Top 10 Australian Test cricketers of all time
Australia is one of the most powerful nations in cricket history. It has enjoyed a lot of success in both primary formats - Test and ODI cricket. In Tests, Australia have always been regarded as one of the giants of the format, having undergone a spell of 16 matches won in a row twice.
Over the years, Australia have had a number of great cricketers who have represented the nation and have gone on to become the greatest cricketers of all time. Let’s take a look at the Top 10 Australian Test cricketers.
#10. Matthew Hayden
One of Australia’s finest and most explosive openers, Matthew Hayden made his Test debut in 1994 but did not become a regular for Australia until their Tour of New Zealand in 2000 where he scored fifties in both innings of the final Test at Hamilton.
Hayden later went on to become one of Australia’s finest Test batsmen and formed a formidable opening pair with Justin Langer. In 2003, Hayden scored 380 against Zimbabwe, bettering Brian Lara’s 375 for the highest score in Test cricket. However, his record was broken by Lara the following but it still remains the highest score by an Australian in Test cricket.
Matthew Hayden is the only cricketer who has scored more than 1000 Test runs in a calendar year five times, having done so from 2001-2005. Hayden was also a brilliant slip fielder, having taken 128 catches in Tests.
The left-handed opener retired from Tests in 2009 with 8625 runs (5th highest for Australia in Tests) from 103 Tests at an impressive average of 50.73 with 29 fifties and 30 hundreds.
#9. Greg Chappell
Under-arm bowling in the final ball of an ODI, spat with one of India’s finest skippers, not remembered well by the Indian players he coached, Greg Chappell has had controversies but we just can’t deny that at his prime, he was one of the best batsmen in the world.
Chappell scored a century on his Test debut against England and went on to become one of their most crucial players in the format. Chappell invented a unique stroke-playing technique where he played the ball in a narrow arc between mid-off and mid-on.
In 1974, Chappell scored 247 and 133 in a Test against New Zealand at Wellington which remained a record for the most number of runs scored in a Test match until Graham Gooch bettered it in 1990.
Over a 14-year long Test career, Chappell scored 7110 runs from 87 matches at an average of 53.86, hitting 31 fifties and 24 hundreds. Chappell was also a pretty handy part-time bowler, picking up 46 wickets with a spell of 5/61 against Pakistan at Sydney in 1972 being his best bowling figures in Test cricket. By the time of his retirement, Chappell also held the record for the most number of catches in Test cricket with 122.
Having scored 182 in his final Test innings, Chappell is one of four cricketers who have scored centuries in both their first and last Tests, with the other players being William Ponsford, Reginald Duff, and Mohammad Azharuddin.