Tom Garrett played in the first two Test matches against England in the 1876/7 season. Just before he died in 1943 he was the oldest living Australian Test cricketer. He was also part of the first Australian tour to go to England in 1878 and also toured in 1882 and 1886. He was a right-armed medium-fast bowler, good in the field but he could not be depended upon with his hard hitting batting which was more often than not, a failure! He was a tall man standing at 6ft and when bowling he used his height well, getting lift and speed off the pitch. Some thought him more effective off a hard pitch than Spofforth or Boyle, especially when he swung the ball both ways or sent down an unplayable yorker.

He represented Australia 19 times in a historic period for test Cricket, taking 36 wickets at 26.94 runs. In the last two tours to England he took over 100 wickets in each tour and when he played 4 matches against Yorkshire in 1886, he took 27 wickets costing only 9 runs a piece.