Cricket may well be a batsman's game, but here at Wisden.com we believe that the sterling work of all those No. 11s is rarely given the attention it deserves. With this in mind, we are proud to present Battleof the Bunnies, a year-long search for a team of the greatest rabbits – or worst batsmen, if you really must – currently playing Test cricket. The rules are simple: statistical incompetence alone will decide places in the side, and each month an updated World Bunny XI will be published here. Catherine Hanley has a hotline to the selectors ...

Saturday, February 1, 2003

The selectors have had their eye on Jason Gillespie for some time now, intimating that he'd better get his act together or face eviction from the Bunny XI. So what does he do? Score an unbeaten 31 in Australia's fifth Test defeat to England, that's what. And just to add insult to injury he followed up this first-innings aberration with another not-out in the second innings, with the net result that his average slips all the way up to 11. Tut tut.

So it's bye bye to one half of the Aussie stick-insect duo, although Gillespie's teammate Glenn McGrath sensibly allowed an injury to rule him out of contention for the same match, or who knows what sort of chaos might have ensued?

We also bid a cheery cheerio this month to Steve Harmison, who obviously couldn't take the heat in Sydney and lashed his way to 20 not out (was there something in the water?) which pushed him out of the XI. Proving that you can never keep a good man - or rabbit - down, all this means that there is a welcome return to the side for our old friend Muttiah Muralitharan, who hops back in at number 10, closely followed by young Zimbabwean Hamilton Masakadza, still desperate not to miss the party.

Meanwhile in the month's only other Test the selectors were impressed with Yousuf Youhana, whose useful first-innings duck helped his team to defeat in South Africa, and also with the form of comeback kid Mohammad Zahid, whose two noughts in the space of five balls shows great promise. Keep up the good work!

The selectors are now off for a two-month break while they watch the World Cup, but they'll be back afterwards for the final push before they name their definitive side in May.

The Bunny XI(as at 3/12/02)
1 Cameron Cuffy (WI) 0, 1*, 4, 1, 0*, 0*, 3*, 0*, 4*, 0, 0 av: 2.60
2 Jermaine Lawson (WI) 0, 2, 5, 1, 6 av: 2.80

3 Talha Jubair (Ban) 0*, 5*, 0, 0, 3, 4*, 0, 1*, 4*, 0, 4*, 0 av: 3.50

4 Daren Powell (WI) 0, 2, 0, 16, 1 av: 3.80

5 Adam Sanford (WI) 1, 12, 1, 0, 2, 1, 5, 1, 0*, 12 av: 3.89

6 Manjural Islam (Ban) (capt) 0, 2, 0, 0, 4, 8, 0, 5, 21, 0 av: 4.00

7 Glenn McGrath (Aus) 2, 4*, 0, 4, 5*, 0, 3, 0, 8* av: 4.33

8 Ray Price (Zim) 0, 3, 2, 5*, 1, 12 av: 4.60

9 Ashish Nehra (Ind) 0, 0, 0*, 3, 1*, 0, 0*, 0, 19, 0, 0*, 10*, 0*, 7, 10 av: 5.55

10 Muttiah Muralitharan (SL) 0, 0*, 6, 0, 0, 10, 0, 27, 0* av: 6.14

11 Hamilton Masakadza (Zim) 9, 0, 0, 16 av: 6.25

This month's Guest Twelfth Man is England's Robert Key: his side may have finally won a Test match Down Under, but Key reminded us all of earlier English form with his match total of 17 runs.

Catherine Hanley is a university lecturer, a keen cricketer and a regular contributor to Wisden.com. She was born in Tasmania and now lives in Sheffield, England.

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd