An authoritative yet level-headed left-hander, Matthew Hayden has established himself as the world’s premier opening batsman. His confidence and exceptional powers of concentration have seen him emerge as a prolific and consistent scorer at the top of the order for Australia, and secured his place amongst batting's elite.

A reputation as a hard-hitting opening batsman saw him make his international debut in 1993 against England. Matthew’s breakthrough finally came in Australia's 2000/2001 tour of India, in which he stood alone amongst the Australian batsmen. He went on to score a record 1391 runs in Test cricket in 2001 including centuries in four consecutive Tests against South Africa.

In 2002 Matthew was the runaway winner of Australian cricket's highest individual accolade, the Allan Border Medal, and named Australia's most outstanding Test Player of the Year.

Confirmation of his status amongst the top echelon of batsmen was given when Matthew recorded the highest individual score of 380 against Zimbabwe at Perth in 2003, surpassing the previous mark of 375 held by the West Indies' Brian Lara. Though Lara reclaimed the mark, Matthew’s innings remains the fastest triple century in Test cricket in terms of balls faced (362).

Matthew was named Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 2003 and in September 2004 was named by the ICC in the World Test Cricket Team of the year. In 2004 Matthew scored in excess of 1000 Test runs for the fourth consecutive year, the first batsman in the history of the game to do so.