stuart macgill

Born: 25.02.1971
State: New South Wales
Tests: 40
Role: Bowler
Bat: Right-hand
Bowl: Right-arm legbreak
Bat Average: 10.20
Bowl Average: 27.20

Surely the unluckiest cricketer in history, Stuart MacGill would have won 100 Test caps if he was from any other era or any other country.

The second-best legspinner in the game today has had the great misfortune to play in the same era as Shane Warne, the greatest spinner ever to play the game.

Yet MacGill has still managed to claim almost 200 Test wickets at an average of 27 and a strike rate just over 50, the best of any modern spinner.

He has a big-turning legbreak and a better googly than Warne, but lacks his rival's mesmeric control.

When Warne was banned for 12 months, MacGill took 53 wickets in 11 Tests, but he is apparently doomed to be forever an understudy.

MacGill and Warne have shown they can play together, notably when the pair picked up 13 wickets against Pakistan.at the SCG in 2005.

MacGill has pleaded for the Australian selectors to play both leggies against England. With Shane Watson fit to fill the fifth bowler's spot and the tourists' long-standing weakness to wrist spin (MacGill has 39 wickets in six Ashes Tests), he may get his wish.

The 'cricketer with a conscience' - MacGill refused to tour Zimbabwe in 2004 on moral grounds - will hope for what could be his final chance to make the headlines for his actions on the pitch rather than his moral stands off it.