My top ten Australian Test players of the past 25 years

Australia has enjoyed a golden era of Test cricket since 1989, with 164 wins and just 60 losses. During this period the country has produced remarkable players who are among the greatest performers in Test history.

I have sifted through these big names, identified my top 10 and ranked them in order.

1. Shane Warne – 708 wickets at 25 from 145 Tests
Warne’s impact on the Test game was so profound that he was named by Wisden as the fourth-greatest cricketer of the 20th century despite being only halfway through his storied career at that point.

The most complete spin bowler in Test history, Warne is the main reason why I rate the Australian side circa 2001 as the best of all time, marginally ahead of the West Indies line-up from the 1980s.

Is he the No. 1 bowler the game has seen? I think so.

2. Allan Border – 11,174 runs at 51 from 156 Tests
Border gets awarded significant points for the level of difficulty he faced. In 1984 Australian cricket was at its nadir following the retirements of legends Dennis Lillee, Rod Marsh and Greg Chappell. Over the following five years, the Australian Test side was a shambles.

Through this period of adversity, Border was a rock, notching almost 4000 Test runs at 56. As his teammates crumbled against the rampant West Indies pace attack, he averaged 43, showing tremendous courage and determination. Had he the luxury of batting in the middle order of the dominant Australian sides of 1995-2008, his career average would surely have been far higher.

3. Steve Waugh – 10,927 runs at 51 from 168 Tests
What elevates Waugh above names like Ponting, Gilchrist, Hayden and Clarke was that he was at his peak during an era in which the quality of Test bowling was truly incredible.

Between 1993 and the end of his career in 2004, Waugh made 8761 Test runs at 57. In that period he regularly encountered some of the game’s best-ever bowlers at the height of their powers – Curtly Ambrose, Wasim Akram, Muttiah Muralitharan, Allan Donald, Waqar Younis, Courtney Walsh, Anil Kumble and Shaun Pollock.

Opposition bowling stocks were not nearly as strong during the careers of the aforementioned quartet.

4. Glenn McGrath – 563 wickets at 22 from 124 Tests
Has there been a more consistent Test bowler than McGrath? At his best, between 1995 and 2005, he only once averaged more than 23 in a calendar year. His uncomplicated style earned him success in all conditions.

At home his career average was 22. Outside Australia it was 21. On the subcontinent, the most difficult of environments for pacemen, he excelled with 72 wickets at 23.

Perhaps the best measure of his excellence was his ascendancy over two of Test cricket’s supreme batsmen, Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara. He dismissed that pair a collective 21 times, while conceding 35 runs per wicket.

5. Ricky Ponting – 13,378 runs at 52 from 168 Tests
In full flight, Ponting was neck and neck with Lara as the most unstoppable Test batsman I have seen. Circa 2002 he was nigh-on impossible to bowl to. Phenomenally quick on his feet and swift to judge length, he gave bowlers zero margin for error.

In the five-year period from 2002 to 2006 Ponting churned out 6141 runs at 72, including 24 centuries in just 57 Tests. This is one of the most remarkable sequences in the history of Test cricket.

6. Adam Gilchrist – 5570 runs at 48, and 416 dismissals, in 96 Tests
The strength of Australian cricket the past 25 years is highlighted by the fact that Gilchrist only now appears on this list. I considered having him as high as fourth but couldn’t place him ahead of durable champions McGrath and Ponting. So here we have the best wicketkeeper-batsman in Test history stuck down in sixth.

The Australian Test side was already a juggernaut when Gilchrist debuted in 1999 but they want to a new level thanks to his destructive batting, which frequently left opposition sides demoralised.

7. Matthew Hayden – 8625 runs at 51 in 103 Tests
Hayden is slightly behind Ponting and Lara as a rampant Test batsman. From 2001 to 2005, Hayden bullied attacks across the globe, attacking new-ball bowlers with a rare ferocity.

In that time he made 6366 runs at 60, including 24 tons in 66 Tests. Together with the pugnacious Justin Langer he formed one of the top-five opening combinations in Test history.

8. Michael Clarke – 8240 runs at 52 from 105 Tests
How far can Clarke move up this list by the end of his career? His degenerative back condition could cut his playing days short, but he should, at a minimum, crack the 10,000-run mark.

A wondrous player of spin and perhaps the cleverest and most innovative Test skipper I have seen, Clarke was comfortably Australia’s most valuable asset during their trough from 2010 to 2013. Now the men in baggy greens are on the rise he has an opportunity to play under less pressure.

If he can play until 36 he could well finish up with more than 12,000 Test runs and close to 40 centuries.

9. Ian Healy – 4356 runs at 27, and 395 dismissals, in 119 Tests
Healy’s commanding career has been overshadowed by the beguiling brilliance of the man who succeeded him behind the stumps, Gilchrist.

The Queenslander’s glovework was peerless, in particular his keeping to spinners Shane Warne and Stuart MacGill. That pair turned the ball at such an extreme angle it was a nightmare for batsmen, let alone a keeper forced to react with precision despite an often obscured view.

Healy rarely botched chances off the slow men and created many others. He was also a combative and versatile batsman who produced some of his greatest innings under heavy pressure.

10. Jason Gillespie – 259 wickets at 26 in 71 Tests
Comfortably the most underrated player on this list, Gillespie’s deeds were masked by those of the titans alongside whom he played. Genuinely sharp at his peak – he was clocked at up to 154kmh – Gillespie was also unrelentingly accurate and a cunning operator.

In 2003, his skipper Steve Waugh described him as “the best bowler in the world at the moment”. Waugh was not known for hyperbole. It was astounding praise given some of the bowlers who were playing at that time – Warne, McGrath, Donald, Muralitharan, Pollock and Kumble.

Gillespie was stricken by a range of injuries that saw him miss more than 35 Tests. If not for this poor luck he likely would have taken more than 400 wickets.

That’s the list. Those players closely considered who eventually missed out were Langer, MacGill, Mike Hussey, Craig McDermott and Mark Waugh.