Trivia #24: Versatile Batsmen in Test Cricket (Jul94)

Versatile Batsmen in Test Cricket

Based on all Tests up to and including Sri Lanka v Australia at Kandy 09/09/1999

Only hree batsmen have batted at all 11 positions in Test cricket:

SE Gregory (Aus), W Rhodes (Eng), MH Mankad (Ind)

The following batsmen have batted at at least 9 positions: (position/s not batted at in the parentheses):

Australia 10 WW Armstrong (10) JM Blackham (4) JM Gregory (,11) IW Johnson (4) SP Jones (11) H Trumble (5)

9 W Bruce (3,11) H Carter (1,5) ATW Grout (4,5) C Kelleway (10,11) CG Macartney (4,11) MA Noble (10.11) WAS Oldfield (2,6) AJ Richardson (10,11) VT Trumper (9,10)

England 10 W Barnes (11)

9 TE Bailey (10,11) GA Lohmann (1,3) AE Relf (1,11) FJ Titmus (1,11) DL Underwood (1,2)

South Africa (no instance, best) 8 WR Endean (9,10,11) GA Faulkner (9,10,11) JH Sinclair (3,10,11) LA Stricker (1,2,3) JHB Waite (1,10,11) TA Ward (1,4,5)

West Indies 9 LR Gibbs (1,2)

New Zealand 9 B Sutcliffe (9,11)

India 10 FM Engineer (11) RJ Shastri (11)

9 SMH Kirmani (1,2) RF Surti (1,11)

Pakistan 10 Shujauddin (5) Nasim-ul-Ghani (1) Wasim Bari (4)

9 Asif Iqbal (1,11) Salim Yousuf (1,11)

Sri Lanka (no instance, best) 7 MS Atapattu (8,9,10,11) PA de Silva (2,9,10,11) RJ Ratnayake (1,4,6,11)

Zimbabwe (no instance, best) 6 GJ Whittall (1,2,9,10,11) CB Wishart (4,5,9,10,11)

Some of the players who have batted at 8 positions:

Aus: RB Simpson; RR Lindwall; SK Warne

Eng: MC Cowdrey; DCS Compton; AC MacLaren; J Briggs; PH Edmonds; DL Underwood; DW Headley

NZ : BE Congdon; V Pollard; JG Bracewell; DK Morrison

WI : FMM Worrell; JDC Goddard; FCM Alexander; DStE Atkinson; GStA Sobers; RB Kanhai; WW Davis

Ind: M Prabhakar; S Venkatraghavan; BK Kunderan; ML Jaisimha; RG Nadkarni; EAS Prasanna; SA Durani; Abid Ali; AV Mankad

Pak: Saeed Ahmed; Majid Khan; Abdul Qadir; Saqlain Mushtaq