Lindsay Hassett

Arthur Lindsay Hassett (28 August 1913 – 16 June 1993) was an Australian cricketer who played for Victoria and the Australian national team. The diminutive Hassett was an elegant middle-order batsman, described by ''Wisden'' as, "... a master of nearly every stroke ... his superb timing, nimble footwork and strong wrists enabled him to make batting look a simple matter".Haigh, p. 3. His sporting career at school singled him out as a precocious talent, but he took a number of seasons to secure a regular place in first-class cricket and initially struggled to make large scores. Selected for the 1938 tour of England with only one first-class century to his name, Hassett established himself with three consecutive first-class tons at the start of the campaign. Although he struggled in the Tests, he played a crucial role in Australia's win in the Fourth Test, with a composed display in the run-chase which sealed the retention of the Ashes. Upon returning to Australia, he distinguished himself in domestic cricket with a series of high scores, becoming the only player to score two centuries in a match against Bill O'Reilly—widely regarded as the best bowler in the world.

However, the eruption of World War II interrupted Hassett's progress. With first-class cricket cancelled, he enlisted in the Second Australian Imperial Force, serving in the Middle East and New Guinea before being chosen to captain the Australian Services cricket team that played the "Victory Tests" in England during the months immediately following Victory in Europe Day. Hassett was the only capped Test player in the team and his men unexpectedly drew the series 2–2 against an English team consisting of Test cricketers. Hassett's leadership was intrinsic to the success of the team, which toured and helped to re-establish the game in England, India and Australia in the aftermath of the war.

At the advanced age of 32, Hassett began his Test cricket career in earnest and became a more sedate, cautious player who often frustrated spectators with his slow scoring. From 1946–47 onwards, he served as Don Bradman's vice-captain for three series, including the '' Invincibles'' tour of England in 1948. He then succeeded the retired Bradman as Australian captain in 1949 and presided over a successful team that gradually aged and declined. After an unbeaten tour of South Africa that saw a 4–0 triumph in the Tests, Hassett led the Australians to 4–1 home win over England in the 1950–51 Ashes series. The solitary loss in the Fifth Test was the first Australian Test defeat since the resumption of cricket after World War II. Australia's dominance of world cricket waned and, in Hassett's final season at home in 1952–53, it drew 2–2 against a South African team that was expected to be weak opposition. In 24 Test matches as captain, Hassett oversaw 14 wins and suffered defeat only four times, but it was the last of the four losses that blighted his record.

In the 1953 New Year Honours, he was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).

Defeated in the last match of the 1953 series against England, Hassett's team lost The Ashes, ending Australia's 19-year ascendancy. At the age of 40, he promptly retired following a final testimonial match after returning to Australia. A cheerful character with a poker face that aided his captaincy, Hassett was known for his ability as an ambassador for Australia, his sense of humour and diplomatic skills. Richie Benaud wrote of him: "There are others who have made more runs and taken more wickets, but very few have ever got more out of a lifetime." In 2003, he was inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame by Cricket Australia.

Early years

The youngest of nine children (six boys and three girls), Hassett was born on 28 August 1913 in Newtown, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria's second-largest city. His father Edward was a real estate agent who served as the secretary of the Geelong Permanent Building Society and was a keen club cricketer.Coleman, pp. 522–529. The Hassett boys played three-a-side cricket matches in the backyard where Lindsay imitated his idol, the Test batsman Bill Ponsford. Along with two of his brothers, Lindsay attended Geelong College and made the First XI at the age of 14. During his five years in the team, he amassed 2,335 runs and was captain for three years. This total included an innings of 245 against Scotch College. In addition, he led the school's football team for three seasons and won the Victorian Public Schools singles championship at tennis. An elder brother, Richard, played for Victoria in the early 1930s as a leg spinner.

While still at school, Hassett played for the South Melbourne First XI in Melbourne's district cricket competition during the 1930–31 season. A month after his debut for South, he was selected for his first representative match; batting for the Victorian Country XI against the touring West Indies team, he scored 147 not out. After being overlooked for further state honours for a season, he made his first-class debut against South Australia in February 1933, but his highest score in four innings for the season was 12 and he aggregated only 25 runs. He was overlooked for the entirety of the next two seasons. Recalled in 1935–36, Hassett consolidated his place in the team through consistency rather than tall scores, scoring 212 runs at 30.28, including two fifties, 73 and 51.

