The old-timey T20 team

Which yesteryear players make it? Is there room for both the Don and Garry Sobers?

“Oh, he would be rich if T20 existed when he played.” You hear that all the time with old cricketers who used to whack it. So what we tried to do is create a T20 team from cricketers who have never played the format. But we also added our own twist to it: we looked at their records and tried to project what their T20 numbers would be.

This is your old-timey T20 XI.

Kris Srikkanth

Sanath Jayasuriya and Mark Greatbatch get the main credit for attacking at the top in ODIs. But Kris Srikkanth was the first to really make it work.

India generally produces a lot of anchor batters, but Srikanth was the exact opposite of that. He was a batter who didn’t score a lot of centuries. He only had six international centuries in 217 international innings. Just to show how absurd this was, Ashwin has six in 233 innings. And Srikanth’s average of 29 in ODIs was below par, even for his era.

But one thing you can never deny was his impact. He prioritised strike rate and impact over milestones. Indian fans usually don’t rate batters that sacrifice average for strike rate, as evidenced by many people calling Sehwag a poor ODI batter (HE WAS NOT). Srikkanth was the highest run scorer in India’s 1985 Benson & Hedges World Championship win and in the 1983 World Cup final.

His strike rate of 71 in ODIs seems tame now. But opening batters during Srikanth’s era only struck at 59, so he was 20% faster than the mean at a slightly below par average. This is perfect for T20 cricket.

Other early players like him included Keith Stackpole, the Australian opener, and Roy Fredericks, of West Indies. But we saw Srikkanth do it for a decent amount of time in ODI cricket, while there weren’t that many people talking up his game. If anything, around the same era he played in, we saw the likes of Geoff Marsh and Desmond Haynes, who played in the opposite manner and were more long-form anchors.

We believe that his projected stats for T20 cricket would be an average of 25.13 at a strike rate of 159.67. If we had to give you a modern day example, think Finn Allen.

Victor Trumper

Talking about players ahead of their times, the OG of attacking batting in Tests was Victor Trumper. We don't have his full ball-by-ball record, but from the 1400 or so balls that we have, you can see he was fast at the back end of his career. He made hundreds better than a run-a-ball regularly. In back-to-back innings against South Africa, he made 159 from 158, and then 214 from 247.

He is 10th on the all-time strike rate list of players with more than 2000 runs. Chances are Trumper was even quicker, and there are plenty of stories about him repeatedly destroying bowlers. He certainly sticks out for his era, and the era after, and for about 80 years later. As do the three occasions he made a hundred in a session.

Even without the full record, we’re pretty sure Trumper was 40% quicker than other openers. He was absolutely insane.

His projected T20 stats are an average of 29.79 and a strike rate of 183.47.

Viv Richards

We obviously weren’t going to create this list without Viv Richards. He was so far ahead of everyone else in terms of both average and strike rate for his era. And this was after his last four years weren’t that good. His record of 47 @ 90 isn’t that far off Rohit Sharma, who played 30 years after him.

He was the first to combine average and strike rate in a way no else did. His average was 54% better than the mean Nos.3 to 5 in his era and his strike rate was 32% better. And there is no way to include his swagger or power into this calculation. His runs made such an impact just because you were terrified of what he could do. He was a player who made many runs and scored at a stupid rate.

We always talk about Viv’s power but one thing he probably doesn’t get enough credit for was that he was a professional athlete at a time when cricket was an amateur sport. This level of professionalism combined with him being an elite strike rotator meant that even when he was not hitting boundaries, he could still rotate strike and not build up dot balls, which is also a key skill in T20 cricket.

Enough about his ODI career, let’s see what he would do in T20 cricket. We project that he would have an average of 40.06 at a strike rate of 169.94. A modern day example would be SKY.

Before you pull out the pitchforks, we’re not saying SKY is as good as Viv. We’re saying that Viv would find a way to have a great average and combine it with a great strike rate in a way SKY has in T20Is. But he did this over an entire career, not as a late-bloomer. Also he was a great Test player, so he could handle tricky surfaces in a way SKY probably can’t.

He was a force in a way that still resonates today. Ask your aunty or grandpa about him. They’ll melt.

Aravinda De Silva

Aravinda was one of those batters you just had to watch bat. No amount of numbers or data could ever explain how talented and skilful he was. If you ask any batter from his era or even the batters who came after him, like Sanga and Mahela, all of them would say Aravinda was the best without a moment’s hesitation. But these same cricketers would also say he was someone that didn’t live up to his potential. And his numbers do show that.

His mindset probably hurt him more than anything else. He really needed to be inspired and motivated to perform at his best. A lot of the time, he wasn’t really focussed and often got out to poor bowlers. He needed the challenge to bring out the best in him.

