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Originally Posted by wpdavid
England's side in the 1972 Ashes series was not a young combination. IIRC Illingworth, D'Oliveira and MJK Smith were all past 40. Maybe Gifford as well. Boycott, Edrich & Luckhurst were all in their mid 30's, and I think Knott & Snow were in their early 30's. Greig was the baby of the side, and he must have been in his mid/late 20's. The oldest XI picked was probably at Lord's, when John Price, also in mid/late 30's was called up to replace the injured Geoff Arnold.
I remember "young" Barry Wood being called up for the 5th test. IIRC he was 31.
EDIT 1
Looks like I owe a couple of those guys an apology, but here's the accurate version of England at Lord's 1972. The side was Boycott (31y, 8m), Edrich (35y, 0m), Luckhurst (33y, 4m), Smith(39y, 0m), D'Oliveira (40y, 8m), Greig (25y, 8m), Knott (26y, 2m), Illingworth (40y, 0m), Snow (30y, 8m), Gifford (32y, 3m), Price (34y, 11m).
The average age was 33 years & 5 months. Possibly a record for post WW2?
EDIT 2
The team for the 3rd test may have been fractionally older, with 35 year old Parfitt replacing an injured Boycott and 31 year old Peter Lever replacing Price. Plus the rest of the side were 3 weeks older, of course.
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