Who shall our All-time Australian XI play against? How about a Rest of the World XI comprising overseas players from the other cricketing nations?

Below is an XI selected to give the Australians a run for their money Down Under, often considered the toughest assignment in world cricket.

My key selection criteria in picking this XI is form in Australia. Many a great player has come Down Under and failed to adjust to the difference in conditions, but there has been a handful of players who have excelled against the Aussies in their backyard.

Because of the vast difference in pitches and era I have mainly focused on selecting players who played after World War I. One of my selections played prior to this period but the majority of his cricket was after the Great War.

1. Jack Hobbs
24 matches, 2493 runs at 57.97, nine 100s, nine 50s
No overseas batsman has made more runs (2493) or scored more centuries (nine) in Australia than the legendary Surrey opener, who averaged a shade under 58 in a combined five tours Down Under.

Hobbs’s best series in Australia came pre-World War I in 1911-12, when he scored 662 runs at an average of 82.75, including three centuries, in the five Tests played, helping the old enemy to a 4-1 series victory. Even if this performance is excluded, Hobbs averaged over 50 in each of his three post-World War I tours, stats made even more remarkable by the fact uncovered pitches were considered the norm during his era.

Renowned for being the leading run-scorer and century-maker in the first-class game, he’s an easy pick to open the batting for our side.

2. Herbert Sutcliffe
14 matches, 1529 runs at 63.71, six 100s, seven 50s
The Yorkshireman joins his famous opening partner in our Rest of the World XI and actually has a better average in Australia (63.71) than his counterpart. The legendary Hobbs-Sutcliffe partnership made 11 century stands against Australia, six of which came Down Under. Perhaps none was more famous than the 106 they put on in Melbourne in 1928-29 on a treacherous sticky wicket to help anchor England’s successful fourth-innings run chase.

Sutcliffe took a particular liking to the MCG, averaging 103 on the ground with four centuries in four Tests. He finished his career Down Under on his third and final tour as part of the victorious English touring side in the infamous Bodyline series. In three tours to Australia Sutcliffe ended up on the winning Ashes side twice. One of the great performers in Australia ever.

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3. Wally Hammond
19 matches, 1981 runs at 61.91, seven 100s, four 50s
Wally Hammond is second only to Hobbs in runs scored and centuries made for an overseas batsman in Australia. Of the seven centuries scored by him in Australia, three were double hundreds, the most by any overseas batsman Down Under.

Hammond introduced himself to the Aussies in 1928-29 with one of the greatest series a batsman has ever had, scoring 905 runs at an average of 113.13 in five Tests. This aggregate is still the series run-scoring record for any batsman home or away in Australia and is second overall only to Bradman’s 974 in the 1930 Ashes.

Ironically the majority of Hammond’s career overlapped with Bradman’s, and he was often thought to be in the Don’s shadow. While he might not have lived up to Bradman’s incomparable standards, Hammond is undoubtedly one of the finest batsmen of all time and rivals only Hobbs as England’s greatest batsman.

4. Sachin Tendulkar
20 matches, 1809 runs at 53.21, six 100s, seven 50s
The Little Master announced himself to the Australian public as a baby-faced 18-year-old in 1991-92 with centuries in Perth and Sydney against an Australian attack that featured Craig McDermott, Merv Hughes, Bruce Reid and Paul Reiffel. Tendulkar would return to Australia a further four times and average 53 Down Under, a shade under his overall career average. Perhaps his most memorable innings other than his 114 at the WACA was the 241 not outscored in Sydney in 2003-04 without a cover drive. Sydney was Tendulkar’s favourite venue – he averaged an incredible 157 in five matches on the ground, scoring 785 runs.

While there is a couple of other batsmen who average slightly higher than Tendulkar in Australia, he makes my side as the majority of his runs were scored for an outmatched Indian side against an Australian attack rated as the best in the world.

5. Ken Barrington
Ten matches, 1046 runs at 69.73, four 100s, six 50s
Perhaps a controversial pick – the heart said Viv Richards and the memory bank said Brian Lara. Of all the batsmen to score over 1000 runs Down Under, however, nobody has a better average than Ken Barrington’s 69.73. Barrington scored four centuries in two tours against Australia and was the sheet anchor of England’s batting in the 1960s. An accumulator rather than stroke-maker, his century at the MCG in the fifth Test of the 1965-66 series off 122 balls was probably his finest hour Down Under, bringing up his century with a six over the Southern Stand off Tom Veivers.

