Wisden overview
In the days before helmets and body armour became de rigeur, Colin McDonald was Australia's unflinching bulwark against the likes of Trueman, Statham, Adcock, Heine and Hall. He was also an adroit player of slow bowling, as he demonstrated on the Ashes tour of 1956; as Laker routed the Australians for 259, 107, 84 and 205 during his famous spells for Surrey and England, McDonald eked out 89, 45, 32 and 89. When England visited Australia in 1958-59, he finished the series with hundreds in the last two Tests. But for an unlucky tour of the subcontinent a year later, his record would place him in the top flight of Australian opening batsmen. Gideon Haigh

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