Dream Team of XI standout No. 11s in cricket history!

Tailenders have often been a source of amusement with the bat. History is replete with batsmen who have been gloriously inept wielding the willow.

1.  Courtney Walsh (I: 122, R: 553, Ave: 7.47, 0s: 27)

With 43 ducks in Test cricket, 27 of which came at No. 11, Courtney Walsh leads this team from the front!But, to know Walsh the batsman, you have to look beyond the numbers and revisit some of his knocks in the middle. He would try to get right behind the ball, manage to defend it or leave it — ending in awkward positions. However, one of his most memorable knocks came during the famous Barbados Test against Australia in 1999, when he played out five deliveries in a tense run-chase with Brian Lara at the other end.  Considering, his 14-minute vigil helped Lara fashion a fairy-tale win for West Indies, it has to rank as Walsh’s greatest innings in Test cricket. His score? Zero not out!

2.  Chris Martin (I: 100, R: 123, Ave: 2.46, 0s: 34)

Nicknamed “The Phantom”, Martin was the epitome of a ‘classically-inept’ No 11 batsman! By the looks of things, he seemed to have a conventional technique as his bat and pad would often be close in attempted defence. Yet, the ball would sneak its way through. There aren’t many batsmen who can claim to better their average by getting off the mark with a triple or a four. Martin finished with 36 Test ducks overall, 34 at No. 11 in 100 innings. In fact, at No. 11, he bettered his career average of 2.36 to 2.46.

3.  Glenn McGrath (I: 128, R: 603, Ave: 7.63, 0s: 32)

When Glenn McGrath carted Daniel Vettori for a six during the Brisbane Test in 2004, the Australian dressing room was in splits. It was sheer disbelief that their designated No. 11 was on his way to his maiden Test fifty. McGrath would walk out to bat with his typical Aussie competitive spirit, but that wasn’t enough to help him fight the tide. He would also be disappointed whenever given out leg-before, almost as if he was a frontline batsman. All that only added to McGrath’s aura as a batsman. What he was as a batsman was completely opposite to the great bowler!

4.  Bhagwath Chandrasekhar (I: 75, R: 164, Ave: 4.43, 0s: 19)

BhagwathChandrasekhar once raised his bat on getting off the mark! He was also awarded a Gray-Nichols bat during the 1977-78 tour Down Under with a hole in the middle (see picture above)! Though Zaheer Khan has more ducks for India in Test cricket, Chandrasekhar’s inability with the bat was legendary. He finished with 242 Test wickets, 75 more than the runs he scored!

5.  Danish Kaneria (I: 58, R: 197, Ave: 6.79, 0s: 17)

Danish Kaneria looked clueless with the bat in hand. He had this habit of planting his front-foot forward and then get his bat down, only to see the ball sneak through. With 25 blobs in 61 Tests, Kaneria has the most ducks for Pakistan in Test cricket. Though he batted at Nos. 9 and 10 on a few occasions, he was later pushed to No. 11 for good. The numbers speak for themselves.

6.  Phil Tufnell (I: 44, R: 107, Ave: 5.35, 0s: 11)

To counter Shane Warne’s angle from around the wicket, Phil Tufnell sat on the ground as he padded the ball to safety! A maverick in every sense, Tufnell once took 81 minutes to score two runs during a Test against India. “I was a little bit lazy and often wasn’t motivated when I batted. It was difficult to see how a regular net would ever get me a Test match hundred,” he told ESPNcricinfo. Tufnell apparently refused to bat in the nets on a particular tour and was fined for that. Not many No. 11s can have that claim to fame!

7.  Lance Gibbs (I: 71, R: 183, Ave: 4.94, 0s: 10)

The first spinner to take 300 Test wickets, Lance Gibbs was a genuine bunny in the lower order. Gibbs got 15 Test ducks, 10 of them at No. 11. He never managed to score a fifty in any form of representative cricket.

8.  Devon Malcolm (I: 49, R: 172, Ave: 5.37, 0s: 14)

One of the genuine bunnies, Devon Malcom’s aggression was channelled only in his fast bowling. In a chat with ESPNcricinfo, he once said, “We were in South Africa and I had been watching Atherton in the nets and something clicked. I thought, ‘I want to try these shots.’ The batting coach on that tour was John Edrich. He came over to see who was playing so sweetly, took one look at me and walked away.” Although a rabbit, one didn’t want to mess with him even while he batted. During the 1994 Test against South Africa, he was hit on the head while batting, which fired him up to take a match-winning nine-wicket haul.

9.  Monty Panesar (I: 52, R: 163, Ave: 5.43, 0s: 15)

Panesar was in the Chris Martin mould, albeit with little more than double of Martin’s Test average. The first Sikh to play Test cricket for England, he became the fan’s favourite with his over-the-top celebrations, iffy fielding and his questionable batting skills. Panesar would look solid in the middle but records show otherwise. In 52 innings at No. 11, he managed 15 ducks, reaching double figures only four times. To his credit, he batted out the last half an hour of an Ashes Test against Australia to save the game for England. But the most memorable Panesar batting moment would be the premature dive to get into the crease in a Test against New Zealand.

10.  Dilip Doshi (I: 36, R: 117, Ave: 4.33, 0s: 14)

In his 36 innings at No. 11, Dilip Doshi entered double figures only thrice. In his 33-Test career, he batted in all but two of his innings at No. 11 and managed 14 ducks. Such was his ‘batting prowess’ that his teammates would laugh at his expense. Anshuman Gaekwad told Times of India that Doshi took his batting so seriously that he would pad up when India would lose their third wicket. Sunil Gavaskar and Sandeep Patil would team up to hide his bat or abdomen guard. Once, his teammates spread mashed banana on his bat. Later, they had all had autographed one for him. On both occasions, Doshi walked out to bat with them without noticing the change!

11.  Pommie Mbangwa (I: 24, R: 34, Ave: 2.12, 0s: 8)

Some may say this was an unlikely entry, given that there are others such as Fidel Edwards, Alf Valentine or Ewen Chatfield. However, considering the fact that Mbangwa has the lowest average for anyone to have batted over 20 times at No. 11, he makes the cut. Mbangwa never passed double figures and his highest score of eight came on the hallowed turf of Lord’s. Until his 14th Test, he averaged under two, but managed to nudge it above the mark with an innings of five in his final appearance. Vic Marks, the former England player, picked Mbangwa in his XI of the greatest post war rabbits for The Observer in 2000.

Special mention: Danny Morrison scored 24 ducks in 71 innings but batted for most of his career at No. 10, which put him out of contention. Narendra Hirwani’s batting has been immortalised by Harsha Bhogle, who called him the No. 11 in an XI of No. 11s. However, he didn’t have a long spell in international cricket when compared to a few and his average of 6.00 put him way above the likes of Mbangwa.