All-time Test Captains XI
Having presented our ODI Captains XI last week, we present its logical sequel - the Test Captains XI. If there is any greater honour thanrepresent your country at the highest level, it is to do so as captain.Since the first Test in the 19th century, we have seen captains who have changed the course of the game. However, a few among theseelite players stand out as the best of the lot, not only being tactically astute, but also leading by example with bat and ball. The following criterions were considered whilst making this selection:The player should have captained in at least 20Testmatches.If a player is selected best for, saynumber3, a second best No.3 will not be considered for any other spot. For example,if Sir Donald Bradmanis selected as a one-down batsman, Stephen Flemingmisses out and will not be eligible to be selected at no. 4, unless the player has played at multiple positions for a reasonable amount of time.The performance of the captainas a playeris being gauged, and not as a captain. Only his performanceduring his tenure as a captainis considered. However, the captain of this team is selected on the merit of his captaincy, and is mentioned in the last slide.The home-away record was an important parameter for the selection. A player ideally plays almost 50% of his matches at home and 50% of his matches abroad (7-8 countries).Since the objective of making this team was to make it adaptablein any condition, the away record was given utmostimportance.There might be a school of thought that performances againstminnows should not be considered, but over a span of 150 years, defining the term minnow proved to be impossible. The parameter returned 70 captains. After a lot of deliberation and discussion, we present, in our opinion, the best possible World XI comprising of captains in the following format:Career Record, Record as Captain, Overseas CaptainRecord and Notable Absentees along with our line ofreasoning for their absenteeism. Note: The term span in the statistics are the end points of the player as captain. For example, if X was captain from 1991-1994 and then 1996-1999, the span would read as 1991-1999.
#1 Len Hutton
The opening conundrum was indeed a difficult one to solve. But unlike India’s current woes, we faced the problem of plenty, not that of dearth. Selecting the top four contenders proved to be easy, but the final selection took some thinking, with all four pipping each other in some aspect or another. Eventually, we chose Sir Leonard Hutton to play the first ball. Regarded as the greatest, most technically correct English batsman after Sir Jack Hobbs and Sir WG Grace, Len Hutton broke the then world-record score in his sixth Test, scoring 364. He was also England's first professional captain.
| Span | Matches | Runs | Highest Score | Batting Average | 100’s | Wickets | BBI | Bowling Average | |
| As Captain | 1952-1955 | 23 | 1825 | 205 | 52.14 | 5 | 1 | 1/2 | 45.00 |
| As captain away from Home | 1954-1955 | 12 | 964 | 205 | 50.73 | 2 | 1 | 1/2 | 45.00 |
| Overall | 1937-1955 | 79 | 6971 | 364 | 56.67 | 19 | 3 | 1/2 | 77.33 |