THE GOOGLY: ENGLAND’S BEST ALLROUNDER UNIT?

Stokes, Moeen, Woakes lay claim to being greatest trio ever

It is England’s biggest weapon in Australia this winter. Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali and Chris Woakes are an all-round unit to be feared. And the question is worth asking: is it our greatest ever?

England are still reeling from the second Test defeat to West Indies, of course… their woe tempered only by Australia’s defeat in Bangladesh. We are trying to be positive in The Cricketer office, however, so it is time to dwell on the positives…

Stokes’ name is talked about alongside England’s finest allrounders – Trevor Bailey, Tony Greig, Ian Botham (acknowledged as the greatest) and Andrew Flintoff. It is also pointed out, however, that Moeen’s Test stats put him right up there too. This summer he was second only to Greig in the list of England allrounders and the time they took to reach 2,000 Test runs and 100 wickets.

With Stokes at No.5 or 6, Moeen at 7 and Woakes at 8, England will have a powerful engine-room down under. You could also add Jonny Bairstow to the allrounder list too, as many did with Alec Stewart when he was excelling with bat and gloves for his country.

Australia’s strike bowlers Mitchell Starc (Test batting average 24), James Pattinson (27) and Pat Cummins (21) are also very handy batsmen indeed, so a key feature of this winter’s eagerly anticipated Test series could be the middle order outscoring the top (Root/Cook + who knows? v Warner/Smith + who knows?)… and possibly even the tails piling up runs too.

To decide if this is England’s greatest all-round unit and in compiling the table below, I looked at players with significant Test records, those who have played 20 or more matches or so, with batting averages of more than 20, and who averaged under 40 with the ball. I also considered those who took at least two wickets per Test.

So Wally Hammond did not make the cut, for instance, despite 81 wickets in 83 matches; or Ted Dexter (66 wickets in 62 Tests) and Basil D’Oliveira (47 in 44)… even though the trio were distinctly useful with the ball, and quite often were in five-man attacks. Johnny Wardle was also a bit unlucky, with a batting average of 19.78 alongside his outstanding bowling average of 20.39.

There were a considerable number of good England allrounders in the nineteenth century, and it is difficult to judge them alongside the later players, as they had fewer Tests to play. In fact probably the best of all, WG Grace, won only 22 Test caps, and was seriously under-bowled.

The two Franks – Woolley and Foster – and Johnny Douglas formed a formidable trio in the 1911/12 Ashes. Douglas’ all-round excellence even extended to boxing; he won gold at the 1908 Olympics.

The 1930s trio of Freddie Brown, Gubby Allen and Hedley Verity certainly gave England all-round depth so their worth as a unit would need to he discussed.

After that, though, the great allrounders tended to shine as isolated beacons – Bailey, Greig, Botham and Flintoff.

The quest for the next Botham – or an all-round partner for Botham – was interminable. Derek Pringle, Richard Ellison and Phil DeFreitas proved to be bowlers who could bat in the Test arena, however, and Chris Cowdrey and David Capel came up short (who wouldn’t?). Actually John Emburey’s stats make a case for him being considered an allrounder. Botham and Chris Lewis overlapped briefly.

The pack mentality is back now, though, with the all-round burden being shared… and for many it is England’s best hope in Australia.

 _{*England's allrounders, stats correct as of 30/08/2017}