Indian batsmen Sachin Tendulkar, right, and V.V.S Laxman return for the tea interval. AP Photo/Gautam Singh
One question asked on Australia Day has left my group of mates divided, so I’ve turned to The Roar for answers. While the cricket was blaring and the beers were going down nicely, I put this question to a select group of sporting mates …
Who were present: When pitting a World XI batting team against a World XI bowling team (current players or recently retired), who would you fancy?
All-rounders should be discarded from either lineup in order to even the contest. Sorry Jacques Kallis. Opinions on who may be considered an all-rounder may vary, but you get the point.
Simplifying it even more, the real question is can the batters bowl better then the bowers can bat? Try saying that after a night of drinking.
According to the current ICC rankings, the top ranked Test batsman and bowlers are as follows:
Batsman: S. Tendulkar, K.Sangakkara, J.Trott, A.Cook, V. Sehwag, M. Jayawardena, S. Chanderpaul, V.V.S Laxman, T. Samaraweera, A.B. de Villiers and H.Amla.
Bowlers: D. Steyn, G. Swann, J. Anderson, M.Morkel, Z.Khan, D. Bollinger, M.Asif, H. Singh, P.Siddle, M. Amir and S.Broad.
Note: Vettori, Kallis and M. Johnson all removed from list due to all-rounder status.
117 wickets have been taken between all 11 batsman, with Tendulkar (45 wickets) and Sehwag (39 wickets) being the pick of them.
The bowlers have notched up 21 half centuries, eight coming from the bat of Harbhajan Singh.
With this in mind, Singh and Stuart Broad are considered the best batsman from the World XI bowling team and Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag as the best bowlers for the World XI batting team, so let’s isolate the contest to these four cricketers.
Tendulkar took the majority of his wickets bowling right arm leg-spin, while Sehwag has his off-spinners at the other end. Stuart Broad is a left-handed batman and Harbhajan Singh is right-handed. Already from these facts we can assume the batsman have the advantage.
For a bowler, rhythm plays a vital part in success, so when a left and right-handed batsman continue to rotate the strike, alas, forcing the bowlers to adjust their line, rhythm is harder to achieve.
Singh is a world renowned right arm off-spin bowler with years of experience. Cricketers will agree that a batsman who bowls spin has the ascendancy when faced with a fellow spin bowler. In this case, Singh may pick any variation bowled by Sehwag, allowing him to play the appropriate shot.
When taking this into consideration, it appears the batsman hold a slight advantage over the bowlers, however many variables can further tilt the favouritism in either direction (pitch and outfield conditions, weather, size of outfield etc).
From this quick analysis, my alliance must be with the batsman, but there are many other opinions out there, so I’ll leave this debate wide open and in the hands of the many Roarers.
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