Wisden overview
Strength is Matthew Hayden's strength - both mental and physical. It has enabled him to shrug off career-long carping that he is technically too limited for Test cricket because of the way he plays around his front pad, and latterly it has enabled him to touch rarefied heights of batsmanship. Before his maiden first-class innings, he asked if anyone had made 200 on debut, then went out and hit 149. The runs have not abated since. Tall, powerful and equipped with concentration befitting the triathlete, fisherman and surfer that he is, he batters the ball at and through the off side for days at a time. He has made himself reliable in the slips and gully, and is good for a relieving spell of medium-pace. His earliest Test matches were exclusively against South Africa and West Indies, a trial for any opener. They were not auspicious, but patience and willpower have since won the day, especially since the tour of India in 2000-01, where he slog-swept his way to 549 runs, an Australian record for a three-Test series. By the end of 2001 he had broken Bob Simpson's Australian record for most Test runs in a calendar year and formed a prodigiously prolific opening partnership with Justin Langer. Belatedly he came good in the one-day arena too, and by the time the 2003 World Cup rolled around he was ranked among the top three batsmen in both forms of the game. Greg Baum

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