ADELAIDE, Jan 27: Brad Haddin is looming as the favourite to replace Adam Gilchrist as Australia’s next wicket-keeper following his shock announcement that he will retire at the end of the summer.

Australia’s selectors will not have to pick a successor until Gilchrist hangs up his gloves in March but Haddin is almost certain to get the job.

Although he has yet to play a Test, Haddin has been serving as Gilchrist’s understudy for nearly seven years and is a dashing wicket-keeper/batsman with a similar approach to the game.

Haddin has played 26 One-day Internationals and was a member of the Australian squad that won the World Cup in the West Indies last year.

Former Australian wicket-keepers Ian Healy and Steve Rixon said he was the obvious replacement.

“We are very lucky with wicket-keeping, we have got as close to Gilly as there is in Brad Haddin,” Healy told the Nine Network on Sunday.

“Haddin is the closest in world cricket to being able to emulate Gilchrist.”

Rixon, who has coached Haddin at New South Wales, told the Sun-Herald newspaper the 30-year-old was ready to make the transition to Test level.

“The Test side will not lose a thing with Brad there, he’s still young enough and certainly has the skills and the right attitude,” Rixon said.

“He has worked hard for this and he thoroughly deserves the chance to prove himself.”

Gilchrist plans to step down from Test cricket after the fourth Test against India ends on Monday but will play in the one-day series against India and Sri Lanka starting next month.

Australia’s next scheduled tour is to Pakistan in March and April, although that remains in doubt because of security fears, followed by a trip to West Indies in May and July.

A former Australia Under-19 captain, Haddin has played 86 first-class matches, scoring 5,229 runs at 41.17 and nine centuries. He has also taken 248 catches and 22 stumpings.

Haddin has scoring 693 runs at 31.50 and a high score of 87 not out plus 31 catches and four stumpings from his 26 One-day Internationals.

—Reuters