As Sam Konstas gets set for his Test debut, we look back at the most recent Aussies to receive their first Baggy Green on Boxing Day. The fiery paceman has one of the more remarkable Baggy Green stories of recent times. An adopted West Aussie, Nicholson missed the entire 1997-98 season due to chronic fatigue syndrome, before storming to the top of the sport the very next summer.
The right-arm quick tore through England with 7-77 in a WACA Ground Ashes warm-up, and was subsequently called upon for the Fourth Test in Melbourne. Nicholson dismissed star batter Nasser Hussain twice amid four wickets for the match, but the Aussies lost and he was dropped - never to be recalled at Test level again. Comfortably the most accomplished name on this list.
The then 23-year-old gave more than a glimpse of his considerable potential by blasting through India, claiming seven scalps, including Rahul Dravid twice. Lee made a mess of opener Sadagoppan Ramesh’s stumps with just his fourth ball in Test cricket on his way to a first innings five-for, and it was the start of a superb career that sees him sitting in seventh on Australia’s all-time wicket-takers to this day. Love’s unique five-Test career started like it ended - in superb fashion.
The Queenslander earned a Boxing Day call-up on the back of a decade-long first-class domination, and batted twice in Melbourne while remaining unconquered. Love carved out scores of 62no and 6no in the Aussies’ Ashes win, and peeled off his maiden.
