Siblings playing together for the same team is not new in cricket. The fans have seen many brother duos including the likes of Hardik and Krunal Pandya, Irfan and Yusuf Pathan, Tom and Sam Curran, and many more representing their national teams together. However, nobody has been able to match the impact and charisma of the Waugh brothers.
Steve Waugh and Mark Waugh are considered the most successful and popular siblings to have ever played the gentlemen’s game. They ruled the game together for over a decade. The pair holds the record for the most Test and ODI matches in which siblings appeared together.
It was on June 2, 1965, that Mark and Steve were born to Rodger and Beverley Waugh at Canterbury Hospital in Campsie, a suburb in South-Western Sydney. Mark is also known as the Junior in the cricket fraternity as he arrived in the world four minutes later than Steve and is the younger of the twin brothers.
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Both Steve and Mark had an inclination towards cricket from their childhood days. After impressing in domestic circuit, Steve was handed his debut cap against India in a Test match at the iconic MCG ground in 1984. A year after the Test debut, Steve made his maiden appearance in One Day Internationals in a match against New Zealand on January 9, 1986.
However, it was only during the ICC 1987 ODI World Cup in the Indian subcontinent that Steve managed to attract the attention of the cricket fraternity. During the World Cup, Steve emerged as a competent all-rounder who could score runs with the willow in the middle-order along with bowling in the crucial death overs while keeping a check on the economy rate. As Australia went on to win the World Cup, Waugh was awarded the tag of ‘Iceman’.
However, there was a twist in the tale as soon after the World Cup, Steve suffered a lean patch in his career. The all-rounder failed to produce decent performances and as a result, was replaced during the 1991 Ashes Series. Surprisingly, the player who replaced Steve was none other than his younger brother Mark.
Making his debut in 1991 in a Test match against England, Mark announced himself to the cricket fraternity in style as he smashed a scintillating century.
While the century confirmed the place of Mark in the Playing XI, Steve also made a comeback to the team during the tour of the West Indies. It was also the first time in Trinidad that both Mark and Steve played a Test match together for Australia. During the same tour, both experienced one of the finest moments of their career as they scored 126 and 200 runs respectively to help Australia win a crucial game against the hosts.
After that, there was no looking back for the Waughs. While Steve went on to become one of the greatest captains ever, Mark played under his brother as one of the finest batsmen.
Steve finished his cricket career after collecting a whopping 10,927 runs from 168 Tests along with 7569 runs from 325 ODIs with an average of 32.90.
Mark, on the other hand, amassed 8029 runs from 128 Tests at an average of 41.81 while in ODIs he recorded 8500 runs from 244 matches at an average of 39.35.
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