The following season, he led Victoria's batting averages, scoring 503 runs at 71.85. Despite his success, Hassett was unable to register his maiden first-class century, although he did manage seven consecutive fifties in nine innings for the season, including a 93 against Queensland and 83 against arch-rivals New South Wales in a consistent run that helped Victoria to the Sheffield Shield title.

In 1937–38, Hassett made 693 first-class runs including a century and five fifties at an average of 53.30, including another 90 against Queensland. Despite having only one first-class century to his name, 127 not out against the touring New Zealanders at the MCG in the first match of the season, he "scraped" into Australia's team for the 1938 tour of England.Robinson, pp. 203–211.

Test debut

Hassett allayed doubt about his selection when he began the tour with innings of 43, 146, 148 and 220 not out, against Worcestershire, Oxford University, Leicestershire and Cambridge University respectively as Australia won their first four matches by an innings. He added 57 and 98 in the next two matches against the Marylebone Cricket Club and Hampshire, and despite failing to pass 30 in the next four innings, he was selected to make his Test debut at Nottingham in the first match of the series. Hassett had an ignominious debut, scoring one and two in a high-scoring draw in which almost 1,500 runs were scored for the loss of only 24 wickets on a "batting paradise". He maintained his county form between Tests, adding 118 against Lancashire before scoring his only half-century in the Tests, adding 56 and 42 at Lord's in the drawn Second Test.

The Third Test was abandoned without a ball being bowled due to rain, and Hassett prepared for what would be the decisive Fourth Test by scoring 94 and 127 in consecutive matches against Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire. The match at Headingley in Leeds was Australia's only Test victory, which was enough to ensure a drawn series and the retention of The Ashes. In a low-scoring match in a batsman-friendly series, Australia, chasing a target of only 105 runs to win, had slumped to 3/50 when Hassett came to the crease as an approaching storm threatened to either end the game or make the pitch difficult to bat on. Hassett calmly hit 33 runs from 36 balls, to guide the tourists to a five-wicket victory, much to the relief of his captain Don Bradman, who was so nervous about the outcome that he could not watch the play. The innings earned Hassett a reputation of being calm under pressure, and Bradman later wrote that Hassett was a "masterful player" in a crisis.

After the match-winning innings, Hassett failed to pass 31 in his next six innings before Australia lost the Fifth Test by an innings and 579 runs, the heaviest defeat in Test history. He made 42 and 10 in the record-breaking match, and added a pair of half-centuries against Sussex thereafter. As he finished third in the batting averages for the tour, with 1,589 runs at 52.97, and the dry summer resulted in pitches mostly favourable to batting, ''Wisden'' found his Test performances, in which he made 199 runs at 24.88, anomalous:

Rivalry with O'Reilly

Benefiting from his experience in England, Hassett scored five centuries in his nine matches for 1938–39 and finished second in the first-class aggregates for the season. This included a run of seven matches in the middle of the season in which he scored five centuries and four fifties and ended the season with 967 runs at 74.38. He made 211 not out and 102 in two matches against South Australia, whose attack was led by Clarrie Grimmett, the world record holder for the most career Test wickets.McHarg, Jack. "Hassett, Arthur Lindsay". in Cashman et al (eds.)., pp. 109–110. Hassett also scored centuries in both matches against Queensland and another against Western Australia. In the first match against Queensland, he scored 104 in the first innings before adding 73 in the second innings to steer the Victorians to a narrow three-wicket victory.

This period of Hassett's career was notable for his battles with Australia's leading Test bowler, Bill O'Reilly, when the latter appeared for New South Wales (NSW). O'Reilly conceded that Hassett played his bowling better than any other batsman. Hassett's method was predicated on counter-attacking: whenever O'Reilly bowled his famed wrong 'un, he could read this delivery in its flight (whereas most other batsmen could not) and he advanced down the pitch to hit the ball over the fielders on the leg side. The disparate demeanours and physiques of the two men accentuated their rivalry. Ray Robinson wrote that O'Reilly, "... towered nine inches above him; it would have looked more apt for Hassett to sell him a newspaper than contend with his bowling." The phlegmatic Hassett sometimes goaded the irascible O'Reilly, which few batsmen were game to do. On one occasion, he repeatedly mis-hit O'Reilly's bowling, prompting an irritated O'Reilly to ask if he had a middle to his bat. Hassett replied, "I don't need one with you, Tige." It was a long, defensive innings of 81 against NSW (including O'Reilly) in 1937 that first brought Hassett to the attention of the national selectors. During an interval in the match, O'Reilly told his teammates: "Nobody has ever kept me out like that little bastard."McHarg, p. 27.

