Playing Selector: Team of the decade - the 00s

[bagapath]

Final XI

Matthew Hayden
Virender Sehwag
Ricky Ponting (C)
Brian Lara
Rahul Dravid
Jacques Kallis
Adam Gilchrist (wk)
Shaun Pollock
Shane Warne
Mutthiah Muralitharan
Glenn Mcgrath

Good job, guys

 

[Jono]

Would not argue with that team one bit.

 

[bagapath]

a 90s line up would most probably have looked like (based on CW's voting patterns)

Anwar
Taylor (C)
Lara
Tendulkar
S.Waugh
Cairns
Healy (WK)
Akram
Warne
Ambrose
Donald

This has a superior pace attack for sure. But the 00s team has much better late-middle order batting, with Kallis at 6 and Gilchrist at 7. Ultimately Gilly's presence could prove to be the difference between the teams. I would have voted for De Silva ahead of Cairns as the Wasim/Warne/Ambrose/Donald combo is enough to take on any batting line up from history. The Sri Lankan Mad Max could make the already strong middle order close to invincible and match the team from the present decade.

 

[Jono]

Have we done a 90s one before?

It'd be cool to compare them.

Biggest differences would likely be Sachin, Steve Waugh, Ambrose, Wasim, Waqar and Wasim all possible in the 90s.

The 2000s would have Murali, Gilly and more depth in batting... but could it deal with the 90s bowling attack?

Interesting stuff.

 

[bagapath]

Have we done a 90s one before?

It'd be cool to compare them.

Biggest differences would likely be Sachin, Steve Waugh, Ambrose, Wasim, Waqar and Wasim all possible in the 90s.

The 2000s would have Murali, Gilly and more depth in batting... but could it deal with the 90s bowling attack?

Interesting stuff.

didnt know there were two of them

 

[Ikki]

no ikki. murali is THE bowler of the decade. any team of the 00s without him would be a joke.

No, Warne was just as good; so was McGrath. The issue is not that he was one of the best bowlers but of team balance. The fact is we already have a spinner his equal yet we don't have a very strong opening ball partnership. We don't have a pacer that bowls more than 140kph consistently in this team. Two spinners are overkill - especially two who bowl so much.

 

[bagapath]

i would have preferred flintoff in place of kallis for the same reason. having both warne and murali will definitely be useful. you cant possibly replace them with a better fast bowler. shoaib, steyn or anyone else wont win as many matches as murali (granted that warne was the first choice spinner). i would rather give up the 20 odd runs that kallis would score more than flintoff in return for fintoff's pace. having said that, this is just a theoretical problem. mcgrath, pollock, warne, murali and kallis would be more than sufficient to bowl out the opposition on any sort of wicket.

 

[bagapath]

Have we done a 90s one before?

not really. but we have covered that decade many times though. wont be too interesting. thinking of an all-time one day XI sometime. we selected an all time world cup XI two years ago. for all one dayers we can expect some interesting discussions.

 

[Ikki]

Debatable really. Pollock was far from a great pacer this decade; take a closer look at his record. At best he should be the first change-up but as half of the opening pair this team of the decade is really lacking. Flintoff would have been a better choice, provided we assume he is bowling at his peak. The only real strong opening pair a team of this decade could have would be McGrath with either Akhtar or Steyn. Without such an opening pair, I'd say this decade's XI pitted against other all-time XIs will struggle.

 

[bryce]

Final XI

Matthew Hayden
Virender Sehwag
Ricky Ponting (C)
Brian Lara
Rahul Dravid
Jacques Kallis
Adam Gilchrist (wk)
Shaun Pollock
Shane Warne
Mutthiah Muralitharan
Glenn Mcgrath

Good job, guys

Sorry if I missed the criterium somewhere, but how does Lara qualify for the 00's but Tendulkar not
Flintoff for a batsman, Kallis at 5 is luxurious to say the very least

 

[bagapath]

Sorry if I missed the criterium somewhere, but how does Lara qualify for the 00's but Tendulkar not
Flintoff for a batsman, Kallis at 5 is luxurious to say the very least

we had polls mate and the majority, myself included, voted for lara but not sachin. both were available for selection though

 

[bagapath]

Debatable really. Pollock was far from a great pacer this decade; take a closer look at his record. At best he should be the first change-up but as half of the opening pair this team of the decade is really lacking. Flintoff would have been a better choice, provided we assume he is bowling at his peak. The only real strong opening pair a team of this decade could have would be McGrath with either Akhtar or Steyn. Without such an opening pair, I'd say this decade's XI pitted against other all-time XIs will struggle.

the bowling attack i voted for was mcgrath, akhthar, warne, murali and flintoff. we ended up with pollock and kallis in place of shoiab and freddie. it is still very much there and thereabouts. not far from the best combo one can imagine. but in terms of accuracy, might well be the ideal combination possible.

 

[Uppercut]

i would have preferred flintoff in place of kallis for the same reason. having both warne and murali will definitely be useful. you cant possibly replace them with a better fast bowler. shoaib, steyn or anyone else wont win as many matches as murali (granted that warne was the first choice spinner). i would rather give up the 20 odd runs that kallis would score more than flintoff in return for fintoff's pace. having said that, this is just a theoretical problem. mcgrath, pollock, warne, murali and kallis would be more than sufficient to bowl out the opposition on any sort of wicket.

Really? I'm not even sure Flintoff's a better bowler than Kallis. I guess it depends whether you take his peak or his whole career.

We know how you feel about the big man though

 

[stephen]

Yeah leaving Kallis out of a team of the 00s for "balance reasons" would be beyond a joke IMO.

Flintoff was not good enough with bat or ball to be picked and so did not. Kallis has been a very good bowler for this decade so is acceptable at first change, especially when you have Warne and Murali in your team and two workhorse-like bowlers in McGrath and Pollock.

Pollock was the second best fast bowler of the decade and alongside McGrath would put a lot of pressure on any batting lineup. They would strangle the runs and if they didn't take wickets at least wouldn't go for many.

 

[bagapath]

guys... i am pretty happy with the team... including kallis..... just stating how else we could have made the pace attack "faster"... at no cost would i want to drop murali. flintoff for kallis or akhthar for pollock is fine by me. but murali belongs in the XI. that is my pointl.

 

[Furball]

A team of the decade in a decade where there were 2 outstanding spinners and only 1 outstanding pace bowler was always going to be spin heavy.

 

[The Sean]

Final XI

Matthew Hayden
Virender Sehwag
Ricky Ponting (C)
Brian Lara
Rahul Dravid
Jacques Kallis
Adam Gilchrist (wk)
Shaun Pollock
Shane Warne
Mutthiah Muralitharan
Glenn Mcgrath

Good job, guys

Not a lot to argue with here, good stuff running this bagapath.

 

[Pothas]

A team of the decade in a decade where there were 2 outstanding spinners and only 1 outstanding pace bowler was always going to be spin heavy.

When they are that good it does not really matter if it is spin heavy, just imagine them bowling in tandem. Both were automatic selections.

Would have liked to have Steyn (especially) or Akhtar but you cannot really deny that Pollock deserves his spot.