Wisden overview
Graham Yallop could make batting appear as natural as breathing, and played spin with crisp certainty. Yet on other occasions, especially against extreme speed, there was a suspicion of frailty; he was actually the first Test batsman to have recourse to a helmet. At 26, Yallop had the misfortune to lead an outgunned Australia (lacking their World Series Cricket players) in the Ashes series of 1978-79, where his elegance at the crease could not disguise tactical naivety in the field. His annus mirabilis was the season of 1983-84, when he scored a record 1418 first-class runs at 67.52, including 268 against Pakistan in the Boxing Day Test. But then a knee injury cost him a trip to the Caribbean, and signing up for an unauthorised tour of South Africa lost him his Test place for good. Gideon Haigh

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