At the age of 20, and playing in only his tenth first-class match, Bradman, nicknamed "Braddles" by his teammates, found his initial Test a harsh learning experience. Caught on a
sticky wicket, Australia were all out for 66 in the second innings and lost by 675 runs (still a Test record). Following scores of 18 and 1, the selectors dropped Bradman to
twelfth man for the Second Test. An injury to
Bill Ponsford early in the match required Bradman to field as substitute while England amassed 636, following their 863 runs in the First Test.
RS "Dick" Whitington wrote, "... he had scored only nineteen himself and these experiences appear to have provided him with food for thought". Recalled for the Third Test at the
Melbourne Cricket Ground, Bradman scored 79 and 112 to become the youngest player to make a Test century, although the match was still lost. Another loss followed in the Fourth Test. Bradman reached 58 in the second innings and appeared set to guide the team to victory when he was
run out. It was to be the only run out of his Test career. The losing margin was just twelve runs. bat, in the early 1930s. The "Don Bradman Autograph" bat is still manufactured today by Sykes' successor company,
Slazenger. The improving Australians did manage to win the Fifth and final Test. Bradman top-scored with 123 in the first innings and was at the wicket in the second innings when his captain,
Jack Ryder, hit the winning runs. Bradman completed the season with 1,690 first-class runs,
averaging 93.88, Bradman averaged 113.28 in 1929–30. he made his runs in only 415 minutes. The encomiums were not confined to his batting gifts; nor did the criticism extend to his character. "Australia has unearthed a champion", said former Australian Test great
Clem Hill, "self-taught, with natural ability. But most important of all, with his heart in the right place." and if the Australians were to exceed expectations their young batsmen, Bradman and Jackson, needed to prosper. With his elegant batting technique, Jackson appeared the brighter prospect of the pair. However, Bradman began the tour with 236 at
Worcester and went on to score
1,000 first-class runs by the end of May, the fifth player (and first Australian) to achieve this rare feat. In his first Test appearance in England, Bradman hit 131 in the second innings but England won the match. His batting reached a new level in the Second Test at
Lord's where he scored 254 as Australia won and levelled the series. Later in life, Bradman rated this the best innings of his career as "practically without exception every ball went where it was intended to go".
Wisden noted Bradman's fast footwork and how he hit the ball "all round the wicket with power and accuracy", as well as faultless concentration in keeping the ball on the ground. In terms of runs scored, this performance was soon surpassed. In the Third Test, at
Headingley, Bradman scored a century before lunch on 11 July, the first day of the Test match to equal the performances of
Victor Trumper and
Charlie Macartney. In the afternoon, Bradman added another century between lunch and tea, before finishing the day on 309 not out. He remains the only Test player to pass 300 in one day's play. His eventual score of 334 was a world-record, exceeding the previous mark of 325 by
Andy Sandham. Bradman dominated the Australian innings; the second-highest tally was 77 by
Alan Kippax. Businessman Arthur Whitelaw later presented Bradman with a cheque for £1,000 in appreciation of his achievement. The match ended in anti-climax as poor weather prevented a result, as it also did in the Fourth Test. In the deciding Test at
The Oval, England made 405. During an innings stretching over three days due to intermittent rain, Bradman made yet another multiple century, this time 232, which helped give Australia a big lead of 290 runs. In a crucial
partnership with Jackson, Bradman battled through a difficult session when England
fast bowler Harold Larwood bowled
short on a pitch enlivened by the rain.
