Katich's simple formula for success: Protect your castle at all costs

London, July 17 (ANI): Australian left-hand opener Simon Katich has a simple formula for success-Protect your castle at all costs.

Since winning back his Australian Test batting spot in 2008 as a makeshift opener, Katich has faced more than 5400 deliveries, many of them from pace bowlers, and his stumps have only been rattled twice in that time.

The first was when South African bowler Dale Steyn fired through the left-hander's defences in the 2008 Boxing Day Test and the second was last December in Perth, when he lost his leg stump to West Indian fast bowler Ravi Rampaul.

In the same period, according to the Sydney Morning Herald, he has fallen leg-before to fast bowlers only six times.

It is evidence that if rival teams' bowlers are to remove Katich they primarily need the help of their teammates in the field to do it.

From the beginning of the Gabba Test against the West Indies last summer, the veteran has passed 75 in nine of the 13 times he has been dismissed.

Even though only two of those innings progressed to centuries, Katich is still equal top, with Michael Clarke, for centuries scored by an Australian in that period.

It also has allowed him to accumulate almost 200 more runs than any other Australian batsman in that period.

One of the most baffling aspects of Katich's new found consistency since being recalled as a 32-year-old has been the lack of recognition on the international stage.

While the NSW captain is Australia's reigning Test player of the year and is averaging 56.19 over the past two-and-a-half- years, he has never reached the top 10 in the International Cricket Council's player rankings.

He currently sits at No.12. A solid performance next week at Headingley, such as extending his streak of scoring a half-centuries or better in a Test to 10, could finally change that. (ANI)