matthew hayden

Born: 29.10.1971
State: Queensland
Tests: 89
Role: Opening batsman
Bat: Left-hand
Bowl: Right-arm medium
Bat Average: 53.00
Bowl Average: n/a

Only a last-ditch hundred in the final Ashes Test at The Oval last summer saved Matthew Hayden from the axe at the end of a disastrous series.

His 138 in Australia's first innings has kick-started a resurgence and he's hit five more hundreds in a dozen outings since.

Hayden's Ashes woes seem to have helped him in a roundabout way, with greater patience a marked feature of his recent runscoring.

After years on the fringes of the Australian Test team, Hayden cemented his place in the side with an outstanding series against India in 2000/01. He drove and swept his way to 549 runs - an Australian record for a three-game series - and for the next few years enjoyed one of the most prolific and sustained spells of runscoring ever seen.

Much of this was down to his opening partnership with Justin Langer. The two are good friends, and their contrasting styles have seen records tumble and they must rank as one of the greatest opening duos in history.

Hayden briefly held the world record for the highest Test score after plundering 380 against a second-string Zimbabwe side, and later that year scored twin centuries against Sri Lanka to reach 20 Test hundreds in just his 55th Test.

Four years ago, Hayden set the tone for Australia's comprehensive Ashes win over England, smashing 197 in the first innings of the series at Brisbane.

England may have gone some way to taming him last summer, but Hayden has risen to fifth on the all-time list of Australian century-makers since then and is a man once again full of confidence and runs.