Wisden gave this period of play only a passing mention: A number of English players and commentators noted Bradman's discomfort in playing the
short, rising delivery. The statistics he achieved on the tour, especially in the Test matches, broke records for the day and some have stood the test of time. In all, Bradman scored 974 runs at an average of 139.14 during the Test series, with four centuries, including two double hundreds and a triple. As of 2022, no-one has matched or exceeded 974 runs or three double centuries in one Test series; the record of 974 runs exceeds the second-best performance by 69 runs and was achieved in two fewer innings. Bradman's first-class tally, 2,960 runs (at an average of 98.66 with 10 centuries), was another enduring record: the most by any overseas batsman on a tour of England. On the tour, the dynamic nature of Bradman's batting contrasted sharply with his quiet, solitary off-field demeanour. He was described as aloof from his teammates and he did not offer to buy them a round of drinks, let alone share the money given to him by Whitelaw. A modest Bradman can be heard in a 1930 recording saying, "I have always endeavoured to do my best for the side, and the few centuries that have come my way have been achieved in the hope of winning matches. My one idea when going into bat was to make runs for Australia."
Reluctant hero In 1930–31, against the first
West Indian side to visit Australia, Bradman's scoring was more sedate than in Englandalthough he did make 223 in 297 minutes in the Third Test at
Brisbane and 152 in 154 minutes in the following Test at Melbourne. However, he scored quickly in a very successful sequence of innings against
South Africa in the Australian summer of 1931–32. For NSW against the tourists, he made 30, 135 and 219. In the Test matches, he scored , , 2 and ; his 299 not out in the Fourth Test, at Adelaide, set a new record for the highest score in a Test in Australia. Australia won nine of the ten Tests played over the two series. At this point, Bradman had played fifteen Test matches since the beginning of 1930, scoring 2,227 runs at an average of 131. He had played eighteen innings, scoring ten centuries, six of which had extended beyond 200. with 856 (or 38.5% of his tally) scored in boundaries. Between these two seasons, Bradman seriously contemplated playing professional cricket in England with the
Lancashire League club
Accrington, a move that, according to the rules of the day, would have ended his Test career. Bradman's chaotic wedding to Jessie Menzies in April 1932 epitomised these new and unwelcome intrusions into his private life. The church "was under siege all throughout the day ... uninvited guests stood on chairs and pews to get a better view"; police erected barriers that were broken down and many of those invited could not get a seat. He travelled with his wife, and the couple treated the trip as a
honeymoon. Playing 51 games in 75 days, Bradman scored 3,779 runs at 102.1, with eighteen centuries. Although the standard of play was not high, the effects of the amount of cricket Bradman had played in the three previous years, together with the strains of his celebrity status, began to show on his return home.
Bodyline Within the
Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), which administered English cricket at the time, few voices were more influential than
"Plum" Warner's, who, when considering England's response to Bradman, wrote that it "must evolve a new type of bowler and develop fresh ideas and strange tactics to curb his almost uncanny skill". To that end, Warner orchestrated the appointment of
Douglas Jardine as England captain in 1931, as a prelude to Jardine leading the 1932–33 tour to Australia, with Warner as team manager. Remembering that Bradman had struggled against
bouncers during his 232 at The Oval in 1930, Jardine decided to combine traditional
leg theory with short-pitched bowling to combat Bradman. He settled on the
Nottinghamshire fast bowlers
Harold Larwood and
Bill Voce as the spearheads for his tactics. In support, the England selectors chose another three pacemen for the squad. The unusually high number of fast bowlers caused a lot of comment in both countries and roused Bradman's own suspicions. and that the
Australian Board of Control had initially refused permission for him to write a column for the Sydney
Sun newspaper. Jardine decided to give the new tactics a trial in only one game, a fixture against an Australian XI at Melbourne. In this match, Bradman faced the leg theory and later warned local administrators that trouble was brewing if it continued. He withdrew from the First Test at the SCG amid rumours that he had suffered a
