Importance of the lower order in Test cricket

[street cricketer]

Starsports showed a graphic of the lower order contribution of all the teams in the world this year and India and England were topping the chart in that particular statistic. Here again, both the lower orders of England and India have made a significant contribution to the match that all the more highlights the importance of all rounders in test cricket.

This brings us to the question - would you rather select a genuine bowler who is just a standard tailender or a bowler who is slightly inferior in bowling when compared to a genuine bowler but one who can make good contributions with the bat lower down the order?

How much importance would you give to selecting the lower order with respect to their batting skills, would you rather select a Morne Morkel or a Chris Morris in your team?

 

[Junaids]

Starsports showed a graphic of the lower order contribution of all the teams in the world this year and India and England were topping the chart in that particular statistic. Here again, both the lower orders of England and India have made a significant contribution to the match that all the more highlights the importance of all rounders in test cricket.

This brings us to the question - would you rather select a genuine bowler who is just a standard tailender or a bowler who is slightly inferior in bowling when compared to a genuine bowler but one who can make good contributions with the bat lower down the order?

How much importance would you give to selecting the lower order with respect to their batting skills, would you rather select a Morne Morkel or a Chris Morris in your team?

In Test cricket, first we saw Adam Gilchrist rewrite the position of wicketkeeper so that runs output became the key selection criterion.

And now we have seen that spread to the third and fourth bowlers, who must be able to average 22+ and 28+ from the Numbers 9 and 8 slots in the batting order.

In this match Stuart Broad is batting at Number 11: a man who hit a Test innings of 169 against Amir, Asif and Ajmal in 2010 after coming in at 102-7!

Meanwhile across the Indian Ocean, Australia has selected Joe Mennie as third seamer ahead of Jackson Brid......on the basis of his superior batting.

 

[Rayyman]

Well, the only #11 in Pak's squad are Rahat and Imran. And none of them play. I think each of Amir, Yasir and Wahab got a 30-odd recently in UK. They need to target getting 50s now as they were terrible in UAE. Yasir is a good night watchman though. I don't think Pak should bat Amir at 8. This will tell him he is an all rounder which he shouldn't focus on. Batting at 9 or 10 will help him focus on his bowling. Same as Yasir. He should bat at 9 or 10 also. Wahab or Sohail can be asked to bat at 8 and slog like crazy.