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Matthew Hayden is certain his recovery from a broken finger and a dog bite will not disrupt his preparations for the Ashes.

And he is confident the mental and physical changes he made to counter England towards the end of the 2005 series will erase his problems against Andrew Flintoff, Steve Harmison and Matthew Hoggard.

Hayden finished the last contest with a gutsy 138 at The Oval, an innings that saved his spot, and he will begin the upcoming event buoyed by last summer’s collection of five centuries and 1287 runs in 12 Tests.

“I sort of addressed those problems (against England’s bowlers) towards the end of the series,” Hayden said during the launch of his second cookbook.

“I was ensuring I was batting long periods of time. There have been a lot of runs under the bridge since then and there’s been great momentum towards the series. I’m very confident in the way I want to play this summer,” he added.

Jamie Siddons, the Australia batting coach, has spoken with Hayden and Justin Langer about the need to be more selective with their shots against Flintoff and Harmison while being conscious of playing Hoggard down the ground.

“They just need to be a bit more aware outside off stump, knowing what they can and can’t play,” he said. “The Poms bowled a bit shorter to us than had been bowled to us in the past, so letting a few more balls go early was pretty much the secret. Matthew and Justin worked that out by the end, we were just a little bit slow,” he added.

Despite being a heavy trainer, Hayden believes the time he missed will be forgotten quickly and his years of practice will kick in, starting with his return for Queensland in a one-day game against Tasmania on Saturday. He was cleared following a fitness test on Wednesday in Brisbane.

“I don’t think the finger injury has set me back at all,” he said. “I’m incredibly confident about the way I’m playing and looking forward to getting back on the horse. I’m not worried about it one bit,” he added.
Source:The News

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