By Alexander Edds
All though the cricket season in Australia is over and the winter codes in full swing we cricket nuts may be looking back into the past and wondering what the definitive Australian XI since the Seventies is.
I have crunched the numbers and here is the definitive list of Australia’s greatest cricket team of the modern era.
Embed from Getty ImagesNo.1: Mathew Lawrence Hayden
Hayden successfully used his size and strength to intimate bowlers and score many quick runs for a pre-T20 era. “Haydos” would use all his might to send any bad ball straight to the fence, resulting in more than 8600 Test runs at an average above 50.
Embed from Getty ImagesNo.2: David Andrew Warner
Warner was the first batsman to bring T20-style batting aggression to the Test arena with a strike rate above 70. His controlled but aggressive batting style resulted in 8800 runs at an average of 45, telling the world that limited-overs aggression can lead to success in the Test arena.
Embed from Getty ImagesNo.3: Ricky Thomas Ponting
Ponting is the highest run scorer in the history of Australian cricket, and only behind Tendulkar on the global charts, with over 13,000 runs at an average above 51. His defining pull shot mixed control, class and power to become the textbook definition of the stroke.
Embed from Getty ImagesNo.4: Stephen Peter Smith
If one of Channel’s 9 commentators in 2010 had predicted that Australia’s young new leg-spinner would become arguably the greatest batsman of his generation, he would have been sent straight to Centrelink queue before the game even started. However, this now-fired commentor would definitely get the last laugh as “Smudge” would score nearly 11,000 runs at an average of 56 and counting, truly earning the nickname of “The best since Bradman”.
Embed from Getty ImagesNo.5: Allan Robert Border ©
The man who turned Australian cricket from a post-Chappell form drop to the team which would simply destroy the rest of the world combined for 15 straight years However, Captain Grumpy wasn’t just the skipper who nurtured the start of the most dominating era of Australian cricket, he also dug deep to score 11,000 runs, averaging 50.
Embed from Getty ImagesNo.6: Stephen Rodger Waugh
Steve Waugh was captain during the peak of Australia’s dominance, leading to Australia to a record making 14-match win streak. “Tugga” was known for slog sweeping on the right ball and minimising risk to stay around, scoring nearly 11,000 runs and, when required, working with tailenders to score crucial runs.
Embed from Getty ImagesNo.7: Adam Craig Gilchrist
If a captain 30 years ago sent the keeper in to open, crowds might have questioned their mental state. But Adam Gilchrist proved to the world that a wicketkeeper could do more than just add a few run here or there, becoming the aggressive middle-order provider of runs required to bat the opposition out of the game. He knew how to quickly score runs – 5570 to be exact.
Embed from Getty ImagesNo.8: Shane Keith Warne
This was without a doubt the easiest to pick (partly because I knew you guys would start protesting until I changed) but also 708 wickets are enough of a reason in themselves. If you somehow aren’t convinced, Warnie also beautifully controlled exactly how everything was going to happen, from what he’d bowl to the shot the batter would make to where the ball is going to hit the stumps: Every ball, every over, every game.
Embed from Getty ImagesNo.9: Mitchell Aaron Starc
Great mo, fast yorkers, tall as, left-arm express, scary bouncers above 150km/h all describe the intimidating Mitch Starc. If you manage to survive the first over, you will be forced to face reverse-swinging yorkers or high bouncers straight at your head. They’ll come at you so fast you won’t have time to react, and before you know it you will join his tally of nearly 450 Test
wickets.
No.10: Dennis Keith Lillee
If you ask most Aussie bowlers today who their hero is, they will say Lillee. He was everything you wanted in a pacer, fast, straight, accurate, loved. At one point had the record for most all-time Test wickets at 355 (422 if we include WSC Super Tests).
Embed from Getty ImagesNo.11: Glenn Donald McGrath
Before starting up his own charity, McGrath was known as a successful and consistent fast bowler holding the record for all-time wickets by a quick. “Pidge’s” 563 wickets came from the one thing every coach will force into your soul: “consistency”. Bowling at the same line, length, place on the pitch, and allowing the ball to swing just enough or for the batter to run out of patience, whichever came first.
Featured image: Shane Warne, Ricky Ponting, Mitchell Starc. Photo: Chris Brown/CC/Wikimedia Commons, nellistc/CC/flickr, Marc/CC/flickr