Australian captain Michael Clarke has won the Australian Test player of the year award for a record fourth time and a third successive year, with batsmen dominating the count.

The classy middle order batsman polled 21 votes, two more than Steve Smith, with Chris Rogers one further back.

Pacemen Peter Siddle, Mitchell Johnson and Ryan Harris finished fourth, fifth and sixth respectively on 17, 16 and 15 votes.

Clarke, who previously won in 2009, 2012 and 2013, has moved clear of former Australian captain, Ricky Ponting, who also won the award three times.

Clarke was Australia’s most prolific runscorer over the voting period between between February 1 2013 and January 20 2014.

Clarke totalled 1030 runs at 44.78, scoring four hundreds and two fifties.

“I don’t think I’ve performed anywhere near as well, especially throughout the last series, as I would have liked,” Clarke said.

Smith scored 833 runs at 39.67, notching his first three Test centuries across the back-to-back Ashes series, with one in England and two in Australia.

Veteran opener Rogers, whose only previous Test appearance had been back in 2008, scored 830 at 43.68 and also scored his first three Test tons across the two Ashes series.