Don Tallon - Invincibles Tour

Invincibles Tour

Main article: Don Tallon with the Australian cricket team in England in 1948 See also: Australian cricket team in England in 1948 and 1948 Ashes series

Tallon's form saw him selected for the 1948 Ashes tour as part of the side that would become known to cricket history as the Invincibles. Tallon was the first-choice wicket-keeper, with Saggers as his deputy. Having spent the majority of his life in sunny Queensland and growing up in tropical Bundaberg, the cold English climate initially caught Tallon off guard. He did not wet his inner gloves as was his custom due to the temperature. As England agreed to make a new ball available every 55 overs, this meant that the ball would more frequently be in a favourable state for fast bowling, since it would swing more. As a result, Australia adopted a pace-oriented strategy and Johnson was the only spinner regularly used in the Test matches. McCool was not to play a Test on the tour, depriving Tallon of an opportunity to show his stumping abilities standing up at the stumps to his Queensland team-mate.

Early in the tour, Tallon struck an unbeaten 17 on a damp pitch in a low-scoring match as Australia defeated Yorkshire by four wickets. It was the closest that the tourists came to defeat for the tour.

Tallon had difficulty with the English conditions early in the season as he sustained a bruised right finger when he lost sight of a Ray Lindwall bouncer on a misty morning during a tour match against Surrey at The Oval and was hit as he put hand over his face for protection, with the ball running away for four byes. As a result of the injury, Tallon was rested for the following three matches.

Despite averaging more byes per innings than Saggers during the 12 warm-up matches, and sustaining an injury from a catching error, Tallon was selected for the First Test at Trent Bridge. He took four catches, including two difficult ones to dismiss key batsmen at the start of the second innings. He thus helped Australia to seize the initiative by denying England a good start, which was converted into an eight-wicket victory. The teams moved on to Lord's and Australia compiled 350 in its first innings. Tallon made 53 and helped the tail to "wag" and recover from a position of 7/258. Tallon did not concede a bye in England's first innings of 215 and his diving was estimated to have saved around 40 runs. One of the three catches he took stood out; it came when Washbrook inside edged a Toshack full toss directly downwards at Tallon's ankle. Bradman described the catch as "miraculous" because Tallon had to reach so low, so quickly, in order to take the catch. Another dive to stop a leg glance resulted in a severely bruised left little finger. However, Tallon also conceded 16 byes in England's total of 186. Australia won the Test, and Tallon was rested ahead of the next Test to allow his finger to recover.

The teams played out a draw in the third match at Manchester, where Tallon dismissed George Emmett from the bowling of Ray Lindwall with a diving one-handed catch. He also dropped Compton three times, allowing the English batsman to go from 50 to 145 not out as he held the hosts' first innings together.

Tallon's little left finger swelled up after the Third Test and he exacerbated the injury during a tour match against Middlesex, ruling him out of the Fourth Test at Headingley, which Australia won to secure the series. Saggers stood in and conceded the lowest percentage of byes conceded in a match total by an Australian wicket-keeper for the tour (0.697%).

Tallon returned for the Fifth Test at The Oval, taking three catches, including an acrobatic catch of Len Hutton down the leg side that was considered the catch of the season. He scored 31 as Australia sealed the series 4–0 with an innings win. When the last match of the tour against Scotland in Aberdeen became safe, with Australia in an unassailable position, Bradman allowed Tallon to dispense with his wicket-keeping pads and try his luck at bowling leg spin. Tallon never bowled in his Test career and only rarely in first-class cricket, where he delivered 301 balls, the approximate workload of a specialist bowler in one match.

Tallon had had moderate success with his batting during the Test series, aggregating 114 runs at 28.50. In 14 first-class matches, he scored 283 runs at 25.72. The Australian team strategy of primarily depending on pace bowling saw Tallon make 12 catches and no stumpings during the Tests; however, Bradman rested his lead pace bowlers Miller and Lindwall during the tour games to save energy for the Tests and allowed the spinners do more work, so that overall Tallon took 29 catches and 14 stumpings for the tour. Tallon was preferred over Saggers despite conceding byes at a higher rate; Bradman deemed Tallon to be more agile and better at taking acrobatic catches. Tallon's performances during the English summer saw him named by Wisden as one of its five Cricketers of the Year.