While I would have loved to have slotted Viv Richards in here, Barrington’s far superior average Down Under (69.73 to 47.57) swung things in his favour. Surprisingly Lara’s overall average in Australia is only a shade under 42. Two excellent series returns – remembered for their double hundreds in Sydney and Adelaide – in 1992-93 and 2005-06 were bookended by more modest series returns in 1996-97 and 2000-01.

Two other batsmen averaged over 60 Down Under: Martin Crowe and Kumar Sangakkara. However, I didn’t consider either of them because I felt they didn’t play enough innings in Australia. This is a similar case with Graeme Pollock, perhaps unfairly so, given that he would have certainly toured the country again if it wasn’t for apartheid. The great South African left-hander debuted in Australia in 1963-64, scoring two centuries and averaging 57 on the tour. The players left out of the middle order suggests a ROW second XI would be equally as strong!

6. Garfield Sobers (captain)
15 matches, 1268 runs at 46.96, five 100s, three 50s; 42 wickets at 41.8 (stats include Rest of the World series in 1971-72)
Yes, I know the bowling stats are ordinary, but an all-rounder batting at No. 6 should be a stronger batsman than bowler in my book. The great West Indian – who, unknown to many, became an Australian citizen in later life – graced our shores in three tours, the first of which was the famous 1960-61 tour led by Frank Worrell that featured the tied test. Sobers’s innings of 132 in the first innings of that match was considered by some to be the best hundred they’d ever seen and led to Bradman inviting him to play for South Australia the following season.

Sobers returned to Australia as captain of the 1968-69 tour and then led a Rest of the World outfit that toured Australia in 1971-72. In the third Test of that series in Melbourne Sobers played what is remembered as one of the greatest innings of all time, hitting 254 in a display Bradman was famed to have said was “probably the greatest exhibition of batting ever seen in Australia”.

Having led two tours of Australia, Sobers assumes the captaincy of this XI.

7. Alan Knott
13 matches, 643 runs at 33.84; 51 dismissals
Pakistan’s Wasim Bari leads all wicketkeepers in dismissals Down Under with 55 overall from 16 matches, but he averaged only 8.6 with the bat in Australia. With Gilchrist in the opposition, picking a wicketkeeper that isn’t going to contribute with the bat would be silly.

The wicketkeeper’s slot in the end was a two-horse race between England’s Knott and Jeffrey Dujon of the West Indies. Both men played the same number of Tests Down Under, with Dujon’s batting average being higher but Knott taking more dismissals.

In the end I went with the Englishman, who is regarded as one of the greatest pure wicketkeepers the game has ever seen but who was good enough with the bat to still score five Test centuries, one of which came in in Adelaide on the 1974-75 tour. Knott was instrumental in the 1970-71 Ashes-winning side, keeping wicket to John Snow and Derek Underwood’s left-arm spin with equal aplomb. A true legend.

8. Richard Hadlee
12 matches, 77 wickets at 17.83, ten five-wicket innings, three ten-wicket innings, best bowling 9-52
Two bowlers stand head and shoulders above the rest in Australia post-World War I and Hadlee is the first of those. While remembered as an all-rounder, Hadlee’s bowling stats are enough to warrant his selection purely as a fast bowler in this XI.

New Zealand’s greatest ever cricketer toured the country four times and almost single-handedly helped the Kiwis to a remarkable upset series victory over the Aussies in 1985-86. Hadlee’s 33 wickets at 12.15 that series was underlined by his 15-wicket haul in Brisbane in the first Test of that series, blowing Australia away with 9-52 in the first innings. It was one of three ten wicket hauls Hadlee would take in Australia, the most of any overseas bowler. Thoroughly deserves merit in this side and adds some lower order strength to the batting too.

