Justin Langer

Justin Langer provided the yin to his opening partner Matthew Hayden's yang. Short and pugnacious, he was more of a grafter to Hayden's bludgeoning marauder, effectively cutting and driving, and not shy of indulging in unseemly cross-bat hoicks from the start of innings.

Though long seen as someone always scrabbling for his spot in the side, Langer finished with more Test hundreds than Australian national treasures Doug Walters, Ian Chappell, Mark Waugh and Bill Lawry. In 2004, he made an eye-popping 1481 runs.

Clanged on the helmet by Ian Bishop on debut in 1993, Langer fought on to make 54, but he became a regular only late in 1998, when, playing at No. 3, he made his first Test hundred on the tour of Pakistan and followed it up with an unbeaten 179 and a fifty in Adelaide in the Ashes. The selectors seemed to be looking to mould Langer into the next David Boon, and for a while he exceeded even those lofty ambitions. After rescuing the all-but-lost Hobart Test of 1999 against Pakistan in the company of Adam Gilchrist - the third time inside a year that he had made a fifty and a hundred in the same match - he produced 144 in the next Test, and followed that up with a double-hundred against India in Sydney and a blistering 122 in Hamilton. Steve Waugh famously called him the world's best batter at the time. The admiration was mutual: Langer's devotion to Waugh fetched him the nickname Mini-Tugga, alongside JL and Alfie.

Langer's strong-willed performances were a highlight in a batting line-up that failed to fire against England in 2005, when, with 394 runs at over 43, he was Australia's leading scorer. He also took blows to the helmet and body - a common hazard during his career. In his 100th Test, against South Africa in Johannesburg in 2006, he turned into a Makhaya Ntini bouncer first ball, was taken to hospital for concussion, and considered quitting altogether before deciding on trying to bow out with an Ashes win. Once that goal was achieved with the 5-0 early in 2007, he joined Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath in retiring at the end of the series.

Langer took over as Australia coach in 2018, in the aftermath of the Cape Town ball-tampering scandal, and helped turn things around (though dubious concepts such as "elite honesty" were excoriated in the press). Under him the side won the 2021 T20 World Cup and the Ashes. He had had coaching success earlier, laying the foundations for the powerhouse Perth Scorchers side in the BBL, and he parlayed that into coaching roles in the IPL and the Hundred in the 2020s.