It took Ryan Harris a long time to reach his peak, but for a short period, he was one of the most dangerous seamers in world cricket. He was named a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 2014.
Ryan Harris played his 27th and final Test for Australia in January 2015. He took 113 wickets at 23.52.
Ryan Harris finished the 2013 summer as he had started it, and as he has spent too much of his career – in the hands of a physiotherapist. Yet in between, he got through four consecutive Tests for the first time, and asserted himself as Australia’s best bowler in England.
Snorting, grunting and barging like a bull let loose in the ring, Harris has one of the international game’s more audible approaches to the wicket. His heavy frame and effortful run-up (as much a handicap as a boon) are belied by a smooth, quickish action and a supple wrist. The result – a repeatable ability to box batsmen into their weak areas, and gain natural variation with swing and seam – won universal respect, as did his competitive but genial manner. Harris – “Rhino” to his mates – was more responsible than anyone for England’s failure to reach 400.
“I was just trying to get enough balls in the right spot to create doubt,” Harris says. “But I was still frustrated at not getting consistent swing.” That came, he reckons, in the second innings at Old Trafford, but was followed by more frustration – rain. At Chester-le-Street, Harris again stood out, taking nine wickets. “We had solid plans for everyone. With Cook, it was not giving him balls to score off. With Trott, when we used the bouncer and put in a leg gully, we forced him to stop pressing forward and he had to change his method. Ian Bell, we gave him too much width, but to his credit, he was batting well enough to keep the good balls out.”
During the last, tumultuous day of the series, at The Oval, where Harris had bowled through England’s long first innings and was back out after less than two hours’ rest, his hamstring went again. The Australian physio, Alex Kountouris, ran on to the field to tell Michael Clarke that he should bowl him only if he really needed to. Clarke really needed to. “I was happy to bowl,” Harris says. “By that stage I didn’t care if I ripped it off the bone.”
His series ended with 24 wickets at 19, including Root and Trott four times each, nine caught-behinds, and an award for best Australian player. He appreciated that, “but winning the Ashes would have been a thousand times better” (Australian celebrations on the SCG outfield in January 2014 confirmed that much). But he had achieved his aim of being on the plane home with his team-mates, and hopes to have two or three more years to make up for lost time. “I do feel young at heart, because I started Test cricket late in life,” he says. “But one thing’s for sure now: I take nothing for granted.”