In the 1938–39 season, O’Reilly removed Hassett twice in three innings in matches between the two states. Their rivalry culminated in two encounters on the SCG at the conclusion of the 1939–40 season. The first, between Victoria and NSW, effectively decided the winner of the Sheffield Shield; Victoria had won the first match between the two teams for the season. By scoring 122 in both innings, Hassett became the only player to score two centuries in a match against a team containing O'Reilly. Nevertheless, NSW won the game and the shield, before playing against a Rest of Australia combination. Batting for the Rest of Australia, Hassett almost repeated his feat by making 136 and 75, but this was not enough to stop NSW, who demonstrated their strength with another victory. Hassett had scored five half-centuries in the five preceding matches of the season, including three in four innings against Grimmett's South Australia, and ended the Australian summer with 897 runs at 74.75. He lost his wicket to O'Reilly in a first-class match only three times.

War years and the Services team

On 23 September 1940, Hassett enlisted in the Second Australian Imperial Force (AIF); despite his enlistment he remained active in cricket and played four first-class matches in the following 1940–41 season, scoring 384 runs at 54.86 including a century against South Australia, before his posting to the Middle East in early 1941. As a member of the 2/2nd Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment, attached to the Australian 7th Division, he was stationed at Haifa in the British Mandate of Palestine (now Israel). During his time in the army, Hassett became popular among his colleagues because of his "blithe spirit". He was offered a commission as an officer, but declined. Hassett maintained his connection to cricket by captaining an AIF team against service teams from other Empire countries serving in the region, playing matches in Egypt and Palestine. Following the outbreak of war in the Pacific, the Australian 6th and 7th Divisions were recalled to Australia. He married during his brief return to Melbourne in May 1942, before his unit was deployed to Port Moresby in New Guinea to fight against Imperial Japan.

In 1945, with the cessation of hostilities in Europe, Hassett was selected to lead the Australian Services cricket team on a tour of England. Officially a military unit, the team's commanding officer was Squadron Leader Stan Sismey of the Royal Australian Air Force, although Hassett was the on-field captain. They went on to play 64 matches in nine months of cricket in four countries.Haigh, p. 4. The focal point of the campaign was a series of matches against England known as the "Victory Tests", which began in May.Perry (2005), p. 103. Australian cricket administrators would not accredit the three-day matches as official Test matches,Pollard (1988), p. 366. arguing that there were not enough Test-level players among the servicemen; Hassett was the only player who had Test experience,Perry (2005), p. 104.Whitington (1981), p. 65. and only nine others had played first-class cricket. As a result, Australia were not expected to be able to seriously challenge the hosts, who had many of their pre-war Test players.Jaggard, p. 66.

The Victory Tests were expected to usher in a new post-war era, which it hoped would be more aggressive and attractive.Pollard (1988), p. 360. The last Anglo-Australian Test series before the war had featured a large number of draws due to defensive play.Perry (2005), p. 105. Australia unexpectedly drew the series 2–2, and Hassett wrote at the end of the series that "This is cricket as it should be ... These games have shown that international cricket can be played as between real friends—so let's have no more talk of "war" in cricket".Perry (2005), p. 132. The series was regarded as an outstanding success, with a total attendance of 367,000 watching the bright and attacking play. In the five Victory Tests, Hassett made 277 runs at 27.70, including two fifties. The Services and Australian Imperial Force teams played separate matches in England during the season, which lasted until September, although only one other Services match was given first-class status. Hassett scored three centuries in matches for the Services.

Due to the unexpectedly strong success of the Victory Tests, the government of Australia ordered the team to delay their demobilisation. With the team raising so much money for war charities, the government directed them to travel home via India and Ceylon for further fundraising matches for the Red Cross.

