Best Australian Batsmen In Tests Featured

Top 10 Australian Batsmen In Tests Since 1950

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All Test Ratings on the website are from 01/01/1950 onwards (Know Why). They are updated till 2026-02-05. Brief explanation of the ratings is given before each section (Detailed Explanation) and in the last section. Here are the Top 10 Australian batsmen in Test Cricket since 1950.

CONTENTS
1. THE CRITERIA
2. QUALIFICATION
3. PRIMARY CRITERIA
3.1. PROLIFIC
3.2. CONSISTENT
3.2.1. Against All Teams
3.2.2. Against Top Teams
3.3. ATTACKING
3.3.1. Against All Teams
3.3.2. Against Top Teams
3.4. BIG INNINGS POTENTIAL
3.4.1. Against All Teams
3.4.2. Against Top Teams
3.5. PRIMARY RATING
4. CONDITIONS CRITERIA
4.1. HOME/AWAY
4.1.1. At Home
4.1.2. Away From Home
4.2. FAMILIAR/UNFAMILIAR CONDITIONS
4.2.1. Familiar Conditions Rating
4.2.1.1. Non Asians Outside Asia
4.2.2. Unfamiliar Conditions Rating
4.2.2.1. Non Asians In Asia
4.3. CONDITIONS RATING
5. SECONDARY CRITERIA
5.1. LOW SCORING INNS
5.2. TOP FORM
5.3. IMPACT INNS
5.4. SECONDARY RATING
6. OVERALL RATING
6.1. BRIEF EXPLANATION
6.1.1. Dynamic Nature
6.1.2. Trend Setter (TS)
6.1.3. Top Teams (TT)
6.1.4. Abbreviations
Nations Filter

This rating filters the OVERALL Rating to show players only from Australia.

  • The Rating of the players from Australia remains the same as in the original OVERALL Rating.
  • Thus the Trend Setter can be from any nation and is not necessarily from Australia.

THE CRITERIA

CRITERIA CONSTITUENTS
Primary Runs, Average, Strike Rate, Top Inns
Conditions Home, Away, In Asia, Outside Asia
Secondary Top Form, Low Scoring Inns, Impact Inns

QUALIFICATION

Min Innings (TT) 30
Min Career Runs 1000

PRIMARY CRITERIA

The Primary Rating is divided into 4 main sections:-

CRITERIA STAT POINTS
Prolific Runs Scored 250.00
Consistent Average 400.00
Attacking Strike Rate 100.00
Big Innings Potential Top Inns (Runs) 250.00

PROLIFIC

The Eras

The time period from 1950 to present is divided into eras for this section. This is because less cricket was played earlier. To make it fair for earlier players they are compared with players of the same period with a slight reduction in points. Know More About Eras.

Era 1 MP before 1976
Era 2 MP between 1975 And 1996
Era 3 MP between 1995 And 2016
Era 4 MP greater than 2015

Criteria: Points For Runs Scored

RANK ERA 1 NAT FP LP MP INNS RUNS RAT
TS G Boycott ENG 1964 1982 1973 193 8114 230.00
1 WM Lawry AUS 1961 1971 1966 123 5234 148.36
2 RB Simpson AUS 1957 1978 1967.5 111 4869 138.02
RANK ERA 2 NAT FP LP MP INNS RUNS RAT
TS AR Border AUS 1978 1994 1986 265 11174 240.00
1 AR Border AUS 1978 1994 1986 265 11174 240.00
2 SR Waugh AUS 1985 2004 1994.5 260 10927 234.69
3 MA Taylor AUS 1989 1999 1994 186 7525 161.63
4 GS Chappell AUS 1970 1984 1977 151 7110 152.71
RANK ERA 3 NAT FP LP MP INNS RUNS RAT
TS SR Tendulkar IND 1989 2013 2001 329 15921 250.00
1 RT Ponting AUS 1995 2012 2003.5 287 13378 210.07
2 MJ Clarke AUS 2004 2015 2009.5 198 8643 135.72
3 ML Hayden AUS 1994 2009 2001.5 184 8625 135.43
RANK ERA 4 NAT FP LP MP INNS RUNS RAT
TS JE Root ENG 2012 2026 2019 298 13943 240.00
1 SPD Smith AUS 2010 2026 2018 220 10763 185.26

