The best home v visiting XIs - part two

Spurred on by a casual suggestion from a reader, I embarked on an exhilarating journey which culminated in a pair of articles on the best XIs to visit each country. These two articles elicited tremendous response from the readers and they wanted me to make some important tweaks. They also wanted me to select an all-time best Home XI. I did this composite work for Australia, England, India and West Indies in part one. These tweaks are also explained there.

The changes, in summary, are:

- Less weight for Runs scored/Wickets captured.
- Add "The Pitch Quality" as a weighting measure.
- Add "Support available" as a weighting measure.
- A totally revised method to adjust the RpAI/Bowling Average values.
- And finally, treat the UAE Tests as "Home" Tests for Pakistan.

In this concluding article, I will cover the remaining four countries: South Africa, Pakistan, New Zealand and Sri Lanka.

The selection of the home team for South Africa is reasonably straightforward. The top four are giants and automatic selections. Who could argue against a quartet of Jacques Kallis, Herbie Taylor, Graeme Pollock and Dudley Nourse? Those who are not familiar with the South African teams during the war years, Nourse was the backbone of the team. There were no easy tours or teams since all Tests were against the strong English and Australian sides. Taylor was an excellent opening batsman who faced up to Sydney Barnes and Co very effectively. Kallis and Pollock select themselves.

Now I have to find a partner for Taylor and another middle-order batsman. Graeme Smith is well within the shortlist and will also make an excellent captain. Hashim Amla's record is marginally better than AB de Villiers and I select Amla to complete the batting group.

There is no need to go beyond Mark Boucher, who has a record gather of 309 dismissals and 3001 runs in 75 Tests. These are colossal figures and represent the best performance by a wicketkeeper at home.

The pace bowlers almost select themselves. Of the top four, it is an easy task to leave out Makhaya Ntini and select Dale Steyn, Shaun Pollock and Allan Donald. It is indeed nice that Hugh Tayfield makes the cut, making his selection a formality. Even if he had not made the shortlist, I would have taken Tayfield, one of the best offspinners of all time.

The 12th man is AB de Villiers, a very deserving choice indeed.

The top three batsmen to tour South Africa are obvious choices. Jack Hobbs is the undisputed opener. David Warner, with his terrific single tour, makes it very difficult to be left out. It is not just the runs and RpAI, but the quality of bowling he faced that matters. Wally Hammond, as the seam-bowling allrounder, is at No. 3.

Neil Harvey has performed very well in Tests in South Africa. He provides left-handed elegance of the highest quality. There are two more batting places and three players competing for the positions. I selected Stephen Fleming and Ricky Ponting, reluctantly leaving out Sachin Tendulkar. Ponting's marginally better numbers edged out Tendulkar.

There is real competition between Adam Gilchrist and Jack Russell for the wicketkeeper position. Gilchrist is far ahead as a batsman (52.3 vs 20.0). However Russell has better keeping credentials (27 in 5 vs 26 in 6). With Alan Davidson to come, do I need Gilchrist's batting skills? Maybe not. I have bitten the bullet and selected Gilchrist.

The bowling selection is quite tough. Sydney Barnes selects himself. Then there are two legendary legspinners: Clarrie Grimmett (five matches, 44 wickets at 14.59 and Shane Warne (12 matches, 61 wickets at 19.18). I thought for quite some time whether to take both legspinners. Finally I went with Grimmett. Now, another choice between Davidson and Mitchell Johnson. Davidson's better numbers prevailed so he is my second pace bowler. Now comes the final pace-bowling spot. In eight Tests, Glenn McGrath has captured 29 wickets at 19.29 and Javagal Srinath, 43 wickets at 22.83. McGrath's lower strike rate works against him, so I go with Srinath. This has been one tough selection. There would have been no lack of quality if I had gone with Barnes, Warne, Johnson and McGrath.

I have a real surprise in my 12th man selection. Look at the figures of Phillip Hughes: five matches, 532 runs at 67.44, against top-class bowling. As someone who cried when Hughes died and felt that his demise was a terrible loss to world cricket, I have no hesitation to honour his memory by naming him the 12th man of this side.

The TSIs are about 20% apart. Taking this and the home advantage into account the result of a five-Tests series is likely to be 3-2, with the edge to the visiting team.