Rest of the World 1975-79 XI v 1975-79 West Indies XI in Tests? Who would win?

[Harsh Thakor]

[MENTION=291]junaid[/MENTION] Responding to your viewpoint. Yes you have a valid point so I made a West Indies xi of the later part of the 1970's from 1975-79. Possibly it would have beaten Ian Chappell's team.

1975-79 rest of the world xi

1.Sunil Gavaskar
2.Dennis Amiss
3.Ian Chappell
4.Greg Chappell
5.Gundappa Vishwanath
6.Wasim Raja
7.Alan Knott
8.Imran Khan
9.Dennis Lillee
10.Jeff Thomson
11.Bishen Bedi


1975-79 West Indies xi

1.Gordon Greenidge
2.Desmond Haynes
3.Viv Richards
4.Alvin Kalicharan
5.Clive Lloyd
6.Lawrence Rowe
7.Deryk Murray
8.Andy Roberts
9.Joel Garner
10 Michael Hoding
11Colin Croft

I would back West Inside to win by around a margin of 25 runs. Superior pace attack and more talented and explosive batsmen. I included Vishwanath in rest of the world as he was class act in 1974-75 v Andy Roberts and co as well as at Madras in 1978-79 and Trinidad in 1975-76. Wasim Raja had the best batting record while in terms of skill Ian Chappell was right up there. Lillee and Thomson were the ultimate pace duo.Selected Denis Amiss as Barry Richards did not play a full strength West Indies team, nor did Geoff Boycott. Amiss had a great record against the Calypsos with 2 double hundreds.

 

[Robert]

I would have Botham in for Raja so there are five main bowlers, and Underwood in for Bedi. Or Unders for Thommo if it was a turner.

 

[Harsh Thakor]

I would have Botham in for Raja so there are five main bowlers, and Underwood in for Bedi. Or Unders for Thommo if it was a turner.

Who will win?

 

[as-95]

Rest of the world would win. Peak Imran Khan is probably the best test bowler of all time. Imran bowled gruellingly long spells in his prime so having Lillee and Thompson to share the load, would definitely be enough to bowl the Windies out for low totals.

The trouble lies with the batting and whether or not they would be able to handle the pace of the Windies quartet. However, there are a few players in there who held good records against the Windies attack, along with technically sound grafters liken Gavaskar and Chappell. The ROW also bat deep until no.8 so I think they would be able to clinch small leads and eventually win the game.

 

[Robert]

Who will win?

Difficult to say. That WI attack is murderous. But Sunny and Greg Chappell might get tons anyway.

I wonder who would get the new ball for the RoW. My instinct would be Lillee and Imran. The surface wouldn’t matter to those guys. Lillee’s best return was on an Uber-road at Melbourne. Imran was as fast as peak Lillee and would get the reverse going. Late-seventies Thommo was so fast that he would be doing WI for pace whatever the surface, though post-shoulder-dislocation he would have dropped some pace from his 1973 speed.