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There is robust debate about who is the best Australian Test batsman of all time after the incomparable Sir Donald Bradman.
Steve Waugh, Ricky Ponting, Allan Border and Greg Chappell are the players whose cases are pressed most often.
Ponting and Chappell are remembered fondly for their flair, while Waugh and Border are renowned as having been tough, grinding players.
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All four spent periods as the most valuable Test batsman on the planet. Right now, that title is owned by another Australian in David Warner.
After 33 Tests, Warner has comfortably more runs and more hundreds than any of those four legends had at the same stage of their careers.
The official ICC rankings have him listed as the sixth best batsman in the world, although he will soon rank higher as a result of his twin hundreds in Adelaide.
Arguments can be made for Sri Lankans Kumar Sangakkara and Angelo Mathews, South Africa’s AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla, and Pakistan veteran Younis Khan.
Those five players have all been prolific with the blade over the past 18 months. None of them, however, can change the state of a match as swiftly and comprehensively as the Australian opener.
The best sides place intense pressure on the opposition batsmen from the first delivery of an innings. Their quicks swing and seam the new ball around, offering little in the way of loose deliveries.
Their captains set attacking fields designed around the strengths of those bowlers. Their fieldsmen chirp and dive and eliminate the possibility of quick singles.
Against these elite sides, like South Africa and to a lesser extent Australia, it is easy for the opposition’s top order to be shackled and intimidated.
In this new ball period the bowling side often rules the roost and the batsmen are left to battle for survival. Eventually, as the batsmen get accustomed to the pace and bounce of the pitch and begin to predict the ball’s trajectory with greater ease, they become comfortable and start to place the fielding side under pressure.
But in that initial 10-15 overs when the bowlers are fresh and the ball is swinging, the fielding side have often built momentum already. If not achieved through wickets then this also can be done by cowing the batsmen and leaving them scratching for runs.
Batsmen who can withstand this period of tension and then go on to forge influential innings are highly prized.
Those who can flip the whole situation on its head are the most valuable players in the game. There have been few in Test history – batsmen who, in just the first few overs of an innings, can make the opposition feel as though they are under siege.
Warner doesn’t just score mountains of runs, he alters the tone of a match, sometimes in a matter of minutes. When he flays an attack in the first half hour of a Test it deflates the opposition and makes batting far easier for both his partner and those still to come.
He did this repeatedly last summer against England’s much-vaunted pace attack, and then again opposed to South Africa’s battery of awesome quicks.
On Day 1 here at Adelaide, India got their first sour taste of Warner’s brilliant belligerence. After just 3.2 overs, the scoreboard read 0-38 and a hunch had already begun to form in some of the Indian’s shoulders.
Coming off a woeful Test campaign in England and still bearing the wounds of a 4-0 thrashing the last time they visited Australia, the tourists needed to start this series brightly. Warner’s graceful fury promptly dimmed their hopes.
It is often said that cricket is 90 per cent mental and 10 per cent ability. It’s why intangibles like ‘momentum’ and ‘confidence’ play such a large role in the performances of players and teams.
No one in the game gifts his team more momentum and more confidence more often than the 28-year-old Australian. That’s why he is the MVP of Test batting.
Records After 33 Tests
David Warner – 2953 runs at an average of 50, including 11 hundreds.
Allan Border – 2593 runs at an average of 52, including eight hundreds.
Greg Chappell – 2533 runs at an average of 51, including nine hundreds.
Ricky Ponting – 2092 runs at an average of 45, including six hundreds.
Steve Waugh – 1682 runs at an average of 40, including two hundreds.