All Time XIs – All Rounders v Specialists

Today I set up a contest between an XI of great players known for being multi-talented and an XI of guys who would only ever have been picked for one particular skill. The latter side has the six batters, one keeper, four bowlers balance used by the West Indies under Clive Lloyd and Australia under the captaincies of Mark Taylor and Steve Waugh, each of which sides were the best test sides of their respective eras.

ALL BASES COVERED XI

1. WG Grace (right handed opening batter, right arm bowler of various types through his career, excellent close catcher, vice-captain). In his best decade, the 1870s, he averaged 49 with the bat, while the next best were around the 25 mark. He was also a top of the range bowler.
2. Frank Woolley (left handed batter, left arm orthodox spin bowler, ace close fielder). The only cricketer ever to achieve the career treble of 10,000 FC runs, 1,000 FC wickets and 1,000 FC catches, and the only non-wicket keeper to achieve the latter milestone.
3. Wally Hammond (right handed batter, right arm medium-fast bowler, excellent fielder). One of the greatest batters ever to play the game, a regular new ball bowler for his county and a useful fill-in seamer at test level, and a superb catcher.
4. Denis Compton (right handed batter, left arm wrist spinner). An all-rounder in more than just a cricketing sense – he and brother Leslie were important members of the Arsenal FC sides of their day, with Leslie a full international at that sport and Denis winning wartime international caps. Only one batter reached 100 FC hundreds in fewer than the 552 innings it took him – Don Bradman. He developed his bowling after being impressed by ‘Chuck’ Fleetwood-Smith.
5. Garry Sobers (left handed batter, left arm bowler of every type known to cricket, gun fielder). Cricketers don’t come more multi-skilled than this man was.
6. Aubrey Faulkner (right handed batter, leg spinner). Arguably the most genuine all rounder in test history – he alone among takers of at least 50 test wickets finished his career with a batting average above 40 and a bowling average below 30.
7. *Imran Khan (right arm fast bowler, right handed batter, captain). He had a spell when he played purely as a batter, but his overall career record is slightly tilted in favour of bowling – a batting average of 37.69 is very respectable but not outstanding, whereas a bowling average of 22.69 per wicket bears comparison with any of the specialist bowlers to play for Pakistan in his career and is ahead of most of them.
8. Wasim Akram (left arm fast bowler, left handed batter). This slot was a toss up between him and Alan Davidson, a similar type of player though not quite as fast a bowler.
9. Billy Bates (off spinner, right handed batter). A fine all rounder in his day, and the first England bowler to take a test match hat trick (part of a match performance in which he scored 55 and took 14 Australian wickets).
10. Ray Lindwall (right arm fast bowler, right handed batter). A great fast bowler, and a handy lower order batter, scorer of two test tons in that capacity.
11. +Alan Smith (wicket keeper, right handed batter, right arm fast medium bowler). I have selected him for this role in this side because while many regular keepers have turned an arm over on occasion this man actually took 131 first class wickets at 23.46 a piece with a best of 5-32. On one occasion, in a game in which he was playing as keeper and captain and injury crisis led to him taking the new ball, and at one point in the innings in question his figures were 6-6-0-4 including a hat trick! 428 first class matches yielded him 715 catches and 61 stumpings, and also 11,027 runs at 20.92, including three first class tons. Who would stand in with the gloves if he were to have a bowl? Well, WG did the job twice in test matches, and Hammond and Sobers would both likely be capable of doing so as well.

This side has a deep batting line up and a dazzling array of bowling options at its disposal, with a fine keeper.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

I mentioned Alan Davidson in connection with Wasim Akram’s place in the line up. Keith Miller was a rival for Imran Khan’s slot, with Mike Procter also deserving a mention. The ‘Kirkheaton twins’, Wilfred Rhodes and George Hirst also have to be mentioned. Gilbert Jessop as an ‘X-factor player’ would have appealed to some. Three subcontinental all rounders whose bowling speciality was left arm spin must also be acknowledged: Mulvantrai ‘Vinoo’ Mankad, Ravindra Jadeja and Shakib Al Hasan. Sri Lankan leg spinning all rounder Wanindu Hasaranga de Silva has had most of his best moments in limited overs cricket. This is by no means an exhaustive list.

PHOTO GALLERY ONE

I have lots of photos to share, hence two galleries in this post…

THE SPECIALISTS XI

1. Jack Hobbs (right handed opening batter). The Master, one half of test cricket’s greatest ever opening pair along with…
2. Herbert Sutcliffe (right handed opening batter). The ultimate ‘big match’ player, as shown by the progression of his averages – 52.02 in FC cricket, 60.73 in test cricket, 66.85 in The Ashes.
3. *Don Bradman (right handed batter, captain). In test cricket only a handful of the best of the rest to have played 20 or more matches are even within 40 runs an innings of his 99.94. He was also an excellent skipper.
4. Brian Lara (left handed batter). The only player to have twice set the world test record score, and one of only two to simultaneously hold the individual scoring record in test and FC cricket (Bradman between 1930 and 1933 with 452* and 334 being the other). Left handers are supposed to be vulnerable to off spin, but he once scored 688 in a three match series in Sri Lanka with the latter’s bowling spearheaded by Muthiah Muralidaran.
5. Sachin Tendulkar (right handed batter). Only one player has scored 100 international centuries, and only one player has scored as many as 50 test centuries – Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar.
6. Allan Border (left handed batter, vice captain). For much of his career he was carrying a very moderate batting line up, but a few years at the end he got to experience being part of a winning combination.
7. +Adam Gilchrist (left handed batter, wicket keeper). A fine keeper, and one who altered expectations of what keepers could be expected to do with the bat (a questionable legacy given e.g. the shameful treatment of Ben Foakes by the England selectors).
8. Malcolm Marshall (right arm fast bowler, right handed batter). An all time great fast bowler.
9. Shane Warne (leg spinner, right handed batter). The reviver of an almost forgotten art (save for Abdul Qadir the 1980s did not see a leg spinner of true test class).
10. Bill Johnston (left arm fast medium bowler, left arm orthodox spin bowler, left handed tail end batter). Australia’s leading wicket taker in several series in the immediate post WWII era, it was not unknown for him to go straight from spinning the old ball to swinging the new one.
11. Glenn McGrath (right arm fast medium bowler, right handed tail end batter). The fast bowling spearhead of Australia’s dominant test side of the 1990s and early 2000s.

This side has a powerful top seven batters, five front line bowling options, courtesy of big Bill Johnston being two types of bowler and a quality keeper.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS AND LIKELY OUTCOME

Steve Smith of Australia is probably the biggest batting miss, while Curtly Ambrose is probably the biggest bowling miss, although there were many candidates in both categories. My own feeling is that the multi-skilled XI would be favourites – although it is a daunting task to get through it there is a visible end to the specialists batting resources, whereas the multi-skilled team really does bat all the way down. Similarly, the specialists don’t have a vast number of bowling options, whereas the multi-skilled team will always have someone to turn to in any given situation.

PHOTO GALLERY TWO

We end with a second photo gallery…