9. Malcolm Marshall
Ten matches, 45 wickets at 23.16, five five-wicket innings, one ten-wicket innings, best bowling 5-29
The late great Malcolm Marshall fills the second of three pace bowling slots in our XI. A relatively short man for a fast bowler, standing at only 1.8 metres tall, Marshall had a rapid, skiddy action and complete mastery over outswing and inswing. Considered the greatest of the great West Indian fast bowlers, Marshall toured Australia twice during the dominant Windies era of the 1980s and ended up being instrumental in series victories on both occasions, the highlight of which was his ten-wicket haul in Adelaide in 1984-85.

He just edges out Michael Holding and Wasim Akram, both of whom were excellent Down Under too, for a spot in this side.

10. Jim Laker
Four matches, 15 wickets at 21.20, one five-wicket innings, best bowling 5-107
Considered one of the toughest places in the world for overseas spinners to bowl, the spin selection for this side was probably the toughest to pick.

Lance Gibbs is the leading wicket-taker among spinners Down Under with 59 wickets but had a fairly ordinary strike rate of 97.24. The record aggregate wickets taken in a series by an overseas spinner in Australia is Bishen Bedi’s 31 wickets in 1977-78. That series performance is probably the finest by an overseas spinner post WWI in Australia, but it was against an Australian side depleted from World Series cricket and captained by 40-year-old Bob Simpson.

Also deserving mention are Anil Kumble, Derek Underwood and Hugh Tayfield. In the end I went with a man who toured the country only once in his last-ever Test series in an England side that was on the receiving end of a 4-0 pasting. Laker was one of the few Englishmen to survive that series with his reputation intact, bowling well on unhelpful pitches. The Englishmen saved his best for Australia, becoming the first man to take ten wickets in an innings against the Aussies at Old Trafford in the 1956 Ashes and averaging 18.28 with the ball against them, albeit predominantly in England.

The four Tests Laker played in Australia were the final four of his career. I know I’m somewhat contradicting myself having left Martin Crowe and Kumar Sangakkara out of this side for lack of innings played, but the overseas spin bowling cupboard Down Under is somewhat bare. I’m picking Laker as the most likely to adjust to conditions in Australia and challenge the Aussies in their backyard.

11. Curtly Ambrose
14 matches, 78 wickets at 19.79, six five-wicket innings, one ten-wicket innings, best bowling 7-25
The giant from Antigua is the last selection for our ROW XI and the leading wicket-taker among all overseas bowlers in Australia with 78 wickets taken over three tours Down Under. Alongside Hadlee, Ambrose is an easy selection for this side based on performance in Australia – both men are the No. 1 and No. 2 leading overseas wicket-takers in the country, with the two best averages among bowlers to have taken over 20 wickets.

While standing 201 centimetres tall with a sometimes fiery temperament – as Steve Waugh will testify to – nobody other than maybe Glenn McGrath utilised metronomic length bowling with steep bounce better than Ambrose. Nothing demonstrated this further than his legendary spell of seven for one in Perth during the 1992-93 series, hitting an unplayable length time and time again against the hapless Australian batsmen. That series was the last the Windies would win in Australia, and Ambrose and his running mate Courtney Walsh remain the last of the great West Indies fast bowlers.

While having an outstanding career overall, nowhere was Ambrose greater than in Australia. He takes the new ball for this side alongside Hadlee.

12th man: Viv Richards
I had to put him in somewhere somehow. Richards went on five tours to Australia, ending up on the winning side three times and averaging 47 with the bat. Of the four centuries scored by Viv Down Under, the most fondly remembered was his double hundred at the MCG in the 1984-85 series.

An outstanding fielder, he’s the perfect man to slip in if one of the middle-order injures themselves – Barrington had a heart attack during one of his later tours to Australia, so this might be likely.

So there you have it, an XI to perhaps challenge the All-time Australia XI. Who do you think would win? Comment and constructive feedback on my team selections are welcome.

Rest of the World XI (post-World War I)

1. Jack Hobbs
2. Herbert Sutcliffe
3. Wally Hammond
4. Sachin Tendulkar
5. Ken Barrington
6. Garfield Sobers (captain)
7. Alan Knott (wicketkeeper)
8. Richard Hadlee
9. Malcolm Marshall
10. Jim Laker
11. Curtly Ambrose
12. Viv Richards