nervous breakdown. Despite his absence, England employed what were already becoming known as the Bodyline tactics against the Australian batsmen and won an ill-tempered match. Recovered from his indisposition, Bradman returned to the side in Kippax's position. A world record crowd of 63,993 at the MCG saw Bradman come to the
crease on the first day of the Second Test with the score at 2/67. A standing ovation ensued that delayed play for several minutes. Bradman anticipated receiving a bouncer as his first ball and, as the bowler delivered, he moved across his
stumps to play the
hook shot. The ball failed to rise and Bradman dragged it onto his
stumps; the
first-ball duck was his first in a Test. The crowd fell into stunned silence as he walked off. However, Australia took a first innings lead in the match, and another record crowd on 2 January 1933 watched Bradman hit a counter-attacking second innings century. His unbeaten 103 (from 146 balls) in a team total of 191 helped set England a target of 251 to win. Bill O'Reilly and
Bert Ironmonger bowled Australia to a series-levelling victory amid hopes that Bodyline was beaten. The
Third Test at the Adelaide Oval proved pivotal. There were angry crowd scenes after the Australian captain Bill Woodfull and
wicket-keeper Bert Oldfield were hit by bouncers. An apologetic Warner entered the Australian dressing room and was rebuked by Woodfull. Woodfull's remarks (that "...there are two teams out there and only one of them is playing cricket") were
leaked to the press, and Warner and others attributed this to Australian opening batsman
Jack Fingleton; however, for many years (even after Fingleton's death) a bitter war of accusation passed between Fingleton and Bradman as to who was the real source of the leak. In a cable to the MCC, the Australian Board of Control repeated the allegation of poor sportsmanship directed at Warner by Woodfull. With the support of the MCC, England continued with Bodyline despite Australian protests. The tourists won the last three Tests convincingly and regained the Ashes. Bradman caused controversy with his own tactics. Always seeking to score, and with the leg side packed with fielders, he often backed away and hit the ball into the vacant half of the outfield with unorthodox shots reminiscent of tennis or
golf. This brought him 396 runs (
at 56.57) for the series and plaudits for attempting to find a solution to Bodyline, although his series average was just 57% of his career mean. Fingleton was in no doubt that Bradman's game altered irrevocably as a consequence of Bodyline, writing: The constant glare of celebrity and the tribulations of the season forced Bradman to reappraise his life outside the game and to seek a career away from his cricketing fame. Harry Hodgetts, a
South Australian delegate to the Board of Control, offered Bradman work as a stockbroker if he would relocate to Adelaide and captain the
South Australia team (SA). Unknown to the public, the SA Cricket Association (SACA) instigated Hodgetts' approach and subsidised Bradman's wage. Although his wife was hesitant about moving, Bradman eventually agreed to the deal in February 1934.
Declining health and a brush with death In his farewell season for NSW, Bradman averaged 132.44, his best yet. Although he again started with a double century at
Worcester, his famed concentration soon deserted him.
Wisden wrote: At one stage, Bradman went thirteen first-class innings without a century, the longest such spell of his career, prompting suggestions that Bodyline had eroded his confidence and altered his technique. He went on to make 140, with the last 90 runs coming in just 45 minutes. On the opening day of the Fourth Test at Headingley (Leeds), England were out for 200, but Australia slumped to 3/39, losing the third wicket from the last ball of the day. Listed to bat at number five, Bradman would start his innings the next day. That evening, Bradman declined an invitation to dinner from
Neville Cardus, telling the journalist that he wanted an early night because the team needed him to make a double century the next day. Cardus pointed out that his previous innings on the ground was 334, and the