He averaged 34.9 @ 81.13 in ODIs. It’s not really the strike rate that’s the issue. He was 15% faster than the other Nos.3 to 5 of his era. And remember, he batted mainly in the middle overs. If you thought middle overs are boring now, you really should have seen the middle overs in the 1990s. If we had ball by ball data for his entire career and could do a true strike rate calculation, his strike rate would seem far more impressive. From the limited data we have from 1999 to 2003, Aravinda had a true strike rate of 7.85. And remember, this was when he was well past his peak. At his best his true strike rate would have been closer to 15-20. But his average could have been much better. He was only 6.8% better. For a player of his class, that’s not very good.

He was certainly a player who liked to be motivated, an IPL contract would have got way more runs out of him.

We believe that his projected numbers would be an average of 27.8 at a strike rate of 148. A modern day example would be someone like Suresh Raina. Aravinda in the modern era would probably be expected to walk in around the eighth over and attack the spinners and score runs in the middle overs at a better than expected rate.

Garfield Sobers

In the words of MSK Prasad, Sobers was a 3D player. Others called him the first 360 player, not for his scoring shots, but his backlift. He could bat, he could bowl and he could field. He’s arguably a top 10 Test batter and was a great fielder for his era. He was a brilliant fielder anywhere. On top of this, he could bowl left-arm seam, left-arm orthodox and left-arm wrist spin. We believe he was better when he bowled seam than spin, but imagine the flexibility someone like that can give you in T20 cricket. If it’s swinging, you could use him upfront for a couple of overs of seam. If it’s spinning, he could bowl some spin in the middle overs. He could also spin the ball away from each batter when needed.

When he was batting, it was carnage when he attacked. Malcolm Nash became a name in cricket folklore because of that one over that went for six sixes. And he could bat anywhere from No. 3-7. If needed, he could be sent above others since our top 4 are entirely right-handed batters.

Also, Sobers once tried to play a league game in England over playing a Test for the West Indies. Which is exactly what we’re looking for when we want to sign a player for a 12-month T20 contract.

We expect that he would be averaging 39 with a strike rate of 170 with the bat and have an average of 26, an economy rate of 7.38 and a strike rate of 21 with the ball. This is absolutely ridiculous. The modern day equivalent would be SKY with some level of Axar Patel’s and David Willey’s bowling. He most probably won’t be needed to bowl his quota of four overs every game in a side like this, but would be good enough to do that.

Keith Miller

We have our second all-rounder here, Keith Miller.

And boy does he earn the right to be called that. On top of being a cricketer, he was a fighter pilot, professional footballer, and well let’s just say was close to certain royals.

Miller mainly opened the bowling. He was fast and good, with an average of 22.97. Miller’s batting wasn’t always needed in a strong line up, but they batted him at four and five. He wasn’t an all-rounder that bats at eight, he took the new ball and was in before lunch on bad days. A lot like Aravinda, he was someone that needed the motivation to actually take things seriously as evidenced by him just stepping aside and being bowled vs Essex when Australia were trying to score over 721 in a day. That landed him in the bad graces of the Don. He often turned games due to his attacking ability. And this is exactly the kind of cricketer we want at number six in a T20 team: a batter that gets us a quick 25 of 10 and someone that is more than capable of playing a counter-attacking inning when the team loses quick wickets.

He was fast enough not to need the new ball, which is good, because we have a few options there. So he could bowl in the middle and at the death.

We believe that he’ll be averaging 25 with a strike rate of 158 with the bat. He would have a bowling average of 21, an economy rate of 8.22 and a strike rate of 15.31. He’s an attacking batter and a strike bowler upfront. A fantastic combination to have. His ability to bowl bouncers and yorkers means that we can use him at the death as well. Plus his hair would have got him millions in shampoo advertising.

Farokh Engineer (wk)

We finally need a wicketkeeper to finish off this top 7. And I am going with Farokh Engineer. He’s so Indian that he has Engineer in his name. His common position was being an opener, but he batted everywhere from 1-10. So he probably won’t mind coming in at No.7.

And unlike a lot of modern keepers, he was actually in the side for wicketkeeping. Even though he was solidly built, he had sharp reflexes and was very agile, important attributes for a keeper. But that doesn’t mean he wasn’t handy with the bat. He was a pretty fast scoring batter for his era, and his average was also relatively par. So in this team we expect him to keep wickets for 20 overs. Due to how good he was, he probably won’t drop easy catches or cost extras. And with the bat he’s more than capable of giving us a quick 20 off 10.

We believe that his projected stats would give him an average of 23 and a strike rate of 180.33. There’s no way for us to project his wicketkeeping stats, but we can safely say he would have been good.

You could also make a case for the Australian Rod Marsh or South Africa’s Denis Lindsay. And Sri Lanka’s Romesh Kaluwitharana could have been a fun guy to speculate on.

Kapil Dev

Kapil Dev could certainly bat higher than eight, and he would probably float in this order.

There’s one batter who had a better strike rate than Viv during his era and that is Kapil. Although Kapil did it at a significantly lower average, that high strike rate combined with the fact that Kapil was also a great bowler makes him valuable to this side. If you ask a lot of his contemporaries, they say that Kapil didn’t live up to his potential as a batter. Like with Srikkanth, those that sacrifice their average for high strike rate and impact are often not respected as much as they should be. If you look at Kapil’s batting record with modern eyes, you realise that he was playing ODIs the way they were supposed to be.

