His career had several false starts as he tried to adjust his game to meet the supposed requirements of Test cricket. A secretly sensitive man, he felt uncomfortable in the teams led by Mark Taylor and accordingly tried to make the right impression, pushing and poking around like a vagabond in a rubbish dump. Of course, it did not work. Every man has his voice, distance, pace and role. Not until Steve Waugh took charge did confidence return. Waugh believed in him, believed in his passion, his commitment, his power, and so Hayden became himself. Ponting had faith in him, too, and retained it through his loss of form in the 2005 Ashes series. Both captains were well rewarded.

Hayden's breakthrough came on the 2001 tour of India. After experiencing mixed fortunes in his comeback series against the West Indies, he was a marginal selection. Many thought the India tweakers would make him look like an elephant in a tutu. But before the series began Hayden made the most critical decision of his career. Accepting that he lacked touch, realising that his footwork might appear cumbersome, knowing that it was make or break, he resolved to stop fretting and attack.

Nor had he come unprepared, A few months before he had paid his own way to the subcontinent to work on his game against spin. He figured out a method founded upon hitting the ball against the spin and aiming at empty parts of the outfield. His strategy played to his own strengths and put pressure back on the bowlers .

It worked a treat. In a trice Hayden was carting the ball around India, repeatedly dispatching Harbhajan Singh over deep mid-wicket and dispatching his comrades with equal brutality. It was a towering performance and led to the most fruitful period of his cricketing life. And yet it was also confusing. Thereafter, he was constantly trying to find his true tempo.

After India he was typecast as a batting bully but in fact his game was subtler than it appeared. The same divergence emerged in his character. At once, he was a redneck fisherman from the interior of a conservative state and the author of cookbooks. One minute he was snarling at opponents, the next he was crossing himself. In the same frame lived a fisherman and a pianist, a muscular powerhouse and a new father, with children on his lap. Hayden was a thinker, it's just that his conclusions were confronting about himself and his game. His life has been a quest.

His batting was built around his withering drive past the bowler's right hand. Bowlers reacted by dropping short and their offerings were put away. Eventually captains began to block the shot by placing deep mid-offs and short covers to pounce on miscues. Hayden never quite overcame this tactic, tending to try to hit the ball too hard. In the 2005 Ashes series, he lost the shot and his command and the same happened this season . His strength became his weakness, and this time the lost ground could not be recovered. He was 37 and could not expect much grace from the selectors.

Hayden did not get much chance to prove himself against high pace, a style of bowling sporadically seen in the past 15 years. If that is held against him, it must be held against every batsman of the era. The tendency to pick holes in his record is to be resisted. Like most batsmen, his best years were between 28 and 35. Unlike most players of his stature, these years roughly defined his Test career. In part, that explains his impressive returns.

And it finished as it begin, with the left-hander searching for his game. Towards the end he was too anxious to assert himself. In India he broke his duck with a lofted straight drive, a risk repeated on home turf. Both belligerences spoke of a determination to convey confidence. Both indicated desperation and faltering desire. But Hayden was better than he knew. Certainly he was no mere smiter. In his prime, he batted with authority and massive certainty. Langer was the hustler, often outpacing his buddy as he cracked boundaries through the covers. Hayden was a presence, a strong man taking his time to settle, building an innings, slowly cutting loose.

Lack of self-knowledge held him back and eventually brought him down. In between he played a huge part in his country's domination. Along the way he won World Cups and Ashes series and helped Australia to retain top position in the Test and ODI rankings. From anyone, it would be convincing. From a batsman disregarded but never disbelieving in his formative years, it is astonishing.