All-rounders and team balance

A common mantra - dogma, really - of many cricket writers is that all rounders "balance" sides. I think they are attracted to the symmetry of 5 batsmen and 5 bowlers plus one keeper, as opposed to 6 batsmen and 4 bowlers.

But all rounders can unbalance sides. Badly.

It's common sense. If you've got a top six, you like them to average at least 40, right? But if you get in a bits and pieces all rounder you have an number six who averages 30. That's going to seriously weaken your batting. That happened for Australia in India in 2013 when they put Moises Henriques in the team.

But, the counter argument goes, having this extra bowling option will help you get the other team out faster, won't it?

Thing is, it doesn't seem to work out like that. All rounders, especially bits and pieces players, tend not to be awesome bowlers. They hold up an end, get a few handy wickets. They are not Andy Roberts.

A possible way to do it is to use two all rounders in a team. This means you have 5 specialist batsmen, 3 specialist bowlers, 2 all rounders and a keeper. It gives you a lot more options.

England had their greatest success with Ian Botham when he played with another all rounder (or a bowler who was a very good batsman) - Peter Willey, Geoff Miller. They did less well when Botham was the only all rounder and playing at number six; England kept collapsing and of course they were going to do that with a number six who averages not much over 30.

The same thing happened with Andy Flintoff. When Flintoff's batting held, when he batted good enough for a number six (as in 2005), England won. But normally it didn't because he wasn't really good enough to go at six. Flintoff cost England a lot of test matches. They won in 2009 but by then Prior was in fine form with the bat - good enough to be an all rounder. So England essentially had two all rounders.

I always thought it was a shame that England never tried Flintoff as a specialist bowler and played him with six batsmen. But I think the selectors were reluctant because it would mean too much work for him or something. Which is another thing that gets me about all rounders - the team gets shaped around them, and they're not worth it.