Top 10 Australian Test openers of all time 

#1 Matthew Hayden

Matthew Hayden

Tall, strong and big-built, Matthew Hayden was one of the best opening batsmen of all time in world cricket. He announced himself with a brilliant 149 on first-class debut, which was followed by some consistent performances at the domestic level.

Like his fellow opener Justin Langer, Hayden’s Test career can be divided into two halves (pre-2001 and post 2001). Making his debut in March 1994 against South Africa, Hayden scored only 20 runs. Between 1994 and 2001, Hayden played only 12 Tests and had scored only 528 runs at a poor average of 26.40.

However, once he started opening the batting with Justin Langer, he turned around a miserable start to his career to end up as one of the greats in Australian cricket. He often bullied the opposition with the way he batted as he scored his runs at a very good rate.

He was one of the most dominant and destructive opening batsmen of all time. He scored 8625 runs in 103 Tests at a brilliant average of 50.74, and also scored 30 hundreds which at one point in his career looked almost impossible.

With these stats, it is not difficult to see why he is considered among the best Australian openers in history.