law of averages was against another such score. Bradman told Cardus, "I don't believe in the law of averages". In the event, Bradman batted all of the second day and into the third, putting on a then world record partnership of 388 with Bill Ponsford. When he was finally out for 304 (473 balls, 43 fours and two sixes), Australia had a lead of 350 runs, but rain prevented them from forcing a victory. The effort of the lengthy innings stretched Bradman's reserves of energy, and he did not play again until the Fifth Test at The Oval, the match that would decide the Ashes. In the first innings at The Oval, Bradman and Ponsford recorded an even more massive partnership, this time 451 runs. It had taken them less than a month to break the record they had set at Headingley; this new world record was to last 57 years. England would not recover them again until after Bradman's retirement. Seemingly restored to full health, Bradman blazed two centuries in the last two games of the tour. However, when he returned to
London to prepare for the trip home, he experienced severe abdominal pain. It took a doctor more than 24 hours to diagnose acute
appendicitis and a surgeon operated immediately. Bradman lost a lot of blood during the four-hour procedure and
peritonitis set in. Penicillin and
sulphonamides were still experimental treatments at this time; peritonitis was usually a fatal condition. On 25 September, the hospital issued a statement that Bradman was struggling for his life and that blood donors were needed urgently. "The effect of the announcement was little short of spectacular". The captaincy was given to
Vic Richardson, Bradman's predecessor as South Australian captain. Cricket author Chris Harte's analysis of the situation is that a prior (unspecified) commercial agreement forced Bradman to remain in Australia. Harte attributed an ulterior motive to his relocation: the off-field behaviour of Richardson and other South Australian players had displeased the SACA, which was looking for new leadership. To help improve discipline, Bradman became a committeeman of the SACA, and a selector of the South Australian and Australian teams. He took his adopted state to its first Sheffield Shield title for ten years, Bradman weighing in with personal contributions of 233 against Queensland and 357 against Victoria. He finished the season with 369 (in 233 minutes), a South Australian record, made against
Tasmania. The bowler who dismissed him,
Reginald Townley, would later become leader of the
Tasmanian Liberal Party. A group of players who were openly hostile toward Bradman formed during the tour. For some, the prospect of playing under Bradman was daunting, as was the knowledge that he would additionally be sitting in judgement of their abilities in his role as a selector. To start the new season, the Test side played a "Rest of Australia" team, captained by Bradman, at Sydney in early October 1936. The Test
XI suffered a big defeat, due to Bradman's 212 and a haul of 12 wickets taken by leg-spinner
Frank Ward. Bradman let the members of the Test team know that despite their recent success, the team still required improvement.
toss at the start of the
1936–37 Ashes series. The five Tests drew more than 950,000 spectators including a world record 350,534 to the Third Test at Melbourne. Australia fell to successive defeats in the opening two Tests, Bradman making two
ducks in his four innings, and it seemed that the captaincy was affecting his form. The selectors made another four changes to the team for the Third Test at
Melbourne. Bradman won the toss on New Year's Day 1937, but again failed with the bat, scoring just 13. The Australians could not take advantage of a
pitch that favoured batting, and finished the day at 6/181. On the second day, rain dramatically altered the course of the game. With the sun drying the pitch (in those days, covers could not be used during matches) Bradman
declared to get England in to bat while the pitch was "
sticky"; England also declared to get Australia back in, conceding a lead of 124. Bradman countered by reversing his
batting order to protect his run-makers while conditions improved. The ploy worked and Bradman went in at number seven. In an innings spread over three days, he battled influenza while scoring 270 off 375 balls, sharing a record partnership of 346 with
Jack Fingleton, and Australia went on to victory. In 2001,
Wisden rated this performance as the best Test match innings of all time. The next Test, at the
Adelaide Oval, was fairly even until Bradman played another patient second innings, making 212 from 395 balls. Australia levelled the series when the erratic
left-arm spinner "Chuck" Fleetwood-Smith bowled Australia to victory. In the series-deciding Fifth Test, Bradman returned to a more aggressive style in top-scoring with 169 (off 191 balls) in Australia's 604 and Australia won by an innings. Australia's achievement of winning a Test series after outright losses in the first two matches has never been repeated in Test cricket.
