2013/14 hero Brad Haddin aiming to be England's Ashes nemesis once again - but this time, off the field

Exclusive: Four years ago, time and again, the then 36-year-old wicketkeeper came in with Australia in trouble - now he's in charge of their fielders

Brad Haddin is hoping to be a thorn in England's side once again this winter (AFP)

Mitchell Johnson stole the headlines as England’s capitulated on their most recent tour Down Under but without the understated Brad Haddin, that 5-0 scoreline might have swung significantly in England’s favour.

Time and again, the then 36-year-old wicketkeeper came in with Australia in trouble. And time and again he took the fight to England and stole back the initiative.

Haddin topped the Australian averages after scoring five fifties and a century in just eight innings. If Johnson was an irresistible force then Haddin was a stubbornly immovable object, with 493 runs at 61 in the series.

It wasn’t simply the runs he scored, it was the pressure he was under when he scored them. Take the first Test in Brisbane as an example. The Aussies were teetering at 100 for five when he strode out to the crease. By the time he was the final man out – having scored 94 – his side had extended that score by another 195 runs.

England didn’t know it at the time, but his partnership of 114 with Johnson at the Gabba, proved to be the most significant act of the entire series, handing both a confidence boost that they carried with them until the stumps were drawn in Sydney two months later.

Haddin will again be involved in this winter’s series, although fortunately for England he’s now the Aussies fielding coach rather than their go-to player in a crisis. His presence on the sidelines, though, will be enough to bring back some painful memories for Joe Root and Alastair Cook, captains past and present and two players who, like Haddin, know the unique pressures that an Ashes series can bring.

Haddin thwarted England time and again four years ago (Getty)

“The Ashes is like nothing else,” he tells The Independent. “The pressure, the atmosphere, it’s unlike anything else you play in. I enjoyed playing at home, not just because you’re playing in front of your own supporters but because you’ve got 25,000 Barmy Army in the ground. In the UK, the grounds aren’t as big so you don’t get as much of that theatre. Out here, the atmosphere is just remarkable for pretty much every day of every Test.”

Not even the fervent support of the travelling hordes could lift an England side that lurched from disappointment to disaster last time out.

The glow from a comfortable hiding of the Australians on home soil just months before that series started soon became a distant one as Haddin and his team-mates completely dominated the tourists.

For Haddin personally, though, the series represented something far more significant than a simple battle between world cricket’s two oldest foes. The Brisbane Test was his first on home soil since December 2011, following his return to the sport after his daughter’s diagnosis with cancer in 2012 at the age of just 17 months.

Haddin was a key part of Australia's 5-0 win (Getty)

“I think we at a stage as a team in 2013 where everything just came together,” he says. “We had Mitchell coming back and, for me, it was a first home series since my daughter was ill. It was the first time Australian crowds had seen me for over a year after I walked away from game.

“From a personal level, I was ready, I was as excited as I had ever been and was really looking forward to the challenge of an Ashes series. We knew we had a bowling attack that could take 20 wickets, we just needed to post some runs.

“My main mindset was trying to change the momentum of the game. There were times I came in where the momentum was with England and my job was to try and wrestle that back into our favour.

“We thought Graeme Swann was their most important bowler because he had done a lot of damage to us for a long time. We made a conscious effort to go after him in that series.

“He had such a good record and we thought if we could get on top of him then, no matter what the situation of the game was, we could get their bowlers back for their third and fourth spells later in the day and have the opportunity to score quite freely. There was a bit of a method to my madness out there.”

Haddin is now Australi's fielding coach (Getty)

In the end, he drove England’s bowlers to distraction with an approach that saw him score his runs quicker than any other batsman, with the exception of David Warner, on either side.

Quite simply, England had no answer to it as time and again he thwarted their attempts to drive home an advantage and gain a foothold in the series. With Johnson firing like never before with the ball, the pair left Cook’s men with an insurmountable mountain to climb.

Only Ben Stokes, with a superb maiden Test hundred at the WACA in Perth, really took the fight to the Aussies and although Haddin clearly thirsts after a repeat of that 2013/14 mauling this winter, he would also like to see a genuine contest.

He’s in no doubt that Stokes’ presence Down Under would provide an additional edge to the series.

“The theatre behind an Ashes campaign is just so different,” he says. “As much as people say that they would like (Jimmy) Anderson out, (Stuart) Broad out or (Steve) Smith and Warner, you want to see the best go at each other. Or I certainly do.

“For someone playing his second Test match to go out and score a hundred in Perth, that says it all, really. On the cricket field, at least, he has definitely shown that he has the goods.”

Whether Stokes gets a chance to reprise those heroics remains to be seen but with Haddin back in the Aussies’ corner, England will have another fight on their hands.