CONSISTENT

R Ave

Relative Average (R Ave) is a more accurate type of average. Know How It Is Calculated. Briefly, it takes into account:-

  • Strength of Opposition.
  • Positions at which a batsman has played.
  • Venues at which he has played.
  • Time Period in which he has been active

Criteria: Points For Relative Average

Min Qualification For TS
Min Runs 2000
Min Runs (TT) 1600

Against All Teams

RANK BATSMAN INNS NO RUNS AVE R AVE RAT
TS GS Sobers 160 21 8032 57.78 62.64 160.00
1 SPD Smith 220 28 10763 56.06 58.18 148.61
2 GS Chappell 151 19 7110 53.86 56.17 143.48
3 AR Border 265 44 11174 50.56 53.67 137.10
4 SR Waugh 260 46 10927 51.06 52.87 135.04
5 RT Ponting 287 29 13378 51.85 50.92 130.07
6 ML Hayden 184 14 8625 50.74 50.87 129.94
7 WM Lawry 123 12 5234 47.15 50.01 127.73
8 RB Simpson 111 7 4869 46.82 49.75 127.06
9 MJ Clarke 198 22 8643 49.11 46.94 119.89
10 MA Taylor 186 13 7525 43.50 44.59 113.90

Against Top Teams

RANK BATSMAN INNS NO RUNS AVE R AVE RAT
TS GS Sobers 124 16 6474 59.94 66.47 240.00
1 SPD Smith 169 17 8166 53.72 56.87 205.32
2 GS Chappell 99 14 4422 52.02 56.45 203.81
3 AR Border 187 31 7820 50.13 55.96 202.04
4 WM Lawry 82 7 3583 47.77 52.92 191.09
5 RT Ponting 184 16 8525 50.74 52.07 187.99
6 SR Waugh 162 21 6344 44.99 49.92 180.23
7 RB Simpson 75 5 3186 45.51 49.91 180.19
8 ML Hayden 128 10 5578 47.27 49.58 179.00
9 MJ Clarke 143 14 6076 47.10 46.25 167.00
10 MA Taylor 105 7 3868 39.47 44.00 158.87

ATTACKING

R SR

Relative Strike Rate (R SR) is calculated using the same method as R Ave with average being replaced with SR. Batsman who were active in earlier times benefit from this as SR was generally low earlier.

R4BF

Balls played by batsmen for many inns is not available for earlier times. When such is the case, we have used Runs For Balls Faced (R4BF) to determine the Strike Rate. This is the runs scored by the batsman for the available data of balls.

Criteria: Points For R SR

Min Qualification For TS
Min Runs 2000
Min Runs (TT) 1600
Min Average 25

Against All Teams

RANK BATSMAN R4BF BF SR R SR RAT
TS N Kapil Dev 4481 5580 80.30 90.81 40.00
1 GS Chappell 6740 13080 51.53 60.94 26.84
2 ML Hayden 8625 14345 60.13 60.79 26.78
3 RT Ponting 13378 22782 58.72 58.87 25.93
4 RB Simpson 2266 5160 43.91 56.32 24.81
5 MJ Clarke 8643 15457 55.92 53.66 23.64
6 SR Waugh 10927 22450 48.67 52.53 23.14
7 SPD Smith 10763 19966 53.91 51.34 22.61
8 WM Lawry 3217 8404 38.28 48.39 21.31
9 AR Border 11096 27035 41.04 46.28 20.38
10 MA Taylor 7525 18110 41.55 45.91 20.22

