Test draft - Skills vs The Red Viper

Who will win the test series?

  • Total voters
    9
  • Poll closed .

Varun

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Welcome to the seventh match of the test draft!

  • Judge the players on their peaks excluding any 6-12 month purple patch.
  • Vote for the team you think will win a 3 match test series between these 2 sides based on the given nature of pitches.
  1. 1st test: Good batting pitch.
  2. 2nd test: Slow wicket which gets worse as the game goes on and will assist spinners heavily.
  3. 3rd test: Green top
The Red Viper line up:

01. Desmond Haynes.
02. Mark Taylor. (C)
03. Graeme Pollock.
04. Javed Miandad.
05. Doug Walters.
06. Gundappa Viswanath. [2nd Test & 3rd Test]
07. Andrew Flintoff.
08. Chris Cairns.
09. Farokh Engineer. (†)
10. Dennis Lillee.
11. Charlie Griffith. [1st Test & 3rd Test]
12. Erapalli Prasanna. [1st Test & 2rd Test]

Skills line Up:

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Viper write up:

The Line-Up

01. Desmond Haynes.
02. Mark Taylor. (C)
03. Graeme Pollock.
04. Javed Miandad.
05. Doug Walters.
06. Gundappa Viswanath. [2nd Test & 3rd Test]
07. Andrew Flintoff.
08. Chris Cairns.
09. Farokh Engineer. (†)
10. Dennis Lillee.
11. Charlie Griffith. [1st Test & 3rd Test]
12. Erapalli Prasanna. [1st Test & 2rd Test]

THE PLAYING XI​

The 1st Test:-

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The 2nd Test:-

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The 3rd Test:-

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THE BATTING​

In Desmond Haynes and Mark Taylor, we have two excellent openers, who are known for their resilience and ability to see off the new ball. Coming after them at 1st down, is the greatest South African batsman of all time, Graeme Pollock, who Sir Don Bradman considers the best left handed batsman he has seen alongside Sir Garry Sobers. At 2nd down, we have Pakistan's greatest ever batsman, Javed Miandad. Known for grit and determination using which he grinded out so many innings for Pakistan when they were in desperation situation, Javed Miandad would hold the middle order for us. Then, we have "The Crisis Man", Gundappa Viswanath. What VVS Laxman did for Indian cricket team in the 00s, Gundappa Vishwanath used to do that for Indian cricket team in the 70s. Whenever the top order failed, Gundappa Vishwanath would rise and play some sensational knocks against some of the greatest bowling attacks to grace the game. There is a reason he was Rahul Dravid's idol growing up and many great bowlers like Dennis Lillee and Andy Roberts rate him so highly. Next up we have Doug Walters. A fantastic character. One of the most flamboyant batsman to have played the game. Ian Chappell considers him the best player of off-spin bowling he has seen. Here is Chappelli gushing about Dougy Walters:-





Andrew Flintoff, Chris Cairns and Farokh Engineer form the lower batting order. In Freddie and Cairns, there are two good batsman who can take the match away from the opposition with the help of their batting exploits in a session. But at the same time, they can grind it out in the toughest of circumstances when needed. Engineer was considered as one of the best batsman India had in the 60s and 70s against genuine pace bowling. Its one of the reasons why he also opened the batting. He had the ability to see off the fast bowlers but if needed he could whack them for sixes on bouncers.

All in all, the batting line-up is really balanced. It has openers who could see off the new ball, middle-order batsmen who could counter-attack and take the match away from the opposition if needed and batsmen who have a proven record of grinding it out and bailing the team from a tough situation.


THE BOWLING​


The bowling attack comprises of Dennis Lillee, Charlie Griffith, Andrew Flintoff, Chris Cairns, Erapalli Prasanna and Doug Walters. In Lillee, we have an all-time great fast bowler to spearhead the attack and using his pace and ability to swing the ball, cause all kinds of problem to the opposition batting. Charlie Griffith would play the role of Jeff Thomson here. Like Thommo, Griffith was super fast and was vicious. Griffth's bouncers and yorkers were extremely deadly. There is a reason he is considered the meanest fast bowler to have come out from Barbados, a small island which has also produced the likes of Wes Hall, Joel Garner and Malcolm Marshall.