Hassett enjoyed greater success on the Services tour of India, although the Australians had little to celebrate as a team. It was a tougher proposition for Hassett's men, as all but one of the nine matches were against first-class opposition, and many of the players regarded the local umpires as being deliberately biased in favour of the home teams. After arriving in October, conflict hit the team after a series of ineffective displays. The team, mostly made up of RAAF personnel, had been ill with food poisoning and dysentery, and travelled across the Indian subcontinent via long and bumpy train journeys for the first month. The airmen wanted to travel by air, and tried to ask Hassett and manager Keith Johnson for air travel. When this was refused, they threatened to abandon the tour or replace infantryman Hassett with either Keith Carmody or Keith Miller—who were RAAF fighter pilots—if their wish was not granted. With incumbent Australian captain Bradman likely to miss the upcoming tour of New Zealand, the Services leader would be one of the frontrunners for the national captaincy.Perry (2005), pp. 145–146. Miller refused to plot against Hassett and the dispute ended when Sismey arranged for a RAAF plane already in India to transport the team;Whitington (1981), p. 94.Pollard (1988), p. 369.Perry (2005), p. 146. after a month in India, their first flight came in late November.

In the opening match of the tour, a draw against North Zone, Hassett made 73. In a high-scoring match in hot conditions against the Prince's XI in Delhi, he struck 187 and 124 not out in Australia's 8/424 declared and 5/304.Perry (2005), p. 142. The team was scheduled to play East Zone in Calcutta, but the city was gripped in deadly riots as independence activists agitated against British rule.Perry (2005), p. 147. Australia batted first and made only 107, before East Zone replied with 131. Led by Hassett's 125, Australia posted 304 to leave the hosts a target of 281. On the final day, pro-independence rioters broke through the security presence and invaded the pitch for the second time during the match, while East Zone were batting.Perry (2005), p. 148.Whitington (1981), p. 95. East Zone batsman Denis Compton told the rioters to talk to Hassett, saying that the Australian skipper controlled proceedings. Hassett smiled at the leader of the irate demonstrators and asked "You wouldn't happen to have a cigarette, would you, old boy?" The rioters calmed down and play resumed.Perry (2005), p. 149.

Australia struggled in the three representative matches against India. Hassett made 53 in the first match in Mumbai, and although the Australians took a 192-run first innings lead, the hosts managed to hold on for a draw. The second match in Calcutta was an evenly-contested draw, before India won the deciding match. Hassett top-scored with 143 in Australia's 339, but the hosts took a first innings lead of 186 to set up a six-wicket win. Hassett ended with 235 runs at 47.00 in the three international matches, but did not taste victory in any of his seven matches on Indian soil. He scored 57 as Australia defeated Ceylon by an innings in Colombo before returning to Australia mid December. As time had passed, the players had become increasingly tired by the long campaign, and morale began to drop as they waited for their return to their families and civilian life.

Post-war career

Johnson's team arrived in Australia late in 1945, but the armed services and Australian Board of Control ordered them to play another series against the various Australian states. The fixtures were meant to revive cricket following the war and were also used as a lead-up to the international tour to New Zealand in March 1946.Harte and Whimpress, p. 391.Perry (2005), p. 157. As a result, Hassett could not appear for Victoria during the 1945–46 season. The Services performed poorly; after playing consecutive draws against Western Australia and South Australia, they were crushed by an innings by both Victoria and New South Wales, before drawing against Queensland and Tasmania, the smallest state. Hassett's team was saved by the clock against Queensland when the time ran out with the hosts four runs short of their target, but their fortunes were reversed in the final match when Tasmania hung on with only one wicket in hand to salvage a draw.

Hassett ended the Australian summer with 312 runs at 39.00, including three fifties. During the entire Services campaign, he scored 1,434 runs at 49.44 in 18 first-class matches and top-scored for the Australians’ whole campaign with 187. His aggregate was only 13 behind that of all rounder Keith Miller.Jaggard, p. 77.

Based on his form for the Services, Hassett was selected in the Australian team for a brief five-match tour of New Zealand in February and March 1946. As the military men played poorly in Australia, the national selectors concluded that their achievements against England must have been against weak opposition,Perry (2005), p. 372. and only Hassett and Miller were selected for the Australian tour of New Zealand.

Despite speculation that he would lead the team, as Bradman had made himself unavailable due to concerns over fitness and his ability to play at his pre-war world-leading standards, the Australian Board of Control appointed Bill Brown as captain and O'Reilly as Brown's deputy. In the Board's ballot for the leadership positions, Hassett received only one of the 13 votes, although it was enough to make him the third on-tour selector.Harte and Whimpress, p. 393. One motive speculated for his being overlooked was that he had rested himself from the match against Victoria because he was tired of the long periods in the military away from his family and decided instead to spend the time in Melbourne with his wife and young daughter; this supposedly drew the ire of the Victorian Cricket Association.Haigh, pp. 4–5.