Against Top Teams

RANK BATSMAN R4BF BF SR R SR RAT
TS N Kapil Dev 3559 4345 81.91 93.76 60.00
1 RT Ponting 8525 14601 58.39 59.16 37.86
2 ML Hayden 5578 9737 57.29 58.79 37.62
3 GS Chappell 4422 9048 48.87 58.49 37.43
4 RB Simpson 1743 4038 43.16 55.29 35.38
5 MJ Clarke 6076 10638 57.12 55.05 35.23
6 SR Waugh 6344 13464 47.12 51.98 33.26
7 SPD Smith 8166 15568 52.45 50.30 32.19
8 WM Lawry 2328 6383 36.47 46.40 29.69
9 AR Border 7742 19453 39.80 45.47 29.10
10 MA Taylor 3868 9758 39.64 44.75 28.63

BIG INNINGS POTENTIAL

Ave HS

In this criteria, we have taken the top 7 scores of the batsman. Average High Score (Ave HS) is simply the total runs in the 7 innings divided by 7.

Criteria: Points For Runs Scored In The Top 7 Inns

Against All Teams

RANK BATSMAN 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 AVE HS RAT
TS BC Lara 400* 375 277 226 221 216 213 275.43 80.00
1 MJ Clarke 329* 259* 230 210 187 168 166 221.29 64.27
2 RT Ponting 257 242 221 209 207 206 197 219.86 63.86
3 SPD Smith 239 215 211 200* 199 192 178* 204.86 59.50
4 GS Chappell 247* 235 204 201 182* 182 176 203.86 59.21
5 ML Hayden 380 203 197 177 153 138 138 198.00 57.51
6 MA Taylor 334* 219 170 169* 164 144 142* 191.71 55.68
7 RB Simpson 311 225 201 176 153 153 115 190.57 55.35
8 AR Border 205 200* 196 163 162 153 152* 175.86 51.08
9 SR Waugh 200 199 177* 170 164 160 157* 175.29 50.91
10 WM Lawry 210 205 166 157 151 135 130 164.86 47.88

Against Top Teams

RANK BATSMAN 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 AVE HS RAT
TS DPMD Jayawardena 374 275 242 240 237 213* 195 253.71 170.00
1 MJ Clarke 329* 259* 230 210 187 161* 151 218.14 146.17
2 SPD Smith 239 215 211 192 178* 162* 144 191.57 128.36
3 RT Ponting 221 207 206 197 196 156 154 191.00 127.98
4 RB Simpson 311 225 201 176 100 94 92 171.29 114.77
5 AR Border 205 196 162 153 150* 146* 140 164.57 110.27
5 SR Waugh 200 199 164 160 157 150 122* 164.57 110.27
7 GS Chappell 235 182* 182 150* 144 131 124 164.00 109.89
8 MA Taylor 334* 170 169* 144 123 102* 101* 163.29 109.41
8 ML Hayden 203 197 177 153 138 138 137 163.29 109.41
10 WM Lawry 210 205 166 151 135 130 119 159.43 106.82

PRIMARY RATING

The total of the above four criteria comes out to be 1,000.00 points. The Primary Rating is the addition of the points a batsman scored in the four criteria. The Weightage of the Rating is 40 percent.

RANK BATSMAN PRO CON BIP ATT RAT PRI PTS
1 AR Border 240.00 339.13 161.35 49.48 789.96 315.99
2 RT Ponting 210.07 318.06 191.84 63.79 783.75 313.50
3 SPD Smith 185.26 353.94 187.86 54.80 781.87 312.75
4 SR Waugh 234.69 315.27 161.18 56.40 767.55 307.02
5 GS Chappell 152.71 347.29 169.10 64.27 733.38 293.35
6 MJ Clarke 135.72 286.88 210.44 58.86 691.90 276.76
7 ML Hayden 135.43 308.94 166.92 64.40 675.69 270.28
8 RB Simpson 138.02 307.25 170.12 60.19 675.58 270.23
9 WM Lawry 148.36 318.81 154.71 51.01 672.89 269.16
10 MA Taylor 161.63 272.77 165.09 48.86 648.35 259.34

CONDITIONS CRITERIA

The Conditions

The Conditions Ratings are calculated by applying the four criteria of the Primary Rating to diffirent conditions. If Innings are less than the Qualification than the Player gets 50% of the Points. Click on the Rating Titles to see how they were calculated.

