Author(s): Ryan Harris

Sport

'Harris is built like a bullock, he approaches the pitch like he's about to shoulder-charge a door. More often than not, the ball goes straight as a desert highway through to the wicketkeeper. When it does, the man who learned his trade on a dead Adelaide deck turns and walks back to try again. Harris is not a magician. He's just very, bloody good. ' - Geoff Lemon, The Roar. An eye-catching fast bowler, Ryan Harris seemed destined for journeyman status until he made his international debut in 2009 at the age of 29. By the end of the following year he had become one of Australia's most prized Test and ODI bowlers, but his worst enemy was his own body. A chronic knee injury will be with him until he retires, and in the third Ashes Test at the MCG, he broke a bone in his left ankle that required surgery and ruled him out for half a year. It was testament to how highly the selectors rated Harris that, despite being 31, they wanted him back for the 2011 Test tour of Sri Lanka. He earned that respect by grabbing nine wickets in his first two Tests in New Zealand and 11 in three Ashes Tests while some of his team-mates struggled. In his initial one-day games, he had been irresistible, with two five-wicket hauls in his first three matches. When Harris took his 100th test wicket in the 2013 Ashes series against South Africa, his reputation as a quality fast bowler was cemented. In his fast paced autobiography Rhino, Harris charts his career from the years spent as a fringe player in South Australia to the behind-the-scenes stories from the Australian test team and what it took to get there.