Reverse Cricket XI - Team of batsmen who can bowl and bowlers who can bat

Cricket has had its fair share of all-rounders. However, there have been several batsmen handy with the ball, picking up important wickets for their sides when they need the most. Conversely, there have also been bowlers who contribute significantly lower down the order, helping their sides win matches or recover from a difficult situation.Here’s one such team, starting with bowlers who could bat a bit and finishing with batsmen who could bowl a bit.

#1 Ravichandran Ashwin

Ravichandran Ashwin had a wonderful start to his Test career, picking up 9 wickets on his debut, against the West Indies. He also was the fastest Indian to reach 100 Test wickets, achieving the feat in only his 18th Test match. The 28-year-old took 29 wickets in India's 4-0 drubbing of the Aussies last year, the third highest for an Indian in a bilateral Test series

Primarily an off-spinner, Ashwin can be handy with the bat lower down the order, as well. He has 2 centuries to his name, both coming against the Caribbean side. The right-hander has got a decent enough technique to handle the new ball, which slots him in right at the top. Perhaps, the reason for his show of admirable composure with the bat could be that he started off as an opening batsman for his state side, Tamil Nadu, in junior cricket.

#2 Stuart Broad

Stuart Broad has come a long way since being hit for six sixes by Yuvraj Singh in the World T20 in 2007. In the 7 years since that event, he has become his side's key bowler alongside James Anderson. The right-arm pacer’s hat-trick against India in 2011 and his spell of 7 for 44 against New Zealand last year at Lord’s are some of his standout performances.

Broad is quite effective with the bat, as well. His most memorable contribution with the bat came against Pakistan at Lord’s in 2010, when he scored a crucial 169; joining hands with Jonathan Trott in the middle with England's score reading 102 for 7, he added 332 runs for the eighth wicket.

#3 Mitchell Johnson

Considered to be an enigma by most with the ball, Mitchell Johnson's watershed moment as a Test cricketer came in the summer of 2013 when he almost single-handedly led Australia to a 5-0 hammering of England in the Ashes at home. The 32-year-old picked up 37 wickets in 5 Test matches that included a devastating 7 for 40 at Adelaide.

Along with being an express fast bowler, Johnson is capable of playing some handy innings lower down the order. Despite having a stop-start career thus far for Australia, he has, to his credit, a Test hundred versus South Africa at Cape Town in 2009. Along with contributing critically with the ball, Johnson also scored crucial runs for his side in the first innings of the first Test at Brisbane in November last year.

#4 Tim Southee

One of the emerging bowlers in the game, Tim Southee's ability to swing the ball has got him praises from several quarters, including former South African pacer Allan Donald who rates him as among the best in the current set.

He picked up his first five-wicket haul in his maiden Test match and also took 7 wickets against India in 2012 in a Test match at Bangalore.

However, apart from being an effective with the ball in hand, the 25-year-old is an aggressive lower-order batsman, as well. He showed his capabilities with the bat when he smashed a 40-ball 77* against England in his very first Test match. The half-century that he got off 29 balls still remains a record for the fastest fifty by a Kiwi in Test matches.

#5 James Faulkner

An effective left-arm seamer, James Faulkner is slowly developing into a key asset with the ball for captains, especially in the T20 format. His ability to bowl the back-of-the-hand slower balls and get wickets with the delivery has meant that he has been chiefly used at the death by captains. His contribution for Rajasthan Royals in the IPL has been so vital that he was one among the 5 players who were retained by them before the 2014 auction.

Not only does the Tasmanian play a key role with the ball, he is also capable of explosive cameos coming lower down the order. He scored an incredible 69 not out off 66 balls to help Australia avoid a certain defeat and won the match for his side against England at Brisbane earlier this year and also played a key role in the Royals win over Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Chinnaswamy stadium, scoring a brilliant 17-ball 41 and sharing a match-winning 32-ball 85 run stand with Steve Smith.

#6 Brad Haddin (wicket-Keeper)

We aren’t going to mess around with wicket-keepers, even in this World XI.

Probably the best wicketkeeper-batsman in world cricket in Tests at the moment, Brad Haddin displayed admirable composure and guts to rescue Australia on multiple occasions in the Ashes earlier this year, stitching together key partnerships with the lower middle-order.

He is exceptional with the gloves, which makes the job easy.

#7 Steve Smith

Steve Smith, in the last few seasons, has turned out to be one of the key players for Australia. The middle-order player scored crucial hundreds for his side in their 5-0 thrashing of England earlier this year, at Perth and Sydney. The one trait that separates him from other Australian batsmen is his ability to play spin very well. That he can use his feet to get to the pitch of the ball means he doesn't merely block the spinners away like a few others in the line-up, going for big shots, instead.

Only very few know that the 26-year-old started off as a leg-spinner and was known more for his bowling than his batting at one stage. However, he has now become more of a batsman than a bowler, with his captains preferring to use him sparsely as a bowler.

#8 Joe Root

One of the best upcoming batsmen in modern day cricket, the 22-year-old Joe Root is fast growing a reputation of being a gutsy cricketer who has the ability to rally the tail around him. The best example for this would be the 198-run stand that he shared with James Anderson, which helped England draw the Test match.

However, the Yorkshireman is a useful off-spinner, too, who has a knack of picking up crucial wickets whenever given the ball. In the Ashes Test match at Lord’s in 2013, he got rid of Michael Clarke, which opened the floodgates for the hosts to dismiss the Aussies for a paltry score.

#9 Suresh Raina

An attacking middle-order player and one of the most improved batsmen in modern-day cricket, Suresh Raina's talent with the bat was never under question. The only flaw in his batting was his weakness against short balls, which, from recent observations, he seems to have rectified, at least in not-so bouncy wickets.

The 27-year-old is also a capable off-spinner who can keep the runs under check and is often employed by Dhoni in the middle-overs of an ODI to finish off the fifth bowler quota. In the few Tests that he has played so far, Raina's biggest scalp was that of Ricky Ponting at Bengaluru in 2010, where he got him leg-before wicket for 77.

#10 Virat Kohli

Fast growing as a modern-day great in the 50-over format, Virat Kohli has been India's run machine, especially in the limited overs format. Barring his performance in England, the 26-year-old has been successful with the bat overseas, scoring Test hundreds in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

MS Dhoni has always had a tendency to use part-timers for a few overs, and, although he doesn't use the 26-year-old much in Tests, you could often see him being given the ball in shorter formats of the game.

#11 Moeen Ali

Moeen Ali could be England's solution for a dependable batsman in the middle-order. He seems to possess the right technique when the ball is pitched-up, but has a serious flaw when it comes to playing the short ball. The 27-year-old was bounced out on more than one occasion in the recently concluded Test series against India.

Despite being a capable bat, he is also a useful off-spinner who relies more on flight to get his wickets. He picked up 18 wickets in the Test series against MS Dhoni’s men and was one of the vital cogs in the unit that managed a remarkable comeback to win the series 3-1 despite going down 0-1 after the end of the first two matches of the series .