Marcus Trescothick

Dominant, calm and deadly are just a few terms to describe one of England's most hard-hitting opening batsmen of all time – Marcus Trescothick. Known to display an astonishing amount of power when hitting a cricket ball, the left-handed Trescothick made the cut to play for the English cricket team in 2000 against Zimbabwe in an ODI. He made an immediate impact scoring 79 on debut and followed it up with a man of the match performance against Zimbabwe.

Because of this blistering form, he was given a place in the Test side against West Indies in 2000 and went on to make another telling contribution. While early wickets fell, he stuck on and made a confident 66 in the company of Alec Stewart raising a partnership of 179 runs in the process. All the while, on the domestic circuit, Trescothick was going great guns for Somerset. However, his international form began to dwindle.

In 2001, Trescothick was the second highest run getter for his country but he had a penchant to throw away his wicket when set. As a result of this, and of course the inability of the other Englishmen to score, Australia trampled all over them and cantered to a 4-1 series victory. Following the Ashes was a series in India where he batted his way back to form. He averaged 48 in the Test series with a high score of 99 and was easily England's best batsman in the ODIs with a more than healthy average of 53 and a strike rate in excess of 100. He scored his fourth international century in the first ODI but by this point, none of his centuries had resulted in an England win. He gained the reputation of England's best batsman against quality spin bowling.

In 2002, Trescothick suffered a fracture on his thumb and his season was cut short after a good start. In 2002-03, Trescothick's form suffered further and managed a measly average of 26.10 and was completely overshadowed by Michael Vaughan. The 2003 ICC Cricket World Cup also did not seem to motivate him to play better as he failed to help England qualify for the knock-out stages with a tournament average of only 23.20.

During the third Test of the Ashes in 2005, Trescothick became the fastest batsman to reach 5000 runs and was the second highest scorer in the series behind Kevin Pietersen. This also meant that he had scored more than 1000 runs in a calendar year for the third consecutive time.

His problems began in 2006 when he returned home from the series against India citing a viral problem. He then came back to the subcontinent to play Sri Lanka and Pakistan and after heavy scoring initially, he faded into oblivion. It was later known that he was suffering from clinical depression. The England selectors however, never lost faith in him and named him in the squad for the ICC World Twenty20 in 2007. He pulled out of the tournament though stating that he needed more time to recover. Amidst all this, his good form in the domestic circuit for Somerset continued. Finally, in March 2008, Trescothick announced that he was retiring from all forms of international cricket.