The Ashes 2013: Australian team profiles, No 7 He carried on keeping to Johnson and Brett Lee, and it must have been hell, but it had been seven years since he had made his debut for Australia in one-day internationals, long enough for any apprentice, and he wasn't going to give anyone else the chance. Haddin kept wicket for the rest of that Test series, even though his finger became infected, before going home for repairs. Australia's 400th Test player had proved himself, slotting in as well as any mortal could have as Gilchrist's successor. He keeps in the Australian style. Whereas Prior squats halfway down, ready to spring to either side, Haddin crouches right down to the ground and comes up to take the ball, usually to his left side. It was the style of Ian Healy, Gilchrist's predecessor, who kept for Australia in more than 100 Tests and was in a position to mentor Haddin as a TV commentator. In the last Ashes series in England in 2009, Haddin was one of the few Australians to outperform his counterpart. Prior did well enough, scoring 261 runs at an average of 32 and making 12 dismissals. Haddin scored 278 runs at 46 and made 15 dismissals, and he missed the Edgbaston Test because he broke a left finger after the toss had been made but before the start, and England agreed to a replacement. Such a doughty performer, one would have thought, would have been exactly the sort of player for Australia's selectors to build their new team around. Haddin was old enough to have played with the great Australian cricketers at the start of his career, learning their habits, and one of those leaders that every team needs in addition to the captain. Ed Cowan, in his revealing diary of an Australian domestic season, recalled the influence Haddin had on the New South Wales team - and it was presumably similar on the Australian one. Cowan wrote of his early years with NSW: "The cocky 22 year-old got the shot kicked out of him. Looking back, he probably deserved it. And Haddin was the first in the list of five senior players that Cowan named for doing the kicking. It was strange, therefore, that Haddin was dropped from Australia's side for more than a year, from the start of 2012. It began in the West Indies, again: Haddin's young daughter was ill, and this time he flew home. Matthew Wade took over and played with extraordinary zest, scoring a century against West Indies, and when the Australians returned home Wade kept his place though Haddin had done nothing wrong. Wade however was almost too zestful. He liked to get into the batsman's ear - before he had mastered his own game. Healy, the eminence guise of Australian wicketkeeping, became frustrated with Wade: "He's not getting to the stumps, he's not taking returns well, he's not sharpening up the fielding effort. Even those basic disciplines weren't being created - let alone missed dismissals. Haddin is also a much shrewder reader of the game. He had captained Australia Under-19s, as a batsman from Canberra who picked up keeping as he went along. This may explain why he is an exceptionally good straight-driver, whereas most keepers excel with cut and pull. While a reserve in Australia's World Cup squad of 2007, Haddin spotted a slight change in Gilchrist's stance and forecast that he would hit the next ball for six. Gilchrist, of course, hit many balls for six; but this insight still made an impression. Indeed, when his Twenty20 franchise Sydney Sixers found themselves short of a coach for the Champions League in South Africa, Haddin not only led the team but coached it too. He knows his stuff, like the tough traditional Australian cricketer that he is. And this worth was illustrated last weekend when the Australians, chasing 260 to beat Somerset, wobbled at 204 for four. A rookie, James Faulkner, was at the other end, defending, and Somerset sniffed a chance to win. The veteran took control, with a few commanding strokes, like a straight-drive for six. Not since the Duke of Monmouth's rebellion in 1688 had a west country uprising been snuffed out so quickly.