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.
Stevo
Guest
It's modern cricket, the bowlers don't matter any more. All the wickets are batsman friendly, and the batsmen nearly always win. The way this generation of Australian batters play (charging forward at every delivery) is indicative of the incredibly good batting pitches they've been brought up under. For that reason the batters would destroy the bowlers with an incredibly long innings.
The Barry
Roar Guru
I think the batsmen would have the advantage...if Test XIs can get scores of 400 - 500 with 7 recognised batsmen, how many would they get with 11 ? The line-up above has De Villiers and Amla at 10 and 11. They'd bat for 3 days and the sheer weight of runs would see them get up. Also how long would guys have to wait to get a bowl ? How would they get any momentum ? Say that Steyn bowls a blistering but luckless opening spell and then has to wait for 45 overs before he gets another bowl. Might be more interesting if you included all-rounders in either team based on where they bat. So - Johnson and Vettori for example bat in the bottom half of the order (mostly) so could be in the bowling side while Watson and Kallis are top 6 players so included in the batting XI. That might even the line-ups a little bit, giving the batters a bit more bowling strength and vice versa. Nice idea though and I'm sure it inspired long debate over many cold ones on Oz day. I think I'll raise it with my mates next time we catch up for a few...
lopati
Guest
T20? Completely wrong format to develop any real strategy, (bowlers present their opposition with their best unhittable deliveries whereas the bowlers can easily slog at medium pace devliveries - and its commonly known when a batting bowler hits a ball it usually stays hit). Would have to be at very least a one dayer.
soapit
Guest
thinking further i'd be putting my money on a draw for sure
soapit
Guest
just thinking it through i think the benefit of having an extra 5 batsmen would be greater then having an extra 6 or 7 bowlers. most teams get the job done with 4 or 5. maybe 1 or 2 extra would give you help if someone was really struggling or for a bit of variety but 6 or 7 extras might be overkill on that front. this would all be offset by the bowlers all becoming more like batsmen against the weaker bowling. i'll go batsmen tho in the end. could be different tho if it were a 20/20 match where i'd go bowlers i reckon. would love to see which bowler would go keeper.
Lochie
Guest
I think honestly the bowlers would win, I mean Stuart Broad and Harbarjan Singh can bat, with Swan and Siddle both being able to hold up an end at least! Where other than Sachin, I fail to where the 10 wickets could come from. Lochie, Thebatsmen.biz
Brett McKay
Guest
It's an interesting experiment though, Stoffy, I'd love to see a game played out this way, even if it was just a charity T20 game or something, it would just be interesting to see how it unfolds..
Stoffy18
Roar Guru
Thanks for that Brett, you make a good point.
Brett McKay
Guest
Stoffy, it would all come down to the toss, in my humble opinion. (And potentially the venue..) The batsmen would logically bat first, and quite likely post a big total, and the bowlers would logically have trouble chasing it down (I'd question Harbahjan and Broad's inclusion, by the way, if you're leaving Johnson out, but that's another discussion for another day). However, the bowlers might actually fancy their chances against the batsmens at-best medium pace, and could actually post a suprisingly decent total if they batted first. If those bowlers have knocked up 21 Test 50s - not to mention Broad's 1 and Harbahjan's 2 centuries - against Test-quality bowlers, I don't imagine they'd be too troubled by the occasional offerings of batsmen. My allegiance if definitely with the batsmen in this one, but I think the Bowlers might actually hold the upper hand, particularly if they won the toss....