On the tour, Hassett made first-class centuries against Auckland (121) and Wellington (143) and scored 19 in the one-off match against New Zealand—retrospectively accredited as a Test—played at Basin Reserve in Wellington on a poor rain-affected pitch that saw the contest finished within two days. The match ended in an easy victory for Australia when New Zealand was bowled out for 42 and 54, but the tour attracted big crowds and made a record profit. Hassett scored 351 runs at 70.20 for the whole tour. By the time he returned home from the tour, Hassett had played cricket continuously for almost twelve months.

Sheet anchor role

The following season, Hassett returned to serve his state and became Victorian captain for the first time. In the warm-up matches ahead of the Tests, he hit 57, 57 and 28 against the touring MCC team. He then scored 114 and 36 not out against South Australia in his last match before the beginning of the Ashes series. After a long deliberation, and against medical advice, the 38-year-old Bradman decided to resume as Test captain. As Brown was injured and O'Reilly had retired, Hassett was appointed vice-captain. The First Test at Brisbane revealed a more circumspect Hassett. He made 128 (from 395 balls in 392 minutes), his maiden Test century, and shared a 276-run partnership with Bradman, the cornerstone of Australia's match-winning score of 645. Although the crowd continually barracked Hassett for his slow scoring, Ray Robinson felt that he played a crucial "anchoring" role in support of Bradman, who initially struggled with his timing, controversially survived an appeal for a catch by Jack Ikin, then limped through the latter stages of his innings with a strained muscle. Hassett later joked that one of his brothers had his wedding on the day, and was waiting for the batting to finish before starting the ceremony, but could wait no more and proceeded, only to come back after the marriage had been completed to find that just one run had been scored in the intervening period and that his brother was still only on 97.Haigh, p. 6.

Australia went on to start the post-war Ashes era with a crushing win by an innings and 332 runs. Hassett made 34 as Australia won the Second Test by an innings, and the Third Test was his first Test on his home ground at the MCG. He made only 12 and 9 as England held on for a draw with three wickets in hand.

Hassett's other major innings of the series was 78 from 227 balls in the drawn Fourth Test at Adelaide. He added 189 runs with Arthur Morris after Australia, in reply to England's first innings of 460, were 2/18. At one point, the umpire denied an appeal by Norman Yardley for lbw against Hassett, prompting a frustrated Neville Cardus to write, "... he deserved to be iven out the sight of a cricketer of his gifts continuing to deny his eye and technique in a Test match was enough to make any umpire go mad and, like the judge in Chesterton's story, administer justice instead of law." Hassett ended the Tests with 47 in the second innings as Australia stumbled to a five-wicket win on a deteriorating and spinning pitch in the Fifth Test in Sydney, in pursuit of 214. He finished the series with 332 runs at 47.43 and had difficulty against the leg spinner Doug Wright, who dismissed him five times in seven innings. He had added 126 for Victoria against Wally Hammond’s Englishmen just a week earlier.

Despite his slow scoring in the Tests, Hassett was dynamic in the Shield matches for Victoria. In two matches for Victoria between the Third and Fourth Tests, Hassett hit 200 against Queensland and 190 against NSW; in both innings he scored at a rate of almost 50 runs per hour. Victoria won both their matches against arch-rivals NSW convincingly, by an innings and 288 runs respectively, and won the Sheffield Shield, having secured victory in each of the four matches that Hassett played in. Hassett was highly productive throughout the whole season, ending with 1,213 runs at 71.35.

India embarked on its first tour of Australia in the summer of 1947–48, and the hosts won the first series between the two countries 4–0. After failing to pass 50 in the first two Tests, Hassett hit 80 in a rain-affected Third Test win, and then his highest Test score, 198 not out in an innings win in the Fourth Test in Adelaide, finishing the series with 332 runs at 110.67. Hassett was rested from the Fifth and final Test as Australia sought to try out new players such as Sam Loxton ahead of the tour of England. He remained in strong form for Victoria, scoring 118 and 204 against South Australia and Queensland respectively, but his state were unable to retain their title, losing three and winning two matches when Hassett was available. He ended the season with 893 runs at 68.69.

