Veteran Haddin likely to have just two Sheffield Shield matches to re-ignite Test career

Sydney, Aug. 7 : Veteran wicketkeeper Brad Haddin is likely to get just two Sheffield Shield matches with New South Wales to impress selectors that he is ready to resume his Test career this summer.

Cricket Australia (CA) released the 2012-13 inter-state season schedule on Monday, with the season to start almost a month earlier than last summer.

CA said in a statement that the earlier start is designed to give players ‘adequate opportunity to prepare and put their hand up for potential higher honours’, but an expanded Twenty20 Big Bash competition would''ve also been taken into account.

The Blues will play four-day matches against Western Australia and Tasmania in September before the first Test squad is likely to be announced to face South Africa at the Gabba.

The 2012 Champions League Twenty20 in South Africa from October 9-28, which includes Haddin and Cummins for the Sydney Sixers, means no Shield action has been scheduled for the Blues in that period.

Haddin didn''t play a part in the three-Test series against the West Indies in the Caribbean in April after returning from the tour for personal reasons, The Sydney Morning Herald reports.

In his place, Victoria''s Matthew Wade stepped up to make his Test debut and impressed with the gloves and the bat in testing conditions on slow, dry wickets.

Wade scored the only century by an Australian in the series when he made 106 in a man-of-the-match effort in the 75-run victory in the final Test in Dominica.

Haddin will turn 35 just before the first Test and he''ll need to score runs for the Blues to have any chance of dislodging Wade and adding to his 43-Test career.