Brian Booth - Test Career

Test Career

Booth was then selected for the Ashes tour of England in 1961; he and Victorian opening batsmen Bill Lawry, the two uncapped batsmen in the team, were regarded as the last two players chosen. Booth quickly gained a reputation for his attention to physical fitness. He led the Australians in their morning exercises during the sea voyage, which captain Richie Benaud made optional. After scoring 37 and seven against Worcestershire in his first match on English soil, Booth broke through for his first century for Australia, scoring 113 against Cambridge University in his fifth match in England. He made 59 against the Marylebone Cricket Club, but was overlooked for the first three Tests.

Booth scored 127 not out against Somerset, and in the next match against Lancashire, he was caught behind for 99 from the bowling of another Brian Booth. He played consistently, with two more half-centuries to earn his debut in the Fourth Test at Old Trafford in place of Colin McDonald. The series was evenly poised at 1–1, and Australia batted first on a pitch that initially assisted fast bowling. The surface was tinged with green and England fielded a pace line-up that included Brian Statham and Fred Trueman. Booth was struck in the torso by his first ball, a bouncer that did not rise as high as was expected. He managed to repel a spearing yorker on the second ball and compiled a battling 46, the second highest score on the difficult pitch, featuring in a partnership of 46—the highest in Australia's innings—with Bill Lawry. Australia managed only 190 on the bowler-friendly pitch. Booth only managed nine in the second innings before Australia retained the Ashes after an English collapse on the final day resulted in a 54-run win. In the drawn Fifth and final Test at The Oval, Booth came in with the score at 4/211 after the dismissal of O'Neill for 117. He featured in a 185-run partnership with Peter Burge. Booth was dismissed for 71 while attempting to loft the spin of Tony Lock over the infield, as captain Richie Benaud needed quick runs; observers felt the need to attack cost Booth his maiden Test century. Booth added three more 70s in the closing tour matches before the team returned to Australia.

The 1961–62 season was entirely a domestic season. Booth scored 507 runs at 42.25 with two centuries, against Queensland and South Australia. He placed 13th on the run scoring aggregates, helping New South Wales to win its ninth consecutive Sheffield Shield.

After scoring 72 in the opening match of the season and adding 41 against the touring Englishmen for New South Wales, Booth retained his place in the Test team for the 1962–63 Ashes series. He scored his maiden Test century in the First Test at The Gabba, compiling 112 in the first innings of a high scoring draw. Thirteen innings reached fifty, but Booth was the only player to reach three figures. English captain Ted Dexter attempted to shut down Booth's scoring by employing leg theory. In the Second Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Fred Titmus bowled outside leg stump with five men on the on side, but Booth completed consecutive centuries with 103 in the second innings. As a result of Dexter's defensive field placings, Booth scored at only half the rate he managed in the First Test. Booth took six hours to reach triple figures and hit only four boundaries. His innings was not enough to prevent England from completing a seven-wicket victory. Booth was unable to maintain his form for the rest of the season, with 34 and 77 in the Fourth Test in Adelaide being the only other times that he passed 20. Australia won the Third Test, drawing the series, and Booth ended the series with 404 runs at 50.50. He added a further three fifties in the Sheffield Shield as Victoria ended New South Wales' nine-year winning streak.

Booth started the 1963–64 season strongly. He scored centuries in his first two innings, recording 121 and 169 not out against Queensland and Western Australia respectively. In his rapid innings against Western Australia at the SCG, which took only 165 minutes, Booth reached 100 in 94 minutes during the second session of the day. In the lead-up to the Tests, Booth scored 63 for his state against South Africa but was unable to prevent defeat. In the Tests, he began the way he did in the previous season, with a century. Coming to the crease with Australia at 3/88 in the first innings of the First Test in Brisbane, Booth withstood an opening burst of bouncers from South African spearhead Peter Pollock. He went on to accumulate his Test best of 169 from 81 overs of batting, in a display that gained wide praise because of his elegant strokemaking. One newspaper proclaimed that his innings had "more Grace than the Princess of Monaco." Ray Robinson said "it was a tailored innings, fit to be put on display in a showcase and unrumpled by a single chance". South African skipper Trevor Goddard later said "We didn't mind the leather chasing, when he played so charmingly". Booth's innings was the highlight of a match that was uneventful in terms of cricket but notorious for the no-balling of Ian Meckiff. A broken finger sidelined Booth for a month and prevented him from playing in the Second Test, but he returned for the Third Test in Sydney, and began a sequence of 75, 16, 58 and 24. He finished the series in the Fifth Test in his home town, top-scoring in both of Australia's innings, with 102 not out and 87 in a draw. It capped off a productive fortnight for Booth; he had scored 162 not out against South Australia before the final Test. In four Tests, he aggregated 531 runs at 88.50. For the entire first-class season, Booth had struck five centuries and totalled 1,180 runs. According to Gideon Haigh, he had "played exquisitely" throughout the season, which was his career peak and saw him named the Australian Cricketer of the Year for 1963–64.