''Invincibles'' tour

Ten years after his first tour of England, Hassett was included in the 1948 team as Bradman's deputy. Hassett was one of three on-tour selectors along with Bradman and Arthur Morris. Considered one of the strongest Australia teams to tour England, the team became known as '' The Invincibles'' because it went undefeated through 34 matches, an unprecedented feat. As matches often started the day after the previous fixture, Australia employed a rotation policy and Hassett led the tourists in nine of the 34 matches while Bradman was rested. Under Hassett's watch, Australia won seven matches, five of these by an innings, while both draws were rain-affected fixtures in which more than half the playing time was lost.

Hassett had two close encounters as captain, both on damp pitches before the First Test when Australia's unbeaten record was challenged. Against Yorkshire in the third match of the tour, Australia came the closest to losing for the entire tour. In a low-scoring match in which neither team posted more than 101, Australia was set 60 for victory, Hassett elected not to ask for the pitch to be rolled. Former Australian Test batsman Jack Fingleton said that Hassett "might have made an initial mistake in not having the pitch rolled because whenever there was rain about in England the heavy roller seemed to knock any nonsense rratic bounce and sideways movementout of the pitch".Fingleton, pp. 53–58. Australia lost quick wickets and Hassett came in with the score at 2/5. After being involved in a run out, he fell to leave Australia at 5/20.Fingleton, p. 55. Australia lost another wicket to be 6/31, effectively seven down with Sam Loxton incapacitated by injury, but scraped hom without further loss after both batsmen at the crease were dropped. It would have been their first defeat against an English county since 1912. In the 11th match of the tour against Hampshire, Australia ceded a first innings lead for the first time on tour. On a drying pitch, Australia were dismissed for 117 in reply to the home side's 195. Australia had made a solid start, before Hassett fell for 26, sparking a collapse of 8/47 to be all out for 117. Hampshire were then bowled out for 103, leaving Australia a target of 182, which they reached to seal an eight-wicket win.

The two matches aside, Hassett had a productive lead-in to the Tests, scoring 110 against Surrey and two fifties. One of these came in a match against the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) at Lord's. The MCC fielded seven players who would represent England in the Tests, and was basically a full-strength Test team. It was a chance to gain a psychological advantage before the Tests. Australia batted first and Hassett made 51 in an innings win. Fingleton hailed Hassett's display as "the prettiest half century we saw in the whole summer. There was not effort in his play. The ball sped quietly and quickly in all directions."

In the First Test at Trent Bridge, Hassett came in on the second day with Australia at 4/185 in reply to England's 165. Australia had been scoring slowly due to England's use of leg theory.Fingleton, p. 91. Hassett almost holed out early when he edged a ball just wide of the wicket-keeper. Hassett and Bradman were heckled for their slow batting but they remained unhurried in the face of England's stifling tactics Australia had plenty of time after bowling out their opponents easily.Fingleton, p. 92. Hassett had a period of 20 minutes without scoring.

Early on the third day, Bradman fell for 138 with the score at 5/305. Yardley again pinned Hassett down with more leg theory. Laker bowled with one slip, while Young had none and employed a pure ring field.Fingleton, p. 94. The scoring was slow during this passage of play—Young delivered 11 consecutive maiden overs and his 26-over spell conceded only 14 runs. The injured Ray Lindwall came out to join Hassett at 7/365 without a runner. Hassett—who had scored only 30 runs in the first 75 minutes of the morning—swept Laker for four and then hit him for the first six of the match. Hassett added 53 in the two hours of the morning session to reach lunch at 94. Australia were unhurried and remained patient in the face of Yardley's defensive tactics because they had bowled England out on the first day and there was still sufficient time to force a result. After the break, Hassett reached his first Test century on English soil. from 305 minutes. He then accelerated, adding a further 37 runs in 49 minutes, before being bowled by Bedser, having struck 20 fours and a six.Fingleton, p. 95. This ended an eighth-wicket partnership of 107 with Lindwall with the score at 8/473; Australia ended at 509 to take a 344-run first innings lead. In the second innings, Hassett hit the winning run to end with an unbeaten 21 in an eight-wicket win.Fingleton, p. 105.

