Juan J. Monroe 
A
Set small text size
A
Set default text size
A
Set large text size
Here’s a weird team to ponder while you’re having your morning coffee.
A team of Australian Test players whose position in the Test batting order, on at least one occasion, matches the total number of Tests they have played for Australia. I told you it was weird.
1. Wayne Phillips
Phillips was a short and spunky Victorian right-hander who was selected to open batting in the Fifth Test against India in 1992 following Geoff Marsh’s poor form in the previous two Tests. He scored a total of 22 runs in his only test.
2. Robbie Kerr
The Queensland right-hander played in the second and third Tests against New Zealand in 1985 but failed to impress, averaging just 7.75 in four sets, and then lost his place to Geoff Marsh .
3. Trevor Chappell
After failing to impress with bat in the middle order in the first two Tests of the Ashes’ 1981 English tour, Chappell traded places in the batting order with struggling Graham Yallop and came on to number three , where he scored just 27 and eight. before permanently losing his place in the team to Martin Kent.
(Photo by S&G/PA Images via Getty Images)
4.Bill Watson
The 24-year-old found himself opening the batting for Australia alongside Colin McDonald, after just four top class games for NSW, against Frank Tyson and Brian Statham in the fifth Test against the visiting England in February 1955. He did enough to earn his place on the following West Indies tour where he played three Tests to place number four, finishing with a best score of 30 before losing his place in the team.
5.Graeme Watson
Watson was a handy all-rounder who was snatched from the Victorian Sheffield Shield side to join the tour of South Africa at the end of 1966. He made his Test debut at the second Test in Cape Town where he hit at eight and played the first. change, and went on to play three Tests in the series without replicating his top-class form.
He came back from a serious injury to take his next Test opportunity on the 1972 tour of England when he knocked down at number five in both legs of the first Test for a total of two runs. His final Test match came later in this series when he opened batting with Keith Stackpole.
6. Brad Hodge
How Victorian star batting Brad Hodge only ever played six Tests is a mystery known only to Australian selectors. He scored a class-leading 17,000 runs and had a Test batting average of just under 56. More used to hitting four or five, his only innings at number six for Australia came in the second inning. of the first Test against the West Indies in Jamaica when he arrived after night watchman Mitchell Johnson.
(Photo by Hamish Blair/Getty Images)
7. Len Maddocks (wicket keeper)
Maddocks was a very good keeper and quite a handy right-handed bat whose Test appearances were limited due to the presence of contemporaries in Wally Grout, Don Tallon and Gil Langley. He scored a vigilant batting 47 eighth for Australia in the first innings of his Test debut against the visiting England in December 1954 and won the first three of his 20 Test dismissals. He struck in seven different positions in his 12 Test innings, including opening the bat with Arthur Morris on one occasion, and struck out seven times twice.
8. Johnny Martin
Martin was a popular left leg spinner and big-hit batsman from northern New South Wales who was in and out of the Australian team in the mid-1960s. He hit anywhere from six and could really hit the ball really far. He never quite reached the heights as a Test match bowler, but once managed to take the wickets of Rohan Kanhai, Garfield Sobers and Frank Worrell in the space of just four balls.
9. David Gilbert
Gilbert was a more than practical Sheffield Shield bowler who unexpectedly got his test opportunity due to the unavailability of bowlers Rodney Hogg, Carl Rackemann, John Maguire, Rod McCurdy and Terry Alderman, who all joined the rebel tour 1985-86 in South Africa. Unfortunately, Gilbert’s right arm seams weren’t as effective on Tests, and he finished with just 16 wickets at 52.68 from his nine Tests. He was a fairly ordinary batsman and the highest he had ever beaten at Test level was at nine in the Third Test against India in January 1986 where he scored just one run.
(Photo by Daniel Pockett – CA/Cricket Australia via Getty Images)
10. Wayne Clark
Doubts over his bowling action didn’t stop Clark from being selected in Bob Simpson’s depleted WSC squad to face the visiting Indian team in 1977, and he made each position a winner, taking eight wickets in the game. He squeezed ten Test matches in his brief 18-month career and finished with 44 wickets just under 29, and won four wickets in one inning on seven occasions. He hit as many as nine in his Test career, without causing the scorers too much work, and only scored a total of four runs over six innings at number ten.
11. Bob Holland
As batsmen Bob Holland was a very good leg spinner, although he had his highest Test score of ten when he batted three in the Third Test against England in 1985 at the age of 39 when he was sent as a night watchman. He was a late bloomer, making his New South Wales debut aged 32 and his Test debut six years later at 38. He had sporadic success during his brief career, the highlight being taking ten wickets in a Test twice.
In my next article, we will find some opposition to the Australian team being drawn from some of the other Test nations, using the same election criteria.