The four conditions criteria and thier weightage is as follows:-

CRITERIA POINTS
Home 30.00
Away 120.00
Familiar Conditions 30.00
Unfamiliar Conditions 120.00

HOME/AWAY

HM/AW RATING

Points to note:-

  • U.A.E. is considered as a second Home for Pakistan and Afghanistan.
  • All Home and Away stats of Pakistani and Afghani batsmen are calculated accordingly.

At Home

Min Innings Vs Top Teams: 15

RANK BATSMAN INNS RUNS AVE SR RAT WTG
1 RT Ponting 154 7578 56.98 60.00 817.48 24.52
2 MJ Clarke 86 4654 62.05 57.92 766.73 23.00
3 SPD Smith 108 5301 59.56 54.92 733.86 22.02
4 GS Chappell 96 4515 54.40 51.24 733.21 22.00
5 ML Hayden 98 5210 57.89 62.88 696.72 20.90
6 AR Border 145 5743 45.94 40.10 690.20 20.71
7 WM Lawry 54 2818 56.36 40.01 686.06 20.58
8 SR Waugh 140 5710 47.58 49.41 684.81 20.54
9 RB Simpson 52 2443 49.86 46.19 631.06 18.93
10 MA Taylor 100 3993 43.40 40.45 591.58 17.75

Away From Home

Min Innings Vs Top Teams: 15

RANK BATSMAN INNS RUNS AVE SR RAT WTG
1 AR Border 120 5431 56.57 42.10 790.68 94.88
2 SR Waugh 120 5217 55.50 47.89 764.54 91.74
3 SPD Smith 112 5462 53.03 52.96 753.70 90.44
4 RT Ponting 133 5800 46.40 57.13 663.41 79.61
5 GS Chappell 55 2595 52.96 52.10 616.22 73.95
6 MA Taylor 86 3532 43.60 42.87 612.77 73.53
7 RB Simpson 59 2426 44.11 38.57 591.42 70.97
8 ML Hayden 86 3415 42.69 56.35 576.47 69.18
9 WM Lawry 69 2416 39.61 34.98 554.25 66.51
10 MJ Clarke 112 3989 39.50 53.75 549.16 65.90

FAMILIAR/UNFAMILIAR CONDITIONS

FC/UC RATING

Points to note:-

  • Unfamiliar Conditions (UC) is Outside Asia for Asians and In Asia for Non Asians.
  • Familiar Conditions (FC) are the opposite.

Familiar Conditions Rating

Non Asians Outside Asia

Min Innings Vs Top Teams: 20

RANK BATSMAN INNS RUNS AVE SR RAT WTG
1 RT Ponting 239 11489 53.94 59.53 854.33 25.63
2 SPD Smith 178 8769 56.94 56.15 808.44 24.25
3 SR Waugh 225 9722 52.55 49.35 781.72 23.45
4 AR Border 226 9375 49.87 40.49 775.83 23.27
5 MJ Clarke 161 7349 52.12 56.74 748.47 22.45
6 GS Chappell 145 6663 52.88 51.05 733.41 22.00
7 WM Lawry 105 4682 48.27 39.26 684.88 20.55
8 ML Hayden 149 6962 50.82 60.25 683.26 20.50
9 RB Simpson 103 4309 44.89 43.91 676.39 20.29
10 MA Taylor 162 6505 42.80 41.21 608.25 18.25

Unfamiliar Conditions Rating

Non Asians In Asia

Min Innings Vs All Teams: 10

RANK BATSMAN INNS RUNS AVE SR RAT WTG
1 AR Border 39 1799 54.52 44.25 742.31 89.08
2 SPD Smith 42 1994 52.47 45.84 667.28 80.07
3 ML Hayden 35 1663 50.39 59.63 634.81 76.18
4 RT Ponting 48 1889 41.98 54.23 614.54 73.74
5 MA Taylor 24 1020 48.57 43.87 601.96 72.23
6 SR Waugh 35 1205 41.55 43.80 568.65 68.24
7 MJ Clarke 37 1294 36.97 51.66 501.88 60.23
8 RB Simpson 8 560 70.00 NK 500.00 60.00
8 GS Chappell 6 447 74.50 59.28 500.00 60.00
10 WM Lawry 18 552 39.43 28.98 357.26 42.87

CONDITIONS RATING

The Conditions Rating is the addition of the points a batsman scored in the four criteria. The Weightage of the Rating is 30%.

