Dano.85 said:
you dont pick the 7 best batsman and then stick some gloves on one and say good luck. .
How can you say Bradman wasn't a good batsman? He averaged almost 100 in Test cricket; I completely disagree with the assertion that Bradman was as bad as Chris Martin with the bat.
Dano.85 said:
If you keep wicket and bat you preform a 2d role, it does not matter that we have to do both, allrounder preform a 2d role its the same
It's not the same at all, because there
are specialist batsman and specialist bowlers. Doing both means you're playing a dual-role. There aren't any specialist wicket keepers at all though, so keeping wicket combined with batting decently in the lower order combined is one role. You're continuously arguing the straw man by pretending I'm saying that wicket keeping is not important or that you should just pick the best seven batsmen and give the best catcher the gloves but I'm not saying that at all - I'm merely saying that performing the standard role of the wicket keeper batsman in Test cricket (ie. keep to a good standard and have some vague competency with the bat) is not a dual-role.
No Test wicket keepers are genuine tailenders. Being able to bat to a decent standard is a requirement of the wicket keeping position. I'm not saying you have to average 40 or even much more than 20 odd necessarily, but you have to be able to hold your own batting somewhere between 6 and 8, below all the specialist batsmen but above the specialist bowlers. As such, doing such is not playing a dual role because it's not something that's ever split up in a team whereby a wicket keeper just can't bat at all.
There are basically four defined roles players are selected in:
1. Batsman - bat in the top/middle order, score lots of runs
2. Bowler - bowl lots of overs, take lots of wickets cheaply
3. Wicket Keeper - keep wicket to a good standard, bat to a *decent* standard, score *some* runs
4. Allrounder - any combination of the above
Wicket keeping is a defined role so it's theoretically possible for a wicket-keeper to be an allrounder, but someone who bats seven isn't doing a second role as that's all part of the singular role in the team he's selected in. If he bats in the top five and keeps wicket then he's playing a dual-role, but not if he's down in the middle/lower order behind all the other batsmen just chipping in, because he's expected to do that.
I also agree with those who suggested that slips catching is almost as important as wicket keeping. It's a hugely under-rated part of the game.