Michael Clarke made his debut for New South Wales as an eighteen year old in the 1999-2000 Australian domestic season.
Clarke quickly began showing his potential, after being fast-tracked into the Australian national team, making his One Day International debut in January 2003 against England. He immediately made a name for himself on the international scene for his aggressive yet mature batting ability.

Clarke was selected to make his Test debut against India at Bangalore, October 2004, despite having a first-class average below 40. He succeeded on debut, scoring 151 and consequently helping Australia to victory, invoking comparisons to past Australian batsmen such as Doug Walters and Mark Waugh. Clarke played a major part in Australia's 2-1 series victory, their first in India in over thirty years, contributing outstanding bowling figures of 6 for 9 in the final Test of the series. After this, the media dubbed him the "next captain of Australia".

On his return to Australia he made another debut century, his first home Test in Brisbane against New Zealand, becoming one of the few Test cricketers to have achieved the feat of Test centuries on both their home and away debuts.