End of an era During the 1938 tour of England, Bradman played the most consistent cricket of his career. He needed to score heavily as England had a strengthened batting line-up, while the Australian
bowling was over-reliant on O'Reilly. In scoring 2,429 runs, Bradman achieved the highest average ever recorded in an English season: 115.66. It was the slowest Test hundred of his career and he played a similar innings of 102 not out in the next Test as Australia struggled to another draw. Rain completely washed out the Third Test at
Old Trafford. Australia's opportunity came at Headingley, a Test described by Bradman as the best he ever played in. England batted first and made 223. During the Australian innings, Bradman backed himself by opting to bat on in poor light conditions, reasoning that Australia could score more runs in bad light on a good pitch than on a rain affected pitch in good light, when he had the option to go off. For the only time in his life, the tension of the occasion got to Bradman and he could not watch the closing stages of play, a reflection of the pressure that he felt all tour: he described the captaincy as "exhausting" and said he "found it difficult to keep going". In an attempt to relieve the burden on his bowlers, Bradman took a rare turn at bowling. During his third
over, he
fractured his ankle and teammates carried him from the ground. With Bradman injured and Fingleton unable to bat because of a leg muscle strain, Australia were thrashed by an innings and 579 runs, which remains the largest margin in Test cricket history. Unfit to complete the tour, Bradman left the team in the hands of vice-captain Stan McCabe. At this point, Bradman felt that the burden of captaincy would prevent him from touring England again, although he did not make his doubts public. In 1938–39, he led
South Australia to the
Sheffield Shield and made a century in six consecutive innings to equal
CB Fry's world record. Bradman totalled 21 first-class centuries in 34 innings, from the beginning of the 1938 tour of England (including preliminary games in Australia) until early 1939. The next season, Bradman made an abortive bid to join the
Victoria state side. The
Melbourne Cricket Club advertised the position of club secretary and he was led to believe that if he applied, he would get the job. The position, which had been held by
Hugh Trumble until his death in August 1938, was one of the most prestigious jobs in Australian cricket. The annual salary of £1,000 would make Bradman financially secure while allowing him to retain a connection with the game. On 18 January 1939, the club's committee, on the casting vote of the chairman, chose former Test batsman
Vernon Ransford over Bradman. In August 1939, Bradman won the South Australian squash championships, beating Australian Davis Cup tennis player Don Turnbull in the final. Turnbull won the first two games in the best-of-five game contest and led 8–3 in the third game with five match points, but Bradman won the game and the fourth. Turnbull led 8–5 in the fifth game but Bradman went on to win. The 1939–40 season was Bradman's most productive ever for SA: 1,448 runs at an average of 144.8. However, it was the end of an era. The outbreak of World War II led to the indefinite postponement of all cricket tours, and the suspension of the Sheffield Shield competition.
Troubled war years . Bradman joined the
Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) on 28 June 1940 and was passed fit for
air crew duty. The RAAF had more recruits than it could equip and train and Bradman spent four months in
Adelaide before the Governor-General of Australia,
Lord Gowrie, persuaded Bradman to transfer to the army, a move that was criticised as a safer option for him. Given the rank of
lieutenant, Bradman was posted to the Army School of Physical Training at
Frankston, Victoria, to act as a divisional supervisor of physical training. The exertion of the job aggravated his chronic muscular problems, diagnosed as fibrositis, an early term for
fibromyalgia. Invalided out of service in June 1941, Bradman spent months recuperating, unable even to shave himself or comb his hair due to the extent of the muscular pain he suffered. He resumed stockbroking during 1942. In his biography of Bradman,
Charles Williams expounded the theory that the physical problems were psychosomatic, induced by stress and possibly depression; Bradman read the book's manuscript and did not disagree. Had any cricket been played at this time, he would not have been available. Although he found some relief in 1945 when referred to the
Melbourne masseur Ern Saunders, Bradman permanently lost the feeling in the thumb and index finger of his (dominant) right hand. In June 1945, Bradman faced a financial crisis when the firm of Harry Hodgetts collapsed due to fraud and embezzlement. Bradman moved quickly to set up his own business, utilising Hodgetts' client list and his old office in Grenfell Street, Adelaide. The fallout led to a prison term for Hodgetts, and left a stigma attached to Bradman's name in the city's business community for many years. However, the SA Cricket Association had no hesitation in appointing Bradman as their delegate to the
Board of Control in place of Hodgetts. Now working alongside some of the men he had battled in the 1930s, Bradman quickly became a leading light in the administration of the game. With the resumption of international cricket, he was once more appointed a Test selector, and played a major role in planning for post-war cricket.
