A top order batsman, Michael Slater was known for his tempestuous nature on the field. A gifted batsman, Slater cemented his spot in the Australian national team for close to a decade before personal problems caused his career to take a downward spiral.

Slater was a product of the Australian Cricket Academy. He played for New South Wales and quickly made progress to the national team for the 1993 Ashes series. He made the opening spot his own, beating Queenslander Matthew Hayden in the process by scoring a half century on debut and then going on to score a century at Lord's. In the return Ashes, he emerged as the leading run-scorer with 623 runs in the series. The season after that saw him reach his highest Test score of 219 against Sri Lanka.

In spite of his Test career soaring, his limited-overs career did not quite see him reach the same heights. He scored a magnificent 73 on debut against South Africa but that was the highest score he could reach in ODIs. As a result, his stint in the one day team ended fairly quickly with his last ODI being against England in 1997. He was later dropped from the team for the Ashes tour and was replaced by Justin Langer who went on to score three consecutive centuries.

Slater turned commentator after his career as the batsman in him came to a halt and his hunger for runs died down as well. He finally announced his retirement in the year 2004 following a period of illness in the summer of 2003-2004.