Freddie and Cairns are the first first and second change options for our bowling attacks. Both had the ability to swing both the new ball as well as old ball using reverse swing. New Zealand were one of the best sides in the 90s and Cairns played a huge part in that. He spearheaded the New Zealand bowling attack and was more often than not, the lone wolf as the supporting bowlers he had weren't that good until Daniel Vettori and Shane Bond came. And, everyone knows about Freddie's exploits in the 2005 Ashes. In the spin department, we have Erapalli Prasanna. Considered by many as India's best ever off-spinner. ESPNCricinfo had him in India's All Time XI while Ian Chappell considers him as the best spinner amongst that great Indian spin quartet. Pras, as he was fondly called, was a master of flight and deception and he had a heart of a champion. Usually after getting hit for a four or six, spinners would look to stop the flow of runs but Prasanna would always look for the wickets. Last but not the least, we have Doug Walters as the part-timer bowler. A handy medium-paced bowler, Doug Walters had a knack of picking wickets at crucial stages of the games, especially when Australia needed to break a partnership.

Overall, the bowling attack has plenty of variety in it. It has bowlers who can bowl at a genuine pace, swing the new ball as well as the old ball using reverse swing and a spinner who would be devastating in a turner with his flight and drift. And in Mark Taylor, one of the shrewdest and tactically smartest captains to have played the game, we have a captain who can set the field and maximize the ability of our bowlers.
 
Engineer Skills excel:

Line Ups
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Batting Lineup (click/press to zoom)

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Bowling Lineup (click/press to zoom)
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@The Red Viper good luck.

I think my opponent has an excellent team so I wouldn't begrudge him winning this. I don't think many of ours players came across during their careers.

However, Kallicharan did come across Lillee and has a fairly decent record of 26 runs per dismissal against Dennis Lillee (3 dismissals in 9 games). Desmond Haynes though has historically struggled against Imran Khan, 7 dismissals in 13 matches at an average of 7.42 runs per dismissal against Imran.
 
Plenty of tables, not enough Chairs or Ladders.

2/10 Would not read.
 
TRV's top four are all better than Skills'. Although I don't rate Root as highly as his stats, I still think he's better than Viswanath. Both are fine batsmen though. Flower is very good and better than Walters. Overall TRV has a slightly better batting lineup than Skills in the 1st Test, and markedly better in the latter two.

Dennis Lillee is an excellent bowler, and Griffith is a decent accompaniment, but I don't really rate Cairns or Flintoff's bowling at a draft of this level. I can see TRV having difficulty taking 20 wickets in the 1st Test. Imran-Walsh-Srinath-Asif is a stronger attack. Skills also has two spinners to one for the 2nd Test, although Prasanna is a level above Swann/Doshi.

This is another of those batting vs bowling ones. Leaning Skills at the moment.
 
Comparatively skills bowling attack looks better as unit and Viper with his Batting.
 
Akshay said:
TRV's top four are all better than Skills'. Although I don't rate Root as highly as his stats, I still think he's better than Viswanath. Both are fine batsmen though. Flower is very good and better than Walters. Overall TRV has a slightly better batting lineup than Skills in the 1st Test, and markedly better in the latter two.

Dennis Lillee is an excellent bowler, and Griffith is a decent accompaniment, but I don't really rate Cairns or Flintoff's bowling at a draft of this level. I can see TRV having difficulty taking 20 wickets in the 1st Test. Imran-Walsh-Srinath-Asif is a stronger attack. Skills also has two spinners to one for the 2nd Test, although Prasanna is a level above Swann/Doshi.

This is another of those batting vs bowling ones. Leaning Skills at the moment.
Click to expand...

I like Skills' bowling attack a lot. So, I have to agree that Skills has a better bowling attack. But, I have to completely disagree about Cairns and Freddie. Since we are talking about peaks, Freddie was his peak was a legit bowler. He won England so many matches with his bowling during early and mid 00s. The Ashes being the best example where he changed the course of the match with his bowling. And, Cairns spearheaded the bowling attack of the New Zealand team who had a good record in the 90s, and that too mostly as a lone-wolf.

Here, neither Freddie nor Cairns are being asked to carry the attack. If Freddie and Cairns were my premier bowlers and were asked to lead the attack, I would have agreed with your point. But here, Lillee is the one who leads the pace attack with Griffith. The likes of Freddie and Cairns offering him support as complementary bowlers, who also offer my bowling attack a nice variety. As 3rd and 4th bowlers, Freddie and Cairns are more than good enough. Cairns has 218 wickets at an average of 29 with Freddie having 226 wickets at an average of 32. Thats is quite good for bowlers who are supposed to be 3rd and 4th options.
 
As for Joe Root vs Walters/Vishy, I rate Root as a batsman but he has some way to go before he is considered better than Walters/Vishy imo.

