Makes for an interesting discussion. Both teams select:
Sutcliffe
May
Greig
Ames
Bedser
I didn’t choose Compton because he made the CW First XI and was thus excluded. In my team he would have replaced Ranji, so excluding both of them, that leaves five players different. You’ve already said that you’d take Verity over Underwood, which means that you must consider the other four:
Boycott
Gower
Snow
Willis
…to be far ahead of:
Grace
Pietersen
Richardson
Statham
Needless to say I strongly disagree (obviously, given that I selected the second team!), but it would be great to hear your opinions.
Grace V Boycott: In relative terms WG Grace is easily the greatest cricketer of his generation, and probably the second greatest cricketer of all time after Bradman. However, in absolute terms I don't that he can complete with such a superb technician as Boycott. Against a bowler like Garner he would not have the technique to score a significant amount of runs without prior training and practice. Likewise, Boycott would probably struggle on a substandard 1870s pitch, but the assumption made by most 'counter-factual' thinkers is that any hypothetical pitch would be at least be flat and reasonable.
Gower V Pietersen: There is not much between these batsman as both would be attacking and unpredictable, although Gower would play any spin bowler significantly better. He was also one of the best cover fieldsman I've seen.
Richardson V Snow: As with Grace, we have a similar set of unknowns with respect to Richardson's bowling. It is possible that he would be as fast and as intimidating as Snow, but I doubt it. Snow played two magnificent series against Australia, and also against the West Indies in 1967/68. John Snow time and again knocked-over great top order batsman, and is a proven performer. Trueman or Larwood might be England's greatest fast bowlers, but John Snow was simply the best.
Willis v Statham: There is not much between these bowlers as they were both accurate and dependable. However, in his prime Willis had an extra yard of pace that Statham never had. With work-horses like Bedser and Underwood/Verity in the side the skills of Statham are not in great demand. Better to have a couple of strike-bowlers like Snow and Willis to open the attack, and then alternate them with shortish stints.
In short, the former batting line-up of......
Herbert Sutcliffe
Geoff Boycott
Peter May
David Gower
Dennis Compton
Tony Greig (c)
Les Ames (w)
......intuitively seems better balanced and more resilient than;
WG Grace
Herbert Sutcliffe
Peter May
Kevin Pietersen
KS Ranjitsinjhi
Tony Greig
Les Ames
Likewise, a bowling attack like.........
John Snow
Derek Underwood
Bob Willis
Alec Bedser
......intuitively seems better balanced, and to have more fire-power than;
Alec Bedser
Hedley Verity
Tom Richardson
Brian Statham
(But of course, if you shout "prove it", I can't)