Richard
Cricket Web Staff Member
I really don't see how. That was the only time when an entire top-seven were playing for an extended period together and all scoring runs. Yes, Gilchrist is clearly a better batsman than Healy, but it's not like Healy was a complete novice, he averaged 37 for over half his career. That, for me, makes him perfectly capable of being included in a powerful line-up.
And as I say - there was a whole year where the batting was completely without weak-links. At no point since has such a thing happened again. Even if the wicketkeeper was a better batsman.
Following Border's retirement there was Michael Bevan and Greg Blewett - neither of whom will go down as especially outstanding Test batsmen - for a season. Then Ponting came into the side... but no sooner did that happen then Boon was jettisoned (inexplicably) and Bevan\Blewett came back. Also, Slater then lost-out to Elliott, who will certainly not go down as an outstanding Test batsman, whatever May Have Been, and Hayden, who unquestionably wasn't up to much at the time. This was also the time that Taylor completely lost form for a year. Then Slater came back and Langer replaced Bevan\Blewett... but that was around the time Ponting lost form and was dropped several times for Lehmann, who was yet to convince. By the time Ponting returned and finally established himself (he's not been dropped since) Taylor had retired and was replaced by a makeshift opener in Blewett. Then it was Matthew Hayden's turn (again) but he still didn't do much. Langer, too, lost form and was dropped for Martyn... which was an instant success but then Slater lost his grip (on many things, so we've since found-out). He was dropped and replaced with Langer who of course teamed-up with Hayden... but one Test later it was the end of the Waugh brothers as we knew them. Once Mark was finally dropped, Lehmann\Love came in... and Lehman still didn't convince and Love has hardly had a great career. Then Martyn missed some cricket with that broken finger. There were another couple of Tests where it was Langer-Hayden-Ponting-Martyn-Lehmann-Katich-Gilchrist, but that was just a couple of games and even so Katich, sadly, is not likely to go down as an especially outstanding player. Lehmann lost form and was replaced by Michael Clarke... but that wasn't too successful initially. By the next season, Langer was getting regularly injured, Symonds was into the side (for some reason) and Gilchrist was, possibly terminally, past his best.
You see what I mean? 1993 and 1993\94 was the only time there was a settled line-up of acknowledged excellent players who were all scoring runs at the time.
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