5 highlights from Walter Hammond's career

#4 1928-29 Ashes tour of Australia

In his first ever Ashes representation, Hammond made an everlasting impression on the land down under. Moving away from the grey skies and green-tinged pitches of England, Hammond as thrilled he was to be playing under the sun on hard bouncy tracks of Australia, he knew that he would have to adapt to these conditions. Boy, did he do that well!

He discarded the fluency and charisma for a more cautious brand of batting that was sure to reel in bigger scores, and how effective did that maneuver turn out to be. Hammond started his run-scoring spree with a seven-hour double century in the second Test at Adelaide and in staggering fashion, repeated the heroics in the third Test. The fourth Test was slightly less productive, albeit by his standards as he managed pedestrian scores of 119* and 1117. His series tally of 905 runs still stands a clear way ahead of anyone to have played the game, only for the Don's record of 974.

It was a perfect example of acclimatization and a testament to the reasons behind his success in the sport over such a long period of time. He restricted his batting to scoring only with a straight vertical bat, with the majority of his runs coming in the "V".