It was an arduous task to select the players for the All-time World Test XI. Spanning three centuries (19th, 20th and 21st) of cricket history I came across a galaxy of cricketers of extraordinary calibre from which I shortlisted the ones I thought were the very best and then proceeded to select the final eleven.
Short List of Opening Batsmen :
1. W.G.Grace (England)
2. Charles Bannerman (Australia)
3. Victor Trumper (Australia)
4. Jack Hobbs (England)
5. Herbert Sutcliffe (England)
6. Barry Richards (South Africa)
7. Vijay Merchant (India)
8. Virender Sehwag (India)
9. Sunil Gavaskar (India)
10. Glen Turner (New Zealand)
11. Geoffrey Boycott (England)
12. Hanif Mohammad (Pakistan)
13. Gordon Greenidge (West Indies)
14. Mathew Hayden (Australia)
15. Len Hutton (England)
Analysis and Selection :
I straightaway left out Dr.Grace and Bannerman out of the reckoning on account of their belonging to a bygone era when the game had not yet evolved to what we know it to be today. I reckoned that they would not be able to cope with the highly developed bowling skills today.
Next I left out Hayden, Greenidge, Hanif and Turner as not belonging to the class of the very best despite their enviable records. Merchant was difficult to leave out but I preferred Gavaskar to him because of the latter's fabulous record against the greatest pace attack of all time, that of the West Indies in the 1970s and 80s. Boycott, superb in defence but poor in aggressive play, was left out for the said reason.
Between Hobbs and Trumper I went for Hobbs for his superb technique, durability and consistency, and for his ability to tackle wet wickets which was truly a pointer to his superior skills of batting.
Virender Sehwag emerged as a strong contender but had to be left out as I felt that the chink in his armoury while on his legendary offensive would quickly be exposed before the great fast bowlers of the opposition and that would largely neutralise his batting contribution to the team.
This left me with selecting the best four openers from the remaining five batsmen, namely, Hobbs, Hutton, Sutcliffe, Barry Richards and Gavaskar who would represent the World XI and the Rest of the World XI. In other words, I had now to eliminate one of the five to get to the next level of selection. This was a difficult proposition, truly, for there was not much to choose between these five opening batsmen as to reject any one of them as being undeserving for selection to either of the two teams.
Hobbs and Sutcliffe have been the most successful opening pair in history while the mercurial South African, Richards, and the classically composite opener from India, Gavaskar with 13 Test centuries against the fearsome Windies pace attack, were also equal contenders for the opening slots. Hutton, superb in defence as also a keen student of the game with a very good track-record of captaincy for England also staked his claim strongly. Eventually, Sutcliffe was left out to make way for Hutton, simply because I felt that Hutton was a better technician as a batsman. Barry Richards made his way through on account of his great skills of batsmanship both in defence as in offence against the best bowlers of his time. Whenever he had got an opportunity to play cricket at the highest level, he had made a huge impact with his batting and had never failed to do so. So, Richards was in.
The four openers were now there to represent my two teams :
1. Jack Hobbs (England)
2. Len Hutton (England)
3. Barry Richards (South Africa)
4. Sunil Gavaskar (India)
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