He was a bit different with the ball though. While he was a swashbuckling , moustache twirling batter, he was a bit calmer with the ball. He was more defensive. He wasn’t a defensive seamer but he also wasn’t completely a strike bowler either. He’s somewhere in between, which definitely isn’t a bad thing. He could swing the ball away from the right handers which could make him a great powerplay bowler from time to time. Although you’d imagine if he was bowling now, he’d be trying to add the wobbleball and slower ball cutters into his arsenal. He could also be used to keep things quiet in the middle overs.

He was a very quick fielder for his era, and although his celebrated catch off Viv Richards in the 1983 final looks slow compared to modern standards, that was not common in 1983.

His projected numbers would be an average of 20 and a strike of 167 with the bat, and an average of 23, an economy of 7.53 and a strike rate of 18.09 with the ball. He’s someone you can definitely rely on bowling four overs on most days. And someone who can give you a very quick cameo at the end or some fun up the order.

Richie Benaud

Richie Benaud played 63 tests and had a batting average of 24.45 and a bowling average of 27.03. And on top of that, he was also a very successful Australian captain.

He was someone that was a really good batter to have at No.8, but probably lacked the ability to consistently bat up the order. Two of his three centuries came in one series against South Africa. His batting isn’t the reason we’re interested in him, it’s his bowling.

He was a crafty leg spinner. He set up traps, had patience, baited batters and pounced on them. All skills that would be perfect for a leg spinner in T20 cricket. His great record in India is because he was a fast spinner for his era, which again would be a great asset for a modern day leggie.

His projected T20 stats would be a batting average of 18.46 and a strike rate of 136.06, with a bowling average of 21.17, an economy of 7.15 and a strike rate of 17.76. A modern example would be that he was a much better Adil Rashid.

More importantly, he would have his own podcast and YouTube channel with 5.4 million subscribers.

Alan Davidson

Having a decent left-arm seamer elevates a T20 side. Alan Davidson wasn’t just decent, he was elite.

He was a strong left-arm quick who swung the ball a ridiculous amount, and could then come in and slog the ball around as well. In December 1960, he scored a 100 runs across both innings and took a 10-fer, becoming the first player to achieve the double.

Davidson was mainly a new ball bowler, and boy was he good at it. He averaged 20.53 in Test cricket with a strike rate of 62.2 and economy of 1.97. He was a brilliant strike bowler. He’d basically do what Trent Boult does: take the new ball, bowl three overs up front and clean up the top order and take crucial wickets.

We believe that his projected stats would be a batting average of 17.58 and a strike rate of 130.79, and a bowling average of 19.45, with an economy of 7.11 and a strike rate of 16.30. He was a better bowler and batter than Chaminda Vaas. Crucially, he bowled faster and hit further.

Joel Garner

And to finish off the team, we have the Big Bird. Joel Garner was the greatest ODI bowler ever, beyond a doubt, along with being the most underrated Test match bowler ever. But that’s a topic for a different day.

He was tall, he was fast, he was accurate and he was incredibly skilful. He had this machine-like ability to deliver yorkers at will. We believe that if he was bowling now, his yorker success percentage would be around 50%. The reason for this is that the one season that Glenn McGrath played in the IPL, his yorker percentage was around 50 as well. And Garner was known to be as accurate as that.

We believe his projected stats to be an average of 15.6, an economy of 6.1 and a strike rate of 15.3. You’d almost use him like Jasprit Bumrah in this team. Thanks to Miller, Kapil, Davidson and Sobers, you really don’t need his new ball bowling. Garner can exclusively be used as a weapon at the death. Or whenever you need a wicket.

Don Bradman

Donald Bradman was, beyond any argument, the greatest batter who ever lived and the greatest cricketer of the 20th century. No athlete has dominated a sport in a way the Don dominated Tests. He was nearly twice as good as the next best batter, and nearly three times as good as the average player. No one has gotten close to achieving this. Obviously, he’s making this team.

It would be fascinating to imagine what kind of T20 batter the Don would be. He’s synonymous with the No.3 in the batting order. But if he was playing T20 cricket now, being an opener might be a much better fit, or even coming in at No.4 with his skills against spin. At the top, he could just hit the boundaries when the field is up, and once the spinners are on he could just milk them at will. Thanks to CricViz, we know that he averages 123 vs spin in Tests. So if you’re a spinner, you’re just not getting him out. He was also an elite striker for his era. From the data we have, he had a strike rate of 58.6 which was 36% better than the other Nos. 3 to 77 of his era. He wasn’t known as a fast scorer, but he actually was for that time.

Based on that, if we look at his record he was probably going to bat at an average of 66.6 and a strike rate of 174.62, which is good enough for 12th man. Or, you could move him to open or bat at number four.

If he thought he could make a few bucks from it, he probably would have bowled more too.