In completing the first of 10 consecutive doubles, he took 128 wickets at an average of 14.94 and scored 1,844 runs at an average of 47.28. For Yorkshire, he topped both the batting and bowling averages and had the third highest batting average in the country. Hirst played in two end-of-season games for the Players against the Gentlemen; his 124 not out in the second match was his only century in the Players versus Gentlemen series. In 1903, Pelham Warner, who played for Middlesex, was chosen to captain the first tour of Australia to be sponsored by MCC, in the winter of 1903–04. According to Warner, Hirst and Rhodes were the first two players to be selected, as "the two best bowlers of the present day in this country". Before the tour, critics claimed Hirst would be unsuccessful, citing his failure during his previous tour. However, Warner later wrote: "Hirst, to say nothing of his batting, bowled excellently throughout the tour, and was of much more value as a bowler than his average would suggest". He further described him as the best all-rounder in England and noted that "the tighter the match, the better he plays". "Wisden" was less convinced, and the report on the tour said that, as a bowler, "Hirst, though by no means the failure he had been with Mr Stoddart's team six years before, fell far below his English form." While commenting on his batting record, the "Wisden" report noted: "The Australian wickets [i.e. pitches] in fine weather are rather too fast to suit the pulling and hook strokes of which he is such a master in England." As he could not make the ball swing in Australia in the same way it did in England, Hirst used leg theory, bowling at leg stump with fielders close by on the leg side. In his second match of the tour, Hirst scored 92 and used his pull shot more effectively than on other occasions. He followed this with 66 in the third match but did not take many wickets before the first Test. Warner considered he had nevertheless bowled well but was finding it difficult to maintain his energy in the hot conditions; his bowling lost pace and sting later in his bowling spells. Hirst played in all five Test matches, the first two of which were won by England. In the first game, Hirst took two wickets. In his first innings, he scored a duck and was dropped by Frank Laver before he had scored in the second.