The Tests are run and won for the 2022/23 Australian summer; and just like most summers in recent times, it was wall-to-wall Australian dominance.
The Aussies won four of the five matches played against a frequently hapless West Indies and South Africa, with only a rain-affected Sydney Test preventing a clean sweep of both series.
As a result, The Roar‘s official team of the summer is filled with baggy green caps, from captain Pat Cummins through to batting stars Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne and the Adam Gilchrist-esque Travis Head.
But while the Windies and Proteas were soundly beaten, a few of their number managed to rise to the challenge and leave with heads held high, along the way endearing themselves to the Australian public on the way.
Who made the cut… and which Aussies missed out?
1. Usman Khawaja (Australia)
387 runs, average 55.29, HS 195*, 2×50, 1×100
The most proficient opener across the summer, Khawaja ensured his selection in this team ahead of debutant West Indian opener Tagenarine Chanderpaul with his sparkling unbeaten 195 to continue his recent love affair with the SCG.
Unlike opening partner David Warner, Khawaja also made contributions outside his one major score: he scored a pair of first innings 50s in their Tests against the Windies to set a platform for the Australian middle order to cash in, while he made up for a lean start to the series against the Proteas in style to secure his third straight Test ton in Sydney, a rare feat.
2. Kraigg Brathwaite (West Indies)
196 runs, average 49, HS 110, 1×50, 1×100
Brathwaite’s Windies were totally outplayed in every facet across their two Tests, but Brathwaite’s stoic resistance at the top of the order made him one of the few batters to not meekly surrender to the Aussies this summer.
Together with Chanderpaul, they put on a 50 and century stand for the first wicket in Perth to blunt the hosts’ new-ball attack, with Brathwaite’s defiant second innings century forcing the match into a fifth day.
His captaincy wasn’t great, with his fields regularly coming under scrutiny; but with willow in hand, he led by example.
3. Marnus Labuschagne (Australia)
611 runs, average 101.83, HS 204, 1×50, 3×100
It wasn’t quite a repeat of the 2019/20 ‘Summer of Marnus’, but Labuschagne still scored comfortably more runs than anyone else across the five Tests.
Beginning in style against the Windies with three consecutive centuries – he now has an Adam Voges-esque average of 167.33 against the calypso kings – he fought through against the challenging South African pace attack (and Warner’s running between the wickets) to make a steadfast 79 in the Sydney Test.
His fielding was rarely short of sublime, with his efforts on Boxing Day in particular, running out Dean Elgar and diving full length to catch Khaya Zondo, drawing comparisons to some of Australia’s finest ever fielders.
4. Steve Smith (Australia)
486 runs, average 81, HS 200*, 1×50, 2×100
After filling his boots against the Windies in Perth with a double-century, his first in nearly five years, Smith had to be content with once again being in Labuschagne’s shadow for much of the rest of the summer.
But his enterprising 36 in the first innings on a spicy Gabba pitch helped put on, with Travis Head, the Aussies’ one substantial partnership for the Test, making it worth just as much as said double-ton. Furious with himself after throwing away a century in Melbourne, he wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice in Sydney, his 30th Test triple-figure score moving him past the great Don Bradman on the all-time list.
Like always, his slips catching was excellent – despite the efforts of third umpire Richard Kettleborough in Sydney to deny every low catch – while he even snagged the final wicket of the Boxing Day Test for his troubles.
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5. Travis Head (Australia) (Player of the Summer)
525 runs, average 87.5, HS 175, 4×50, 1×100
Labuschage may have scored more runs, but for the second summer in a row, there was no denying who the outstanding Australian batter was.
With a strike rate of 94.93, it wasn’t just the volume of runs the South Australian compiled, but how fast he racked them up. He smashed the Windies everywhere with the Aussies after declaration runs, then took the game away from the Proteas in Brisbane with a death-defying run-a-ball 92 on a pitch everyone else was barely surviving on, before again switching to declaration mode in Sydney with another 70.
The only man to reach at least 50 in all five Tests for the summer – and having taken three wickets with his burgeoning off-breaks – Head is the perfect complement to Labuschagne and Smith’s relentless accumulation, and following on from his Ashes heroics 12 months ago, might just be the most dangerous batter in world cricket right now.
6. Kyle Verreynne (South Africa)
168 runs, average 33.6, HS 64, 2×50
Verreynne’s average might not look like much, but across the first two Tests in particular, he looked the only South African capable of taking the fight to the Aussies.
