HERSCHELLE GIBBS Right-hand batsman

FACTFILE DOB: 23.2.1974 Team: Western Province Test debut: v India, Calcutta 1996 ODI debut: v Kenya, Nairobi 1996

After an inconsistent start to his international career, Gibbs is now firmly established as one of the best openers in the world, especially in one-day cricket.

No-one did more than him to try and lift the team during the World Cup earlier this year, scoring more than 380 runs including a brilliant 143 against New Zealand, but they still failed to make it to the Super Six phase.

Likes to play aggressively in both forms of the game, and this has sometimes cost him dear in Test cricket.

Has made Test centuries against six different teams, including Australia, but is still looking for his first against England, with 85 at Johannesburg in 1999 the closest he has come so far.

Gibbs is no stranger to controversy, having been embroiled in the Hansie Cronje match-fixing saga and fined for smoking marijuana in the West Indies two years ago, but the United Cricket Board has shown a willingness to forgive and forget.