RANK BATSMAN AWAY HOME UC FC CON PTS
1 AR Border 94.88 20.71 89.08 23.27 227.94
2 SPD Smith 90.44 22.02 80.07 24.25 216.79
3 SR Waugh 91.74 20.54 68.24 23.45 203.98
4 RT Ponting 79.61 24.52 73.74 25.63 203.51
5 ML Hayden 69.18 20.90 76.18 20.50 186.75
6 MA Taylor 73.53 17.75 72.23 18.25 181.76
7 GS Chappell 73.95 22.00 60.00 22.00 177.94
8 MJ Clarke 65.90 23.00 60.23 22.45 171.58
9 RB Simpson 70.97 18.93 60.00 20.29 170.19
10 WM Lawry 66.51 20.58 42.87 20.55 150.51

SECONDARY CRITERIA

Secondary Rating

It consists of three parts. If Innings are less than the Qualification than the Player gets 50% of the Points. Click on the Rating Titles to see how they were calculated.

The three secondary criteria and thier weightage is as follows:-

CRITERIA POINTS
Low Scoring Inns 50.00
Top Form 100.00
Impact Innings 150.00

LOW SCORING INNS

LSI RATING

Low Scoring Inns (LSI) are those inns in which batting average is less than 30.

Min Innings Vs All Teams: 15

RANK BATSMAN INNS RUNS AVE SR RAT WTG
1 SPD Smith 102 2665 27.76 48.79 732.83 36.64
2 AR Border 122 2879 26.41 33.76 702.00 35.10
3 SR Waugh 96 2288 26.30 44.44 679.09 33.95
4 MA Taylor 63 1608 25.94 37.60 605.34 30.27
5 WM Lawry 50 1267 27.54 31.65 581.75 29.09
6 MJ Clarke 75 1549 21.22 50.02 522.40 26.12
7 GS Chappell 58 1227 22.31 39.06 516.05 25.80
8 RB Simpson 44 1024 24.38 37.39 505.87 25.29
9 RT Ponting 76 1450 19.33 51.79 479.46 23.97
10 ML Hayden 46 890 21.19 57.61 446.69 22.33

TOP FORM

TF RATING

Points to note about Top Form Rating:-

  • TF is calculated by taking the best 50 consecutive innings of a batsman.
  • The inns are taken such that his points are maximum.
  • Only innings against Top Teams are considered.

Min Innings Vs Top Teams: 20

RANK BATSMAN INNS RUNS AVE SR RAT WTG
1 SPD Smith 50 3375 78.49 55.59 876.96 87.70
2 RT Ponting 50 3120 72.56 61.33 815.84 81.58
3 MJ Clarke 50 2810 65.35 62.46 813.87 81.39
4 ML Hayden 50 2945 65.44 61.74 768.28 76.83
5 AR Border 50 2637 64.32 42.82 711.67 71.17
6 SR Waugh 50 2476 61.90 44.94 706.28 70.63
7 RB Simpson 50 2446 53.17 43.61 697.64 69.76
8 GS Chappell 50 2430 59.27 50.47 693.64 69.36
9 WM Lawry 50 2481 55.13 39.39 685.62 68.56
10 MA Taylor 50 1968 43.73 40.68 567.99 56.80

IMPACT INNS

II RATING

Impact Inns are those innings which have an impact in terms of runs or strike rate. Know All About II. Points to note about II:-

  • A Batsman should score at least 30 runs to qualify.
  • An Inn is included in II if it is 15 percent of the total runs or
  • The SR is high or in a successful chase while being Not Out.

