Hayden slump offers England hope

By Scott Heinrich

In my mind, what will happen is I'll fight my way back Matthew Hayden Hayden vows to bounce back

So another Australian summer finishes with the home side sweeping all-comers aside.

They continue to be the game's dominant cricket force.

But with an Ashes series in England only a few months away, is all as well as it seems in the Australian camp?

If England need any encouragement apart from their own recent Test form, it can be found in the slump of Australia's top-order rock, Matthew Hayden.

Hayden, the hulking, fearsome opener with the second-highest Test score ever and a career average of 54.6, is not having a good time of it at present.

The left-hander's loss of form since last year's tour to India has been well-documented, such is his pre-eminence.

No Test hundreds in 17 knocks and an average of 33.6 - coupled with a one-day return of 16.3 - prompted doomsayers to find voice and the selectors to drop him for the VB Series finals.

It was even suggested he should chuck in the one-day game, but his riposte was as forthright as any of his leg-side heaves.

"I see this as a temporary thing and I don't feel like I've finished playing one-day cricket," Hayden said.

Hayden's Test form has not been poor, just poor by his standards

"It's been a difficult summer. It is a fickle and very fine game and we walk that rope all the time as players."

All batsmen go through rough patches, but what makes Hayden's case intriguing is the notion that good attacks are starting to figure him out.

Revealingly, Harbhajan Singh takes credit for plotting Hayden's demise in India.

"He is a stroke-player, and we tried to take away his boundary shots. I bowled to him a lot and we learned our lesson from his last tour here," the off-spinner said.

"We had very good plans against him, where to place our fielders and how to bowl to him. We were successful."

Encouragingly for England, Hayden's wobbles were contagious at home.

Pakistan had Australia on the ropes more than once in the three-Test series, only for the Aussies to counterpunch their way to victory like all heavyweight champions do.

Positions of 78-5 in Perth and 171-5 in Melbourne both started with Hayden failures, as did the VB Series collapses of 30-5 and 85-5 against West Indies.

Hayden's asset is his buccaneering strokeplay, his brute strength and timing while batting well out of his crease.

Hayden failed to bludgeon his way back to form in the VB Series

His consistently excellent run of form since India four years ago - where he averaged 109.8 in a losing three-Test series - afforded the Queenslander an air of immortality.

Nothing he did in the middle seemed to surprise us: nine centuries in 16 Tests in 2001/02, tons in both innings against England and Sri Lanka, his colossal 380 against Zimbabwe.

But, now, with Hayden in the doldrums, the weapons which had served him so well look to be contributing to his downfall.

In the VB Series, he perished to shots that looked plain ugly. His desire at the crease became desperation and Hayden tried, and failed, to blast his way back into form.

With Michael Clarke slotting into the top-order with devastating results, more will be known about Hayden's one-day plight when Australia announce their squad for the imminent tour of New Zealand.

Hayden usually lets his batting do the talking, but maybe this time we should listen to what the man is saying.

"All I can possibly do is offer them a platter of runs," he said.

"In my mind, what will happen is I'll fight my way back and then it will be up to the selectors.

"We need to be at our [full] strength leading into the one-day tournament against England before the Ashes.

"And as I've said all along, I want to be part of that."