Nathan Hauritz - International Career

International Career

Hauritz began his international cricket career when he made his One Day International debut against South Africa on 22 March 2002 at the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg. He subsequently went on to play seven more One Day Internationals between then and May 2003 before finding himself out of favour with the Australian selectors.

In November 2004, however, Hauritz and leg spinner Cameron White were surprise selections ahead of Stuart MacGill for Australia's tour of India. The reasoning given by the selectors was that as they intended to play only one spinner—Shane Warne—MacGill was unlikely to play so they would not lose anything by taking some young spinners instead, in order to gain experience.

However, Warne suffered an injury on the eve of the 4th Test at Mumbai, so Hauritz played, as it was too late to fly MacGill in. Hauritz took 3/16 in the first innings, including the wickets of Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman, and match figures of 5/103. Nevertheless, upon his return to Australia afterwards he found himself struggling to maintain a place in both the Queensland and New South Wales state first class sides and was not selected to play another Test again until four years later, when in November 2008 he was recalled back into the Australian squad for the 2nd Test against New Zealand at the Adelaide Oval to replace Jason Krejza who had suffered an ankle injury. Hauritz went on to take four wickets in the match, but was not selected for the next Test, against South Africa at Perth, as Krezja had recovered by then.

However, after Australia's loss to South Africa Krejza was dropped and Hauritz called in to the side to play the remaining two Tests.

Since Warne's retirement at the start of 2007, Australia had used Brad Hogg, MacGill, Casson, Krejza and White in Tests with limited success, and none played more than four in that period.

He played his third Test, the Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and was found to be quite economical, bowling 43 overs in South Africa's 1st innings for only 3/98. In the 3rd Test at Sydney, Hauritz scored 41 with the bat and although he went wicketless in South Africa's first innings, in the second he took the important wicket of Hashim Amla as Australia went on to win the match by 103 runs.

Following his performances in the Tests against South Africa in Australia, Hauritz was selected for the recipricol tour to South Africa, however, in the end he did not play in any of the Tests. Nevertheless he played in all five of the One Day Internationals, taking a career best of 4/29 in the first ODI against South Africa on 3 April 2009. He also went on to play in all the one-day matches in Australia's ODI series against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates where was Australia's highest wicket-taker, taking seven wickets in five matches. These performances led to his selection in squad for the 2009 Ashes series in England, where he has taken part in three of the five Tests that have been played to date, taking match figures of 6/158 in the first Test and 3/106 in the second. It was in the second Test, on 16 July 2009 that Hauritz suffered a dislocation of his middle finger on his bowling hand from the ball catching the tip during a 'caught-and-bowled' catch attempt and was unable to bowl at a crucial stage of the innings. Although Hauritz came back and took two quick wickets, England later went on to win the match by 115 runs. Again strong in the 3rd Test with 1 for 57 off 18 overs in his only innings. Australia played out a draw in the rain affected match. For whatever reason the selectors chose, Hauritz's performances were overlooked and NSW fast bowler Stuart Clark was picked for the fourth Ashes Test. Australia won the 4th Ashes Test, leveling the series and needed a win in the fifth and final Test of the 2009 Ashes. Hauritz again was overlooked on what appeared to be a 'spinners paradise' and Graeme Swann claimed 8 wickets for the match with England winning the match and regaining the Ashes. Selectors later admitted that not selecting Hauritz was a big error.

Hauritz was picked for the ODI series against England, where he performed well, playing all seven matches and taking nine wickets at an average of 28.77. He subsequently later took part in Australia's successful Champions Trophy campaign.

Hauritz remained a fixture in the Australian side during the 2009–10 season, fighting off injury concerns to play in Test series against West Indies and Pakistan. Most notably, he finished 2009 on a high with 5/101, his maiden five-wicket haul, against Pakistan at the MCG, and then replicated the effort in the next Test at the SCG against the same opponents, taking 5/53 in the second innings as Australia sealed a remarkable comeback victory.

Hauritz picked up his 50th Test Wicket in Hobart 2010.

Following the test series against Pakistan, the One Day Series against Pakistan and West Indies begun and Hauritz played every match, including 3/28 against the West Indies in the first ODI. The following tour was to New Zealand in which Hauritz played both tests, maintaining economical spells with regular important strikes. Notably was having New Zealand batsmen Ross Taylor pad up to a ball that turned back in sharply to strike him in front of the stumps, out LBW.

Due to an ankle injury, Hauritz could not take part in the test series in the neutral grounded test series against Pakistan in England and Steven Smith, the legspinning all rounder filled in for the two matches. Hauritz recovered from his injury to your India the following tour, however bad lucked combined with mediocre bowling at times resulted in a poor series for Hauritz which India won 2-0. There was criticism over his ability against the Indian batsmen, who are notably good players of spin. Ironically Hauritz has a great record against Pakistan who are also considered excellent players of spin.

Upon the return to Australia Hauritz found him self out of favour with the selectors with a focus on left arm spin becoming more apparent. Left arm Spinner Xavier Doherty was given one day international experience, taking 4 wickets. Hauritz was then left out of the first test at Brisbane for the 2010-11 Ashes series, a series in which he was a certainty to play in favour of Xavier Doherty.

Nathan Hauritz returned to First Class Cricket for NSW and begun participating in the Sheffield Shield, hoping to gain a test recall. He was a strong contributor for the side notching his maiden first class hundred, 146, breaking a long standing record for the most runs by a night watchmen in the Sheffield Shield and then followed that up with another hundred in the following game. He was also the shield's leading spinner at this stage with the ball taking 19 wickets at 26.78 including a career best 5/39 and match figures of 7/104 at the WACA. There were calls for an 'S.O.S' style test recall as Xavier Doherty performed miserably however the selectors included uncapped spinner Michael Beer for the Sydney Test despite Hauritz's better performances. At the end of the summer Hauritz was recalled to the ODI match against England in Hobart. His regain to form had Hauritz set for a World Cup berth but he dislocated his shoulder in the outfield while fielding a ball at Hobart, which subsequently needed a full shoulder reconstruction, ruling him out of competitive cricket for some time.

Hauritz's domestic season was not prosperous for NSW in the 2011-12 season, with NSW sitting last on the Sheffield Shield ladder. Hauritz moved back to his original State, Queensland with fellow NSW batsmen Usman Khawaja.