Min Innings Vs Top Teams: 30

RANK BATSMAN DIS II II/Dis% RAT WTG
1 SPD Smith 192 91 47.40 824.13 123.62
2 SR Waugh 214 91 42.52 812.75 121.91
3 AR Border 221 85 38.46 755.47 113.32
4 RT Ponting 258 101 39.15 722.72 108.41
5 GS Chappell 132 55 41.67 696.00 104.40
6 WM Lawry 111 46 41.44 694.42 104.16
7 MA Taylor 173 67 38.73 671.96 100.79
8 ML Hayden 170 69 40.59 652.04 97.81
9 RB Simpson 104 38 36.54 589.67 88.45
10 MJ Clarke 176 58 32.95 527.87 79.18

SECONDARY RATING

Secondary Rating is the addition of the points a batsman scored in the three criteria. The Weightage of the Rating is 30%.

RANK BATSMAN LSI TF II SEC RAT
1 SPD Smith 36.64 87.70 123.62 247.96
2 SR Waugh 33.95 70.63 121.91 226.50
3 AR Border 35.10 71.17 113.32 219.59
4 RT Ponting 23.97 81.58 108.41 213.97
5 WM Lawry 29.09 68.56 104.16 201.81
6 GS Chappell 25.80 69.36 104.40 199.57
7 ML Hayden 22.33 76.83 97.81 196.97
8 MA Taylor 30.27 56.80 100.79 187.86
9 MJ Clarke 26.12 81.39 79.18 186.69
10 RB Simpson 25.29 69.76 88.45 183.51

OVERALL RATING

The OVERALL Rating is the addition of the points of all the above criteria. The rating is out of 1,000 Pts.

RANK OV RANK BATSMAN NAT PRI RAT CON RAT SEC RAT FIN RAT
1 7 SPD Smith AUS 312.75 216.79 247.96 777.49
2 9 AR Border AUS 315.99 227.94 219.59 763.51
3 14 SR Waugh AUS 307.02 203.98 226.50 737.49
4 16 RT Ponting AUS 313.50 203.51 213.97 730.97
5 29 GS Chappell AUS 293.35 177.94 199.57 670.86
6 34 ML Hayden AUS 270.28 186.75 196.97 654.00
7 42 MJ Clarke AUS 276.76 171.58 186.69 635.03
8 45 MA Taylor AUS 259.34 181.76 187.86 628.96
9 47 RB Simpson AUS 270.23 170.19 183.51 623.93
10 48 WM Lawry AUS 269.16 150.51 201.81 621.48

BRIEF EXPLANATION

Dynamic Nature

Most of our ratings are dynamic, and as new matches are played, the rating of earlier batsmen may change if current batsmen set new benchmarks.

Trend Setter (TS)

  1. TS is the player who does the best in a criteria.
  2. The rating of all other players are calculated taking the TS as the benchmark. Example:-
  3. TS Runs: 2,000; Player X Runs: 1,000; Section Points: 250.00
  4. TS Points: 250.00 (Max)
  5. Player X Points: Runs/TS Runs X 250 = 1,000/2,000 X 250 = 125.00.
  6. Ratings of all sections are calculated similarly with Runs being replaced by the Criteria Stat.
  7. Know All About the Trend Setter
    8. .

Top Teams (TT)

  1. An opposition is counted as a TT considering its Win/Loss (WL) Ratios in last 7 years.
  2. Home, Away, In Asia, Outside Asia and Overall WL Ratio is considered.
  3. The WL Ratio should be more than a certain value overall or in specific condition.

Abbreviations

  1. AVE - Average or Runs/(Inns - Not Out)
  2. BF - Balls Faced
  3. FP - First Played by Year
  4. INF - Infinite
  5. LP - Last Played by Year
  6. MP - Middle Played or (FP+LP)/2
  7. NA - Not Applicable
  8. NI - Not In Top
  9. NK - Not Known
  10. NO, * - Not Out
  11. NQ - Not Qualified
  12. OPP - Opposition
  13. R4BF - Runs for available data of balls
  14. SR - Strike Rate or Runs/Balls
  15. TS - Trend Setter
  16. TT - Top Teams

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