Team of all rounders v specialists

[social]

Saw an article on this recently

Pick a team comprised purely of all rounders to play against specialists

Who wins?

Criteria is that an all rounder must be better than a part timer in their weakest discipline

For example, Sobers (obviously) is an all rounder while Tendulkar/Viv/Smith/Root aren’t

 

[Ali TT]

What wicket keeper has that best bowling average? I know AB has a couple of test wickets and a few in ODIs

 

[social]

What wicket keeper has that best bowling average? I know AB has a couple of test wickets and a few in ODIs

Gilchrist is an all rounder

 

[Ali TT]

Gilchrist is an all rounder

Did take a wicket off his only ball bowled in the IPL but never bowled in international cricket.

The answer is specialist btw

 

[social]

Did take a wicket off his only ball bowled in the IPL but never bowled in international cricket.

The answer is specialist btw

So neither team has a wicket keeper

Happy now?

 

[capt_Luffy]

Specialists:

Hobbs
Gavaskar
Bradman*
Tendulkar
Richards
Lara
Evans+
Marshall
Warne
McGrath
Barnes


All-rounders:

Grace
Simpson
Hammond
Kallis
Sobers
ABD+
Procter
Imran*
Rhodes
Hadlee
Ashwin

 

[Bolo.]

What wicket keeper has that best bowling average? I know AB has a couple of test wickets and a few in ODIs

Boucher, average of 6.

But ya, Gilchrist is an AR.

 

[Qlder]

If you can pick ATG's then allrounders win. If it's by country or State/county team then specialists win easy

 

[social]

If you can pick ATG's then allrounders win. If it's by country or State/county team then specialists win easy

Imagine a World XI where numbers 10 & 11 have 8 test centuries between them and Sobers & Kallis are not needed to bowl

 

[Coronis]

What wicket keeper has that best bowling average? I know AB has a couple of test wickets and a few in ODIs

Alfred Lyttelton.

Kept in all 4 of his matches, only took two catches.

Bowled in one innings.

4/19

First man to play both cricket and football for England. Ended up being a member of parliament. True allrounder.

 

[Thala_0710]

Specialists winning this and it isn't remotely close

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Specialists winning this and it isn't remotely close

Allrounders would win

 

[Thala_0710]

Allrounders would win

Idts, the specialists batting/bowling would simply be too powerful imo. Against ATGs, an all rounder's secondary discipline would be much much less useful and would hardly make an impact, and they can't compete based off of their primary disciplines

 

[kyear2]

Idts, the specialists batting/bowling would simply be too powerful imo. Against ATGs, an all rounder's secondary discipline would be much much less useful and would hardly make an impact, and they can't compete based off of their primary disciplines

Exactly.

Specials.

 

[kyear2]

Hobbs
Hutton
Bradman
Richards
Tendulkar
Lara
Healy
Marshall
Warne
Steyn
McGrath

Simpson
Barlow
Hammond
Sobers
Kallis
Worrell
Gilchrist
Imran
Pollock
Hadlee
Ashwin


Specialists and without much fuss would be my guess.

 

[capt_Luffy]

Idts, the specialists batting/bowling would simply be too powerful imo. Against ATGs, an all rounder's secondary discipline would be much much less useful and would hardly make an impact, and they can't compete based off of their primary disciplines

The bowling of the two teams is basically the same. The specialists have a much better spinner, but even they struggled against top tier players of spin. Grace, Sobers, Kallis, Hammond, a great batting order with hardly any specialist clearly better than them (aka, only 1. Can argue SRT or Hobbs are clearly better than the latter 2 and will agree, but think recently the difference in quality gets exaggerated), and then you add that godly tail. The specialists wins only due to Bradman.

 

[reyrey]

Clyde Walcott as keeper in the all rounders team (has 11 Test wickets)

 

[kyear2]

The bowling of the two teams is basically the same. The specialists have a much better spinner, but even they struggled against top tier players of spin. Grace, Sobers, Kallis, Hammond, a great batting order with hardly any specialist clearly better than them (aka, only 1. Can argue SRT or Hobbs are clearly better than the latter 2 and will agree, but think recently the difference in quality gets exaggerated), and then you add that godly tail. The specialists wins only due to Bradman.

Those godly tails tended to primarily do well either down hill skiing in high scoring matches or vs weaker opponents.

I would say(using the 11's I listed) that
Marshall, McGrath, Warne and Steyn and a little better than Hadlee, Pollock, Imran and Ashwin. While the openers for the specialists are appreciably better than those for the all-rounders and only Sobers is quite in the same tier of the specialists bats.

So yeah, not particularly close imo.

 

[GIMH]

Batting down to eleven is obviously a huge asset but having ten bowlers is never likely to influence a result. I’d say the specialists win, and I say this despite being this forum’s undisputed number one advocate of all-rounders

 

[social]

The biggest advantage for a team of specialists will obviously be in the top 3 as very few all rounders batted that high due to bowling workloads

However, you can also make the case that 7-11 of an all rounders team would be significantly better than the specialists as they would likely have a very long tail of say

Knott
Warne/Murali
Marshall
Ambrose
McGrath

That could be knocked over in a hurry