10 most reliable tailenders in the world today

There is not a shred of doubt that bowlers in modern-day cricket take their batting very seriously, with the days when it literally was a matter of minutes before the lower-order was bundled out being well behind us. Many of them have made useful contributions with the bat and have shown that they can hang around in the middle to support the more abled batsmen. Sometimes, these contributions have come when the team needed them the most.While in ODIs, lower order batsmen are often required to go on all out attack, in Tests, their importance is magnified, as many a crucial partnerships have completely changed the nature of the game in recent times.Here's a list of 10 of the most dependable tailenders in the world currently (performance in Tests taken into account):Note: Players like Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Stuart Broad and Vernon Philander have not been considered for this list since they are more than useful with the bat down the order and come under the bowling all-rounder category. Also, players who have spent some decent amount of time in the middle recently have been taken into account.This list is in no particular order.

#1 Ryan Harris

Ryan Harris will undoubtedly go down as one of Australia's most underutilised talents ever. A swing bowler with the ability to bowl at good pace and pick up early wickets for his side, Harris has just not had as smooth a run as he would've liked to, largely because of the spate of injuries he has suffered during the course of his career.

The 35-year-old has been exceptional with the ball when fit in recent times, illustrated by his return of 22 wickets from 5 Tests at 23.40, and has also managed to contribute some crucial runs lower down the order with the bat in hand.

Harris has a batting average of 19.32 in 24 Tests for Australia and his unbeaten 68 off 123 balls against the West Indies in 2012 is sufficient proof that his average is indeed no joke and that he is a compact lower-order batsman.