Vote: Mystery Draft ODI Team
 

You know the drill.
8 teams, each with 3 players from a given Test nation. Then the rest from all the other nations including a minnow player.
All post 89

The Warriors

Sachin Tendulkar
Gary Kirsten
Umar Akmal
AB de Villiers (+)
Marvan Atapattu
Roger Twose
Mashrafe Mortaza
Brett Lee
Darren Gough
Makhaya Ntini
Reon King

The Avengers

Marcus Trescothick
Graeme Smith
Kevin Pietersen
Graeme Hick
Andrew Symonds
Shiv Chanderpaul
Brendon Taylor (+)
Chaminda Vaas
Anil Kumble
Shane Bond
Shoaib Akhtar

Somerset XI

Brendan McCullum
Nathan Astle
Ramnaresh Sarwan
Jacques Kallis
Andy Flower (+)
Michael Bevan
Graham Thorpe
Abdul Razzaq
Javagal Srinath
Ajantha Mendis
Geoff Allott

The Gang

Martin Guptill
Romesh Kaluwitharana (+)
Mohammed Yousuf
Michael Hussey
JP Duminy
Yuvraj Singh
Shakib Al-Hasan
Andrew Flintoff
Jerome Taylor
Nuwan Kulasekara
Muttiah Muralitharan

Charter 77

V Sehwag
Matthew Hayden
Brian Lara
Tillakaratne Dilshan (+)
Ajay Adaja
Chris Cairns
Neil Johnson
Shaun Pollock
Graeme Swann
Harbhajhan Singh
Waqar Younis

Die Neun Neun Neuners

Chris Gayle
Sourav Ganguly
Ricky Ponting
Kumar Sangakkara (+)
Stephen Fleming
Grant Flower
Sahid Afridi
Dwayne Bravo
Mervyn Dillon
James Anderson
Allan Donald

The Pathfinders

Sanath Jayasuriya
Adam Gilchrist (+)
MS Dhoni
Ryan ten Doeschate
Basit Ali
Paul Collingwood
Jonty Rhodes
Scott Styris
Shane Warne
Nathan Bracken
Vasebert Drakes

The Maniacs

Nick Knight
Rahul Dravid (+)
Ross Taylor
Inzamam-ul-Haq
Mahela Jayawardene
Shoaib Malik
Lance Klusener
Heath Streak
AC Cummins
Saqlain Mushtaq
Glenn McGrath

This one is a real toss up - do you privilege Bagapath's top order over Jamee's uniformly strong team, or any of the other really strong teams here. In the end, I've opted for Michaelf77777777s team for its balance of Hayden, Lara and Sehwag, together with Waqar, Pollock, Cairns, Harby, etc.

For my team, I've probably swap Dravid and Malik's spots in the batting order dependent on the circumstances. The team bats deep, with streak averaging 28 odd at a strike rate in the mid-70s coming in at number 8. In McGrath and Saqlain I have two of the all time great ODI bowlers, and in Streak, Klusener and Cummins, three more bowlers good enough to average < 30, plus Malik as a decent 6th option.

Pretty tough call. Some strong and well-balanced teams in there.

Loving The Avengers' top order and pace attack of Bond, Ahktar & Vaas. Kumble a good spin option and Symonds a solid 5th bowling option with potential spin back up from Hick (and Smith & KP if it's a raging bunsen), but Taylor as keeper maybe a weakish link.

Die Neun Neun Neuners' probably doesn't have quite such a good top order or pace attack, but Gayle, Afridi & Flower (G) is an impressive array of spin options and Bravo at #8 is very nice depth.

The Maniacs' batting probably not as strong as The Avengers', but McGrath, Streak, Klusener & Cummins is a solid pace attack and Saqlain and Malik are two useful spinning options. Maybe doesn't have the explosive power in the openers, but Taylor at #3 no slouch and Zulu at #7 I like very much for late order hitting, especially with the new batting power play to take.

Think, on balance I'm going to overlook Taylor and go for The Avengers tho. Love that seam attack.

(1) Charter 77
(2) The Avengers
(3) The Maniacs

this

Avengers for me! Great bowling attack and top class top order

Even I wouldn't vote for my team based on team value.:p

More of a favourites side.

Again just to copy-paste my assessment of my side from the original topic.

Strengths:
If the opening pair get us off to a flying start, with the quality of our middle order theres no stopping the side posting a huge total.
Even if the opening pair fail we should still record a competitive total with the dangerous left hand contingent of Flower, Bevan and Thorpe sure to fire in a crisis.
Dangerous bowling attack with the unique Mendis, left arm pace of Allott and aggressive Srinath to lead the way.
Very interchangable batting lineup with Bevan and Razzaq able to enter at important stages to better our side's total.

Weaknesses:
If Allott and Srinath get taken apart, theres not much to fall back on with the medium-fast of Razzaq and Kallis accurate but not overly threatening.
Astle's a useful sixth bowler but in turning conditions Bevan and Sarwan aren't the greatest back-up options to Mendis.
Thorpe at seven seems too low, as does Bevan, as does Flower - but someone's got to fill the role.
McCullum, Astle and Razzaq are more than useful hitters of the ball but whether the rest of the lineup can slog for quick runs when the situation arises is less certain.

----

I actually think my side's going to be competitive when we do the simulation and it turned out to be a strong one in the end. My vote, however, goes to Michael's side, with Athlai's a close second.

Couldn't go past the bowling attack of the Avengers. Batting lineup isn't to be laughed at either, especially with the hitting power of Symonds/KP. Taylor the obvious weakness, but it's one that the quality surrounding him more than makes up for imo.

Can't believe I'm yet to get off the mark here. My team is going to own everyone in the sim ;) :p

Averages-wise, I'm pretty sure I win. So yes, sim ftw. ;)

In terms of averages in simulations if the player doesn't have many runs they can either be red hot or woeful.

good to have 0 votes. hope the team wins. the test team got all the votes and got whipped in the sim