne’s 112/5 prompted a top-scoring 65 from Haddin, including a 40-run partnership for the last wicket before Haddin was out with the score improved to 204. It was enough to get Australia to a win.
Then here in the fifth Test in Sydney, Australia’s worst start of 97/5 became 325 by half an hour before stumps, with Haddin’s 75 having improved the position to 6/228 by the time he was out. As in Perth, Smith carried the final total further with the tail.
Haddin also scored a quick second-innings 53 from 55 balls to set up the declaration in Brisbane. His only low score – 5 – came similarly slogging for declaration runs after Shane Watson’s brutal hundred set the tone in the second innings in Perth.
This means the number of runs added with Haddin at the crease stand at 195, 101, 272, 124, 9, 92, and 128. Add to that some fine work behind the stumps for 18 dismissals, and Haddin’s case for man of the series begins to grow.
It’s not what he’s done, but the style in which he’s done it. His runs have not only come quickly, fluently, and at crucial times. England’s positions of dominance have been turned around in quick time, their momentum robbed, their enthusiasm sapped.
Dismiss him cheaply in any of those first innings and Australia would have been looking at some meagre totals against a far more vibrant England team.
Johnson would have been bowling in very different situations, and the whole direction of the series might have gone differently.
As far as records for a wicketkeeper in a single series go, Haddin is eight runs from equalling Adam Gilchrist’s 473, the highest aggregate by a ‘keeper batting outside the top six.
Gilchrist of course scored his in three Tests against South Africa, on the back of what was then the world’s fastest double century.
19 runs and Haddin would level West Indies ‘keeper Gerry Alexander’s tally from the 1960/61 series against Australia.
Alexander scored most of his runs from number seven and eight, but did move up to six for his final innings of 73.
Only three other wicketkeepers have scored more in a series, all from the top order. Budhi Kunderan scored 525 for India as an opener against England in 1963/64.
Andy Flower produced innings of 183*, 70, 55 and 232, totalling 540 across two awesome Tests against India in November 2000, and averaging 270.
South African Dennis Lindsay remains top of the pile: 606 runs at 86.57 across seven innings in 1966/67. Lindsay’s sequence went 69, 182, 5, 81, 137, 131 and 1. Australia’s bowlers must have been relieved at that last innings.
For Haddin to be in that sort of company underlines what he has achieved this series, at the age of 36, having come back from a career written off by many of us, myself very much included. The performance is astounding from a man I’ve often criticised for his cavalier approach.
All too often, it seemed Haddin would play a strange shot at a strange time and throw his wicket away. This series, something has clicked.
There is of course a great deal of hypocrisy in cricket coverage. The lofted on drive for six is a fabulous shot as long as it clears the fence, and a reckless one if it falls a metre short.
This series Haddin’s aggression has come off. He has had his share of luck, never more so than being dropped twice on his way to a hundred in Adelaide.
He has driven over and wide of slip fieldsmen more often than I can count, cut over gully, hooked over and past men in the deep.
But a run like this isn’t down to blind luck. Whether England don’t know how to bowl at him, whether Haddin has made some technical developments of his own, or whether this is just the series where everything has clicked into place, he has undoubtedly produced the greatest batting performance of his career.
For years, Haddin has lived in Adam Gilchrist’s shadow. At last, he has stepped from it. As far as this series goes, he’s made himself every bit as valuable.
He deserves every plaudit, and those of us who said he couldn’t do it should gladly admit that we were wrong.
Geoff Lemon is a writer and radio broadcaster. He joined The Roar as an expert columnist in 2010, writes the satirical blog Heathen Scripture, and tweets from @GeoffLemonSport. This article was first published by Wisden India, in a new-founded Ashes partnership.