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How to pick a Test XI: balance, depth and the fifth bowler

Six batters, a keeper, four bowlers and the argument over the fifth. How to balance a Test side for the conditions, the series and five days of workload.

By the Masterstroke team · · 4 min read

Picking a Test XI is a different problem from picking a T20 side. There are no fielding restrictions and no impact player; the same eleven must bat twice, bowl for up to five days and cope with a pitch that changes every session. The question is always balance: how many batters, how many bowlers, and where the two extra jobs, wicketkeeping and the fifth bowling option, come from.

The default shape

The classic Test XI is six specialist batters, a wicketkeeper at seven, and four bowlers. It works because four frontline bowlers can share 90 overs a day at about 20 each, with the sixth batter or a part-timer bowling a few to give them a rest, and because six batters plus a keeper who can bat is enough to get 350 more often than not.

Every variation is a trade against that shape. Five bowlers gives the captain more options and fresher bowlers on day four, but it means the side bats only to six, and a collapse at 120 for five is a collapse to the tail. Seven batters makes the side almost impossible to bowl out cheaply and almost impossible to bowl anyone else out with. The all-rounder is the answer to the trade, which is why he is the most valuable player in Test cricket: a genuine one lets the side play five bowlers and bat to seven.

The top six

Positions one to three face the new ball and the fresh bowlers, so they need technique and patience above all; a batting average of 40 with a low strike rate is a fine Test opener. Four and five are usually the best players in the side, who come in once the shine has gone and must convert starts into big scores. Six is the flexible position: a counter-attacker who can take a match away in a session, or a fourth-innings grinder, depending on what the side lacks.

The balance to look for is between players who score and players who occupy. A top six of six stroke-makers will win a Test in three days and lose one in two; a top six of six blockers will draw a lot and win little. Two of each plus two who can do both is the aim.

The keeper

The wicketkeeper question is glovework against runs. Standing up to spin on a turning pitch for three days is a specialist skill, and a keeper who misses a stumping on day four can lose a series; but a keeper who averages 35 with the bat lets the side play an extra bowler. Most sides now pick the batter and accept a chance or two, except in conditions where spin dominates, when the specialist earns his place.

The attack

Four bowlers should not be four of the same thing. The ideal attack has a swing bowler for the new ball, a fast bowler for pace and bounce on flat surfaces, a seamer who can hold an end for long spells, and a spinner who bowls the most overs on days four and five. Conditions shift the balance: a green top wants three or four seamers, a subcontinental turner wants two spinners and one of the seamers becomes the fifth bowler.

Workload matters more in Tests than anywhere else. A fast bowler who bowls 40 overs in the first innings will be a yard slower in the second, and a three-Test series in three weeks will break someone. Pick the attack for the series, not the match: a bowler who can play all three Tests at 90 per cent is often more use than one who plays the first at 100 and misses the rest. Rotation between Tests, and light training between them, keeps the attack whole.

The fifth bowler

The fifth bowling option is not a luxury. On a flat pitch the four frontliners will be tired by tea on day one, and a captain with nobody to turn to bowls his best bowler into the ground. The fifth bowler can be a batting all-rounder at six, a keeper who bowls, or a top-order batter with a serviceable part-time spin. He needs to bowl ten overs a day without being expensive, not take five-fors, and his overs are what keep the new ball bowlers fresh for when the second new ball arrives at 80 overs.

Home, away and the toss

A home XI can be built around the known surface. An away XI must be built around what the touring side is guessing about the surface, and the guess should err towards batting depth: away sides collapse more often than they run out of bowling. Read the conditions, decide what you will do at the toss with either result, and pick the XI that suits both.

A quick checklist

  • Six batters, two of whom occupy and two of whom score, and the other two can do both.
  • A keeper whose batting justifies the chances he will miss, unless the pitch turns.
  • Four bowlers of four different types, chosen for the series, not the first day.
  • A fifth bowler who can give the frontliners ten overs a day.
  • Enough batting depth to survive a collapse and enough bowling to take twenty wickets. If you cannot have both, on a good pitch choose the bowling, and on a bad one choose the batting.

In Masterstroke a national job means naming your sixteen for each format and picking a captain, then living with the balance across a two-year World Test Championship table. The board has its own opinion about the result, and the follow-on, the declaration and the fifth bowler are all yours to get right.