I don't want to be harsh on current day batsmen but a lot of them have the luxury of playing a lot more games in tracks where it doesn't assist the bowlers a lot anymore. Even WACA in Australia is pretty much similar to a Nagpur wicket nowadays. Anyway, Root has played some great knocks but the quality of bowling nowadays isn't just the same. In the last 3 odd years, the only good bowling attacks we have seen are the Australian team when they had Mitchell Johnson, Ryan Harris, Siddle and Lyon, the New Zealand bowling attack of Boult, Southee and co, England bowling attack of Jimmy, Broad etc and the South African bowling attack of Steyn, Morne etc. Out of these four, Root has played against three of them and struggled against two of them. He has a good record against South Africa last year and early this year but Steyn only played one game out of the four.

Joe Root can and most probably will become a quality batsman. He certainly has the talent but as of now, I won't consider him higher than Walters/Vishy.
 
The way I see it is, while Skills has got a better bowling attack, I have a better quality batting line-up, not to mention a longer tail who can bat. It would be a close contest. Probably Skills will win the 2nd Test but I will win the 1st Test and 3rd Test.
 
Akshay said:
TRV's top four are all better than Skills'. Although I don't rate Root as highly as his stats, I still think he's better than Viswanath. Both are fine batsmen though. Flower is very good and better than Walters. Overall TRV has a slightly better batting lineup than Skills in the 1st Test, and markedly better in the latter two.

Dennis Lillee is an excellent bowler, and Griffith is a decent accompaniment, but I don't really rate Cairns or Flintoff's bowling at a draft of this level. I can see TRV having difficulty taking 20 wickets in the 1st Test. Imran-Walsh-Srinath-Asif is a stronger attack. Skills also has two spinners to one for the 2nd Test, although Prasanna is a level above Swann/Doshi.

This is another of those batting vs bowling ones. Leaning Skills at the moment.
Click to expand...

Flintoff was excellent during his peak. He could york even the best batsmen.
 
Can someone shed some light on Charlie Griffith ? This looks a match of Batsmen vs bowlers again, with TRV edging the batting and Skills with the bowling.
 
Ijazz17 said:
Can someone shed some light on Charlie Griffith ? This looks a match of Batsmen vs bowlers again, with TRV edging the batting and Skills with the bowling.
Click to expand...

"The small island of Barbados has produced more quality fast bowlers than the entire nation of India: there was Wes Hall, with his long run-up, running in the sunshine, his crucifix dangling, to hurl deliveries at unbelievable speed; there was Joel Garner, tall and accurate, miserly in approach and lethal in effect and there was Malcolm Marshall, stocky and fast, who could run through any batting line-up and generally accepted as one of the greatest in history.

And then, there was Charlie Griffith: tall, muscular, massive and oozing power – the meanest of them all. A career of 94 wickets from 28 Tests at 28.54 is impressive enough, but it does not tell the complete story. It does not tell the way how Griffith, in unison with fellow Barbadian Hall, had intimidated batsmen all over the world with pace. Neither does it tell how lethal Griffith’s toe-crushing yorkers were, or how ruthless his bouncers were."

http://www.cricketcountry.com/artic...r-in-crime-of-fellow-barbadian-wes-hall-20917
 
I see him as basically cricket's equivalent of a bully. He bowled fast, and made liberal use of intimidating bouncers in an era where there was no restriction on their use nor did the batsmen usually wear helmets. There were also doubts about the legitimacy of his action as he was no-balled for chucking, although I don't think that ever happened during a Test match. Probably one of those that has to be judged in the context of his era.
 
I think Viper's top order is superior but also I don't feel there is the need for both Flintoff and Cairns. I think if he picked up one frontline bowler for Cairns, he could put Flintoff as his regular 7 and have Viswanath in all three tests.

For the first two tests Viper may struggle to pick up 20 wickets because his main bowler Lillee while not playing much in sub-continent style pitches, when he did he struggled. Most of his tests (60/70) came in home conditions and England. Conditions suited for fast bowlers. That's going to put more workload on Griffiths as well as Flintoff/Cairns who ideally you'd want them to be able support acts in these conditions (and both were erratic in these conditions. Some good performances, some bad) Erapalli is a legendary spinner and will do well in the second test in particular, but Skills attack is more balanced.

I think for this reason Skills is an advantage in the first test and second test because in Imran and Srinath he has two fast bowlers who are played most their careers on these pitches (and had success overseas) and in Swann he has a spinner who makes the most of the footmarks later on. Because of this I think Skills is in the drivers seat for since Viper needs his batsmen to be on their top form to make up for the bowling shortcomings but as a consequence of those bowling shortcomings Skills' attack will be better placed to perform. Therefore I see Skills taking the first two tests. For the final test it's an even playing field.
 
I don't want to be responsible for another low turnout draft match...
 
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