The First Test set the tone for the series, and ahead of the next Test, Hassett top scored with 127 and took five catches in an innings win over Northamptonshire. Hassett scored 47 and a duck in the Second Test at Lord's, having been dropped three times in the first innings as Australia went on to a 409-run win. Hassett then struck 139 against Surrey, his second century against the county in as many matches. Hassett and Australia were in difficulty in the Third Test at Old Trafford. Hassett made 38 as Australia scored 221 in reply to 363. In England's second innings, Hassett twice dropped Cyril Washbrook in the same position from the same shot. After the third day's play, Washbrook shouted Hassett a drink; England were in a strong position, 316 runs ahead with seven wickets in hand.Fingleton, p. 114. Luckily for Australia and Hassett, the pair of missed chances from the England opener late in the day cost little. Washbrook remained unbeaten on 85 as England declared without further addition after the entire fourth day and the final morning had been lost to rain. Hassett was not required as Australia batted for 61 overs to ensure a draw.

Hassett had a new role as the teams headed to Headingley for the Fourth Test. He would improvise and open with Morris, as regular opener Sid Barnes was injured. Hassett dropped Len Hutton—who went on to score 81—on 25. Hassett struggled to make an impact in the unfamiliar role, scoring 13 and 17. However, the other Australian batsmen stepped up and scored 3/404 in 330 minutes on the final day to set a new world record for the highest successful Test runchase, ensuring an unassailable 3–0 series lead. Hassett scored two fifties in the lead-up to the Fifth Test, where he returned to his customary role with the return of Barnes. Hassett took a diving catch in the first innings and scored 37 in an innings win.Fingleton, p. 184. Australia thus won the series convincingly 4–0 and Hassett finished the series with 310 runs at 44.29.

After the Tests, seven matches remained on Bradman's quest to go through a tour of England without defeat. played in four of the matches and was in fine form, hitting three consecutive centuries. Against the Gentlemen of England at Lord's, Hassett made 200 not out against a team that featured eight Test players. He then made 103 against Somerset and 151 against the South of England. Australia won the first two and were denied by rain in the third.

Hassett ended the first-class matches with 1,563 runs at 74.22 and seven centuries. He had the third highest aggregate behind Bradman and Morris and the second highest average. In recognition of his performances in England, he was named one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1949. ''Wisden'' opined that "in addition to his playing ability Hassett's cheerfulness and leadership, which extended to off-the-field relaxation as well as in the more exacting part of the programme, combined to make him an ideal vice-captain able to lift a considerable load off Bradman's busy shoulders".

Captain of Australia

By virtue of his performances with the Services team and his seniority in Australian cricket, Hassett appeared certain to succeed Bradman as captain;Harte and Whimpress, p. 410. his only rival for the position was NSW captain Arthur Morris, the third selector during the tour of England. The season, which was purely domestic with no touring Test team, started with Bradman's testimonial match, in which Hassett led a team against the retiring Australian leader. Hassett scored 35 and 102 and the match ended with the scores tied. Bradman's outfit managed to fall short of the victory by the smallest possible margin, ending one run short of their target with one wicket remaining at the end of the final over. Hassett continued his liking for the Queensland attack, scoring 104 and 205 in Victoria's two matches against their northern opponents for the year. Victoria did not do so well as a team, winning two and losing one of the six matches in which Hassett played, as New South Wales took the title. The summer finished with Hassett captaining a team against an eleven led by Morris. The match was designated as a trial for the selection of the Australian team to tour South Africa the following summer. Hassett scored 73 and 159 and top-scored in both innings; Morris 66 and 12. However, Hassett's effort was not enough to stop an eight-wicket defeat after Morris's men took a 377-run first innings lead. Morris and Hassett were the first and third highest run-scorers for the 1948–49 season. Hassett ended the season with 855 runs at 61.07.

The day after the match, the chosen touring team was passed to the Board of Control for a decision on the captaincy. The 7–6 result in favour of Hassett provoked Ray Robinson to write that the deciding vote, cast for Hassett by the Board chairman Dr Allen Robertson (from Victoria), "... save the Board from an act of disgusting ingratitude" and that, "... once again Hassett's notable achievements with the Services team had been devalued." The main reason given for the administrators' less than unanimous endorsement of Hassett was his religion. As an Irish Catholic, Hassett was subjected to the sectarian bias of some Australian cricket officials,Haigh, p. 5. an attitude that was common among the Anglo-Saxon Protestant ruling class of the time, and so narrowly became the first Catholic captain since Percy McDonnell

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