"The ghost of a once-great cricketer" In 1945–46, Bradman suffered regular bouts of fibrositis while coming to terms with increased administrative duties and the establishment of his business. He played for
South Australia in two matches to help with the re-establishment of first-class cricket and later described his batting as "painstaking". Batting against the
Australian Services cricket team, Bradman scored 112 in less than two hours, yet Dick Whitington (playing for the Services) wrote, "I have seen today the ghost of a once-great cricketer". Bradman declined a
tour of New Zealand and spent the winter of 1946 wondering whether he had played his last match. "With the
English team due to arrive for the
1946–47 Ashes series, the media and the public were anxious to know if Bradman would lead
Australia." His doctor recommended against a return to the game. Encouraged by his wife, Bradman agreed to play in lead-up fixtures to the Test series. After hitting two centuries, Bradman made himself available for the First Test at
The Gabba. Controversy emerged on the first day of the
First Test at Brisbane. After compiling an uneasy 28 runs, Bradman hit a ball to the
gully fieldsman,
Jack Ikin. "An appeal for a
catch was denied in the umpire's contentious ruling that it was a
bump ball". At the end of the
over, England captain
Wally Hammond spoke with Bradman and criticised him for not "
walking"; "from then on the series was a cricketing war just when most people desired peace", Whitington wrote. Bradman regained his finest pre-war form in making 187, followed by 234 during the Second Test at
Sydney (
Sid Barnes also scored 234 during the innings, many in a still-standing record 405-run
5th-wicket partnership with Bradman. Barnes later recalled that he purposely got out on 234 because "it wouldn't be right for someone to make more runs than Bradman"). Australia won both matches by an innings. Jack Fingleton speculated that had the decision at Brisbane gone against him, Bradman would have retired, such were his fitness problems. In the remainder of the series, Bradman made three half-centuries in six innings, but he was unable to make another century; nevertheless, his team won handsomely, scoring 3–0. He was the leading batsman on either side, with an average of 97.14. Nearly 850,000 spectators watched the Tests, which helped lift public spirits after the war.
Century of centuries and "the Invincibles" India made its first tour of Australia in the 1947–48 season. On 15 November, Bradman made 172 against them for an Australian XI at
Sydney, his 100th
first-class century. The first non-Englishman to achieve the milestone, Bradman remains the only Australian to have done so. In five Tests, he scored 715 runs (at 178.75 average). His last double century (201) came at
Adelaide, and he scored a century in each innings of the Melbourne Test. On the eve of the Fifth Test, he announced that the match would be his last in Australia, although he would tour England as a farewell. Australia had assembled one of the great teams of cricket history. Bradman made it known that he wanted to go through the tour unbeaten, English spectators were drawn to the matches knowing that it would be their last opportunity to see Bradman in action.
RC Robertson-Glasgow observed of Bradman that: In the final Test at
The Oval, Bradman walked out to bat in Australia's first innings. He received a standing ovation from the crowd and three cheers from the opposition. His Test batting average stood at 101.39. Facing the
wrist-spin of
Eric Hollies, Bradman pushed forward to the second ball that he faced, was deceived by a
googly, and was
bowled between bat and pad for a
duck. An England batting collapse resulted in an innings defeat, denying Bradman the opportunity to bat again and so his career average finished at 99.94; if he had scored just four runs in his last innings, it would have been 100. A story developed over the years that claimed Bradman missed the ball because of tears in his eyes, The Australian team won the Ashes 4–0, completed the tour unbeaten, and entered history as "
The Invincibles". Just as Bradman's legend grew, rather than diminished, over the years, so too has the reputation of the 1948 team. For Bradman, it was the most personally fulfilling period of his playing days, as the divisiveness of the 1930s had passed. He wrote: With Bradman now retired from professional cricket,
RC Robertson-Glasgow wrote of the English reaction "... a miracle has been removed from among us. So must ancient Italy have felt when she heard of the death of
Hannibal". ==Statistical summary==