When Waugh replaced Waugh in the Australian Test team
On the legends' 56th birthday, we travel back to the time when Mark Waugh replaced his four minutes older brother, Steve, in the Australian Test side.
Steve Waugh is widely acknowledged as one of the most influential captains in the history of cricket. Mark, about four minutes younger to Steve, was a superb cricketer as well and is best remembered for his sublime stroke-making.
Both of them were extremely talented and showed immense potential while playing junior cricket. Steve cracked Test cricket much earlier than Mark. At that time, Mark was overshadowed by his elder twin and people started to call him Afghan, a reference to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, meaning 'forgotten war'.
But Mark's hard work paid off. He was finally called up to the Australian Test team in 1991. But the player he replaced was none other than Steve Waugh.
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Steve Waugh was horribly out of form and the selectors decided to leave him out and bring his younger brother.
Steve went back home and broke the news in front of the family members. Mark didn't know how to react. Their mother was in a state of simultaneous elation for Mark and distress for Steve, wrote the latter in his autobiography.
Mark shone on debut, scoring a superb hundred against England.
But Steve didn't take much time to return to the squad. Two months after Mark's debut, the Waugh brothers became the first male twins to appear together in Tests. They went on to represent Australia in Tests together 108 times.
The cricketing connection of the Waugh family extended beyond Mark and Steve. Their brother Dean also played first-class cricket. Steve's son Austin also plays cricket and represented Australia in the 2018 Under-19 World Cup.