In Brisbane, coming in at 4/27 on the opening morning, he showed offence was the best form of defence, paving the way for Head to do the same in the final session with a swashbuckling 64. His partnership of 98 with Temba Bavuma, alongside his 112-run stand with Marco Jansen on Boxing Day, were just about the only times in those Tests the Proteas weren’t heading back to the pavilion in a procession.
He’ll need to improve his wicketkeeping, but it’s not a stretch to say at this point, Verreynne is looking South Africa’s most assured Test bat.
7. Alex Carey (Australia) (wicketkeeper)
182 runs, average 91, HS 111, 0x50, 1×100
If there were any doubts about Carey’s place in the team, he well and truly put them to bed with an exceptional summer with both bat and gloves.
Rarely needed against the West Indies, his handy unbeaten 22 in Brisbane helped the Aussies pass 200 and gain a first-innings lead that would eventually prove seriously handy. But of course, his magnum opus came at the MCG, when he broke a nine-year drought for Australian wicketkeepers with his maiden Test century.
After some teething issues last summer, Carey’s glovework improved out of sight, with his work up to the stumps for the pacy Michael Neser in Adelaide worthy of any number of great Aussie keepers.
8. Pat Cummins (Australia) (captain)
15 wickets, average 15.8, strike rate 42.53, BBI 5/42
Another year, another dominant home summer for the best Test bowler in the game.
Able to take the new ball for the majority due to injuries to first Josh Hazlewood and then Mitchell Starc, Cummins was nigh on unstoppable for both the Windies and the Proteas.
Taking regular wickets, drying up the runs and doing it all while performing his captaincy duties with aplomb, the skipper’s five-for in the first innings at the Gabba saw him become one of just three bowlers for the summer, the others Nathan Lyon in Perth and Cameron Green in Melbourne, to record a five-wicket haul.
Even better were his efforts in Sydney, with his spell on the fourth evening nothing short of mesmerising.
Perhaps his only blemish was the bizarre move to give Ashton Agar the new ball on the final day at the SCG – over himself!
9. Mitchell Starc (Australia)
17 wickets, average 21.24, strike rate 44.65, BBI 3/29
He might have missed the last Test, but Starc had already well and truly established himself in the team of the summer.
The left-armer was simply too good for West Indians and South Africans alike, picking up 17 wickets – behind only Nathan Lyon for the summer – despite missing the final Test.
His effort to bowl with a badly injured finger during the Boxing Day Test, all the while looking just as fearsome as ever, was another sign that the man once derided by the late Shane Warne for being too soft is now a bona fide man of steel.
10. Nathan Lyon (Australia)
22 wickets, average 23.45, strike rate 53.95, BBI 6/128
Lyon is used to being the best spinner on show in series in Australia, but rarely if ever has the gap been so stark.
Where Roston Chase, Keshav Maharaj and Simon Harmer couldn’t buy a wicket to save themselves – remarkably, Kraigg Brathwaite was the second-best spinner of the summer – Lyon had no problems winkling out batter after batter.
An average of below 24 on pace-friendly Australian pitches is an extraordinary effort, no matter the quality of the opposition; while his six-wicket haul in the Windies’ second innings in Perth featured four of the top five, and ensured a relatively comfortable Aussie win on a still-benign pitch.
11. Anrich Nortje (South Africa)
7 wickets, average 31, strike rate 54.7, BBI 3/92
Virtually every summer, one bowler captures the hearts of the public through a combination of willpower, work rate and brutal pace. Last summer, it was England’s Mark Wood; in 2019/20, it was Neil Wagner; this time around, it was Nortje.
His average doesn’t do him justice: consistently threatening and always seriously quick, the batters often only needed to get anything on it for the ball to run away for four. But in between those, he gave the Aussies their biggest test of the summer (and in David Warner’s case, as he himself admitted, one of his biggest tests ever).
Whether it was his beauty in Brisbane to castle Steve Smith, or his lionhearted efforts in Melbourne despite the oppressive heat and being taken out by Spider-Cam, Nortje never stopped trying for his well-beaten side.
Twelfth man: Scott Boland (Australia)
10 wickets, average 17, strike rate 44.4, BBI 3/16
Boland became the nation’s resident cult hero with his Ashes heroics last summer; the novelty has worn off, but at the MCG in particular, the Victorian was just as popular as ever.
Once again difficult to play for great periods, especially with the pink ball in Adelaide, Boland is now officially the Aussies’ first cab off the rank when one of Starc, Cummins and Josh Hazlewood is unavailable.
He only misses the team of the summer by virtue of missing two Tests, where Starc only missed the last.
