The shortlist for our all-time England Test XI has been picked by Scyld Berry, our chief cricket writer. Now we are asking you, the readers, to pick the players who should make the final team, for a match to be played in England. We have divided our nominees into six categories:
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Openers (pick two)
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Middle-order batsmen (pick three)
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All-rounders (pick two)
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Wicketkeepers (pick one)
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Spinners (pick one)
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Seamers (pick two)
Players have been selected for the shortlist on the basis of their entire Test careers, rather than one great series, and have been listed below in chronological order. Think we have missed an obvious candidate? Let us know in the comments. Want to justify your selection? Likewise, let us know.
Voting starts on Monday with the openers and middle-order batsmen. Come back on Tuesday to vote for the all-rounders and wicketkeeper. Then on Wednesday, help pick the bowlers. The readers’ team (alongside Scyld Berry’s preferred XI) will be announced on Thursday afternoon, with one final vote, to pick the captain.
Opening batsmen
Sir Jack Hobbs
Debut: 1908. 61 matches; 5,410 runs @ 56.94 (15 hundreds)
The ultimate touch batsman, and a master of placement and running between wickets. Still tops the tree as the England batsman to have scored most Test centuries against Australia (12). Brought his fleetness of footwork to bear at cover-point too with a deadly-accurate round-arm throw.
Herbert Sutcliffe
Debut: 1924. 54 matches; 4,555 runs @ 60.73 (16 hundreds)
Averaged more than any England Test batsman, although it should be factored in that this was the highest run-scoring era in Test cricket (1924-35). Serenity was one hallmark, his hooking another. To be picky, he did not score a Test double-century, unlike his fellow candidates; but keeping Hobbs calm was just as valuable.
Sir Leonard Hutton
Debut: 1937. 79 matches; 6,971 runs @ 56.67 (19 hundreds)
Same average as Hobbs but significantly better against spin than pace after his accident during the Second World War when his left arm was shortened by surgery. Troubled thereafter by the bouncers of Ray Lindwall and Keith Miller, who dismissed him 19 times in his 24 post-war Tests against Australia, if by little else.
Sir Geoffrey Boycott
Debut: 1964. 108 matches; 8,114 runs @ 47.72 (22 hundreds)
Did not play the same array of attacking shots as some other candidates and therefore scored more slowly, but an absolute master of defence, especially against West Indies’ fast bowling when they were becoming world Test champions. Nobody guarded his stumps more carefully.
Graham Gooch
Debut: 1975. 118 matches; 8,900 runs @ 42.58 (20 hundreds)
Specialised against West Indian fast bowling when they were world Test champions, like Boycott, but vulnerable against swing bowling when he planted his front foot half-forward, thus averaging only 33 against Australia. Offsetting the fact that he has the lowest batting average of these candidates to open he bowled the most, at medium-pace.
Sir Alastair Cook
Debut: 2006. 161 matches; 12,472 runs @ 45.35 (33 hundreds)
The main candidate if a left-handed opener is wanted. Cook had all the bravery and stubbornness of the best England openers, and the greatest capacity for a long innings: he played two of England’s three longest innings in terms of time. Safe pair of hands as first slip and an option as captain.
Pick your opening batsman
Please pick just names. The two players with the most votes in total go through.
Middle order batsmen
Wally Hammond
Debut: 1927. 85 matches; 7,249 runs @ 58.45 (22 hundreds)
The statistic that he averaged 74 in the No 3 position in Tests suggests that he would expect the position to be his own. Superlative slip-catcher too, and effective change-bowler with pace or off-spin. The only question-mark: he did not reach 50 in his eight Test innings in the West Indies.
Denis Compton
Debut: 1937. 78 matches; 5,807 runs @ 50.06 (17 hundreds)
If entertainment were the chief criterion, he would walk in at No 4 because nobody gave greater pleasure to crowds starved of joy by the Second World War – at least until a knee injury restricted his footwork. He was a cavalier running down the pitch to spinners. One prosaic downside: he did not prosper in Australia, averaging 33, after Don Bradman noted that he leg-glanced in the air and posted leg-slips accordingly.
Peter May
Debut: 1951. 66 matches; 4,537 runs @ 46.77 (13 hundreds)
Poise, presence and an on-drive that is celebrated still, he ticked many a box in the 1950s. It was a slow-scoring and low-scoring era, so his average of 46 was better than it now seems, but one box remains unticked: his average abroad was only 35. He had to face throwing and dragging (where bowlers took advantage of the exisiting no-ball laws by dragging their back feet in order to deliver the ball from closer to the batsman) in one Ashes series in Australia. As a captain, he was reported to be even more defensive than Hutton.
Ken Barrington
Debut: 1955. 82 matches; 6,806 runs @ 58.67 (20 hundreds)
England’s greatest No 3 statistically, averaging 77 in that position, and he radiated defiance – as if wearing the Union Jack on his chest, it was said. But he did not score quickly, after being dropped early in his career, and England won only 31 of his 82 Tests. Another small gripe: a single century against Australia in England.
Ted Dexter
Debut: 1958. 62 matches; 4,502 runs @ 47.89 (9 hundreds)
Like Wally Hammond, he offers a combination of powerful driving, charisma and some quick bowling on occasion – but was strangely cautious as a captain. No 3 was his primary position, where he shaped many games, but maybe not quite enough – he never made a Test century in Australia for instance – to displace Barrington or Hammond as England’s all-time No 3.
David Gower
Debut: 1978. 117 matches; 8,231 runs @ 44.25 (18 hundreds)
If a lefthander is required in England’s middle order (although Ben Stokes may follow when readers pick the all-rounders), then Gower squeezes in ahead of Frank Woolley, Maurice Leyland and Graham Thorpe. His nine centuries against Australia make him second only to Hobbs; for an hour or two he could get on top of West Indies’ fast bowling at its peak; in Pakistan he was alone in fathoming the wrist-spin of Abdul Qadir; and never an ugly stroke.
Kevin Pietersen
Debut: 2005. 104 matches; 8,181 runs @ 47.28 (23 hundreds)
A maker of some of the greatest Test innings ever played for England, if not a consistently great batsman, because – after his 158 at the Oval in 2005 – he habitually peaked in the second Test of a series. Nobody before him except Denis Compton had the same panache, and nobody since, except Jonny Bairstow in 2022. Panache, footwork, height, audacity and exceptional reach. But neither he, nor anybody else, had an answer to Mitchell Johnson in 2013-4.
Joe Root
Debut: 2012. 127 matches; 10,629 runs @ 49.43 (28 hundreds)
The enormous range of his brilliant innings – from match-winning Ashes hundreds in England to double-centuries against spin in South Asia, everything indeed except for a Test century in Australia so far – entitle him to be labelled England’s No 1 batsman in many estimations. And, apart from his aggregate and the handsomeness of his strokeplay, his strike-rate has kept increasing so that his 55 runs per 100 balls barely lags behind Pietersen’s 61.
Jonny Bairstow
Debut: 2012. 89 matches; 5,482 runs @ 37.04 (12 hundreds)
No England player has had such a purple patch as he did last summer (when he scored 681 runs at an average of 75) simply because no England player has scored Test hundreds faster: his strike-rate was 96 in his 11 innings last season, even punchier than Pietersen. Some of the world’s best bowlers were made to resemble trundlers but, when the situation dictated, he could defend as well.
Pick your middle-order batsman
Please pick three names. The three players with the most votes in total go through.
Come back on Tuesday to vote for your all-rounders and wicketkeeper, then on Wednesday to pick the bowlers. Voting in all polls closes on Thursday at midday.
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