Register free now ><\/a><\/p>\n\u201cThe one thing we\u2019ve always done here at New South Wales is we hold high standards,\u201d Haddin told reporters at Silverwater\u2019s Cricket Central on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe expect a lot from not only our staff and our organisation, but our players as well. I\u2019m going to be no different with that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to expect a lot from this group.\u201d<\/p>\n
Haddin, who played 66 Tests and 126 ODIs before his retirement in 2015, previously served as the national team\u2019s fielding coach and worked as an assistant coach for the Sunrisers Hyderabad and Punjab Kings in the Indian Premier League.<\/p>\n
The NSW legend expressed enthusiasm at the opportunity to work alongside a young playing group that he believes features some \u201cgenerational talent\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI actually don\u2019t think they know how good they are yet, and that\u2019s what excites me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we can just free them up a bit and get some really good habits on what it looks like to be a professional cricketer, I don\u2019t want to put a ceiling on some of these kids, but they can do things that we wouldn\u2019t think about.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former player and now commentator Brad Haddin. Photo by Robert Cianflone\/Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images<\/p>\n
One of the Blues\u2019 most exciting young prospects remains Konstas, who has played five Tests since his unforgettable Australia debut during the 2024 Boxing Day Test at the MCG.<\/p>\n
The 20-year-old was dropped from the national side after last year\u2019s disappointing Frank Worrell Trophy campaign against the West Indies in the Caribbean, where he contributed 50 runs at 8.33 across three matches.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think when we saw his first Test match, the whole country was excited,\u201d Haddin said of Konstas.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t seen excitement around a player like that for a long time. Now he\u2019s got an opportunity to come back and hone his game and to get back to where he was.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he may have got thrown in there too early.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although he showed glimmers of excellence this summer, headlined by his Sheffield Shield century against Queensland at the SCG in December, Konstas looks set to lose his national contract ahead of the 2026\/27 season.<\/p>\n
Haddin acknowledged that although Konstas failed to notch a Sheffield Shield half-century since the Big Bash League break, he survived the new ball in each innings, never dismissed for less than 27 across eight knocks.<\/p>\n
Despite a seemingly underwhelming summer with the bat, the right-hander still finished as the Blues\u2019 leading run-scorer in the Sheffield Shield with 660 runs at 33.00. His challenge moving forward will be converting those starts into substantial, match-winning scores. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere are parts of his game that I\u2019m really impressed with,\u201d Haddin continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a look at his season recently and there\u2019s a lot of talk about where his game is at, but he got a start in every innings this summer. That\u2019s the hardest time to bat \u2026 he\u2019s getting through that initial stage at the top of the order.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce he starts to understand what his game is at and under pressure, look out. The kid can play.\u201d<\/p>\n
Konstas out for 31, Kuhnemann surprises | 00:55<\/p>\n
New South Wales was once the breeding ground for a generation of some of Australia\u2019s greatest players, including but not limited to the likes of Steve Waugh, Michael Bevan, Brett Lee, Glenn McGrath, Michael Clarke, David Warner, Steve Smith, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc.<\/p>\n
However, since the start of 2017, only two of Australia\u2019s 24 Test debutants have come from the NSW set-up, something Haddin is eager to rectify.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m under no illusions that I\u2019ve got to start to produce some Australian players,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom my point of view, I\u2019ve got to start to find some players ready to play for Australia.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s going to be retirements over the next few years, and we need the next guys stepping up to be NSW players. <\/p>\n
\u201cI want to tap into some of this talent and make sure that that\u2019s the goal for everyone.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy goal is to get as many players as I can playing for Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Newly-appointed New South Wales coach Brad Haddin believes young opener Sam Konstas was thrown into the Test arena…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44,85],"class_list":["post-549156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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