Brad Hodge by CricketArchive Staff REporter

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Player:

BJ Hodge

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DateLine: 7th May 2009

 

Brad Hodge was surprisingly dropped from the team with an average of 58.42 only five matches into his Test career in 2005-06. In 2006-07 he smashed 765 Pura Cup runs at 85.00 to force himself into the one-day side when Ricky Ponting rested. He was stranded on 99 not out when he hit the winning runs against New Zealand and was then one hefty shot out of reach when he posted an unbeaten 97 in the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy. The performances earned him a spot at the World Cup and he scored 123 off 89 balls against the Netherlands. After a brief spell with Durham in 2002, Hodge spent two productive summers at Leicestershire, leading them to a domestic one-day trophy in 2004 and making the county's highest individual score of 302 not out against Nottinghamshire the season before, but moved to Lancashire in 2005. Rewarded with his first Cricket Australia contract in 2004, he was picked for the India tour and considered for the opening Test, but narrowly missed a place taken spectacularly by Clarke.