The North file
TESTS: 17
INNINGS: 28
NOT OUT: 2
RUNS: 981
HIGHEST SCORE: 125no
AVERAGE: 37.73
100s: 4
50s: 4
WICKETS: 12
BEST BOWLING: 6-55
Marcus North is on the front foot. For too long he's been the whipping boy of the Australian team. Too many times he has been asked to justify his position and has read he's on thin ice and his failures have put pressure on the team. Too often he's heard his decade-long struggle to play Test cricket counts for nothing and his spot should be given to a precocious early twentysomething.
Not enough has been made of his achievements. His match-winning century on debut against South Africa at Johannesburg. His 125 not out on his Ashes debut, a series in which he and Michael Clarke were the only Australians to score two tons and average over 50. Or, how his name is now inscribed on a Lord's honour board after hauling 6-55 against Pakistan just last month.
''That's Test cricket, isn't it?'' North says from Perth, where he is with wife Joanne and their four-month-old son Archie, after the national squad's camp in Queensland last week.
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