What if Test cricket had subs?

[MrPrez]

Funnily enough, I'd have said the complete opposite. Which probably means that I'm wrong

But surely a high-quality 8th batsman can contribute more than a 5th genuine bowler? Given that when batting, having an extra batsman can only improve your team's runs, whereas you could well end up actually being worse off using a fifth bowler, given that the 5th bowler would therefore be worse than the other 4 bowlers, and therefore if anything would be weakening the bowling attack by bowling? This assuming that there is at least one bowler out of the batsmen that can shoulder a few overs as a fifth bowler, albeit not setting the world alight, and therefore fatigue is a minimal issue.

Obviously sometimes a fifth bowler can have better form than one of the other bowlers on the day, and be an improvement, but the general principle remains and would surely be statistically-prevalent over time.

 

[Daemon]

Funnily enough, I'd have said the complete opposite. Which probably means that I'm wrong

But surely a high-quality 8th batsman can contribute more than a 5th genuine bowler? Given that when batting, having an extra batsman can only improve your team's runs, whereas you could well end up actually being worse off using a fifth bowler, given that the 5th bowler would therefore be worse than the other 4 bowlers, and therefore if anything would be weakening the bowling attack by bowling? This assuming that there is at least one bowler out of the batsmen that can shoulder a few overs as a fifth bowler, albeit not setting the world alight, and therefore fatigue is a minimal issue.

Obviously sometimes a fifth bowler can have better form than one of the other bowlers on the day, and be an improvement, but the general principle remains and would surely be statistically-prevalent over time.

Answered your own question there

If you had an extra bowler, you wouldn't need anyone to 'shoulder' the burden of the overs. Definitely doesn't weaken the attack imo. Not to mention some of your bowlers can have bad days (Starc), bad series (Tahir) and bad careers (Ishant).

It's all subject to what the rest of the bowling attack is made up of and the quality of the guy you're bringing in of course. You can't really have a general rule for this sort of thing.