I wrote this in a comments thread at cricinfo:
Maybe I'm too schooled in the Ian Chappell way of thinking but... As far as I'm concerned, when it comes to selecting bowlers, you pick the four best blokes in the country. If one of them happens to have a batting average in the 30s, more power to him. If the four bowlers all happen to be pace bowlers, then pick them instead of 3 pace bowlers and a bad spinner. Fact: Australia can't produce either a world-class all rounder or a world-class spinner. We can't create a spot in the top xi for a player who doesn't exist. If the best we can do is to pick four pace bowlers, six specialist batsmen and a wicketkeeper, then so be it. It worked for the Windies back in the 80s.
1 comment:
What you say seems so obviously true that you would think it goes without saying ... but our harebrained selectors seem to think otherwise. At the end of the day test cricket is about the team scoring runs and taking wickets. Individuals don't win test matches. Teams do. Forget about formulaic solutions such as the team having to have an all-rounder or a 3+1 bowling attack and instead pick the best bowling and batting line-ups given the available pool of players. If that happens to be 6 recognised batsmen a wicket-keeper and 4 quicks then so be it.
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