New Aussie faces

Ian Reid of The Baggy Green has given us some new faces in the Aussie squad for the next test match:

Here's a little bit of information on these two players who will be apart of the 13 man squad for the Boxing Day Test:

Ben Hilfenhaus:
A Tasmanian born and bred, who you may have read worked as a brick layer in his earlier years, while breaking through the Tasmanian ranks with impressive recognition. Something I wasn't aware of is that he is Ricky Ponting's second cousin. He has represented Australia once in ODI cricket, in the 2007 Commonwealth Bank Series, and twice in Twenty20 cricket, against England & India last year. A young man, who can swing a ball with genuine pace and control, he has one heck of an impressive first class & list-A record for himself. Every year for the last 8 years Australia have held the Allan Border Medal Awards, showing off and awarding Australia's stand out players during a calendar year of cricket. In 2007 he dominated in winning the Bradman Young Cricketer of the year award. He has gained good support from the locals, and often is a raise of opinion from cricket supporters, not just supporting Australia, as to why he is rarely in the starting 11. He has been apart of numerous tours such as The West Indies, The ICC T20 champions trophy and the Future Cup ODI Tour of India (where he only played a T20 match). On Australian conditions, especially down South by the MCG or the SCG, he could work some magic with the new ball.
Currently, after 6 matches in the Sheffield Cup, he is sitting a wicket behind Brett Geeves (who you may have seen against Bangladesh a few months back) with 24 wickets, and an average of 18.66, at an economy rate of 2.58!
So, we'll see how he takes on the Proteas if he gets a call up after a bit of a patience game, which he should do.

Nathan Hauritz:
Originally from Queensland, the right arm off-break bowler who after being sent over to India in 2004 to fill in the void for Shane Warne in the Border-Gavaskar Test series, picked up 5 wickets in the match on a dustball of the wicket. He returned to the state scene and was nothing but a flash in the pan it seems. After working hard to secure a place, he made a similiar move to that of Adam Gilchrist, in moving States to find better opportunity. He currently plays for New South Wales, and despite a few ODI performances for Australia (8 matches), it is rather a surprise to have seen him play against New Zealand in the 2 Test matches recently, where he played in one of them, and had reasonable impact, getting key wickets at the top of the order, and the bottom, which will be what Ricky Ponting will be expecting from him, which Jason Krejza sadly couldn't pull off. His statistics are far from impressive to the eye, but at 27 years of age, he is in the potential bracket for nuturing to the elite level, with the likes of Beau Casson/ Krejza and Dan Cullen.

With himself and Ben Hilfenhaus having the chance to play in Australia, on home conditions, it may be the right environment for these two players to make an impact to the viewers and the team's bowling, when it is most needed.

The man I'd watch out for is Ben Hilfenhaus, who has constantly been talked about each Test series, alongside Nathan Bracken and Doug Bollinger.

Cricinfo profile: Ben Hilfenhaus (Tasmanina Tiger)
Cricinfo profile: Nathan Hauritz (New South Wales Speedblitz Blues)

--
www.thebaggygreen.blogspot.com