Matthew Hayden was nearly written off before breaking the Test record
After 13 Tests, Matthew Hayden averaged just over 24 with one century, and he was being compared to players who dominate at home but never crack international cricket. Then, on a 2001 tour of India, he piled up 549 runs in three Tests. Two years later he held the world record for the highest Test innings.
Hayden, a powerfully built left-handed opener from Queensland, spent years on the fringe. Picked for a 1993 tour of England, he lost out to Michael Slater and played a single Test in 1994 as an injury replacement. A maiden century against the West Indies in 1996–97 came amid four ducks, and he was dropped again. What kept him in contention was sheer weight of runs for Queensland, where he finished with 8831 in 101 Sheffield Shield matches.
The 2001 India series changed everything. His average on that tour was 109.80, an Australian record for a three-Test series, and from then on he was an automatic pick. He passed 1,000 Test runs in five straight calendar years from 2001, the first player to do it five times, and was one of Wisden's Cricketers of the Year in 2003. Alongside Justin Langer in Tests and Adam Gilchrist in one-day games, he helped power Australia's dominant era.
On 10 October 2003 in Perth he made 380 against Zimbabwe off 437 balls, overtaking Brian Lara's world-record 375. Lara reclaimed the record six months later with 400 not out, but Hayden's innings remains the highest by an Australian and the highest by any Test opener. He also won two World Cups, in 2003 and 2007, and in 2009 took the IPL's Orange Cap for Chennai Super Kings with 572 runs.
Off the field he is full of surprises. In 1995 his boat capsized near North Stradbroke Island and he, Andrew Symonds and another companion swam a kilometre to shore. He is a keen cook who fed teammates on tour and published two cookbooks, the first in 2004. A devout Catholic, he crossed himself on reaching centuries. He retired in 2012 and entered the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame in 2017.
Source: Matthew Hayden
