Best 11 of the decade in ODI and TEST

[Matt79]

Hayden - Sehwag are two frauds in my opinion. Sehwag scored most of his runs on flat wickets on his home grounds, he's not an internationally proven player. So he has no right to be given a spot over gayle. I notice with most of these 11 the teams are stacked up to score 1200 runs, whats the point of that ?

It's so easy to pick players with inflated records instead of looking at the details and the obvious question marks in their records.

Walsh is a better bowler than Steyn, and two spinners ?

Why even bother to use specialize openers ? your team is boring, and unimaginative.

It's safe - not a winning team. You clearly don't know anything about cricket and the importance of contrast - variation.

wow, just lol. You're not worth talking to if that's the tone you're going to take.

If you had any clue, you might have seen the number of threads here where the merits of both Hayden and Sehwag and their records have been debated in microscopic details. You want to say that players records are irrelevant - that would explain why you chose a guy who was in the very tail end of his career, and an opener who disappoints more often than he succeeds. Most people here would agree that batting average isn't everything, but over the space of a decade, when it's 10+ runs better than someone playing the same role in the same conditions, it means a lot. Smacks of trying to be different for the sake of it to be honest.

Hayden succeeded this decade pretty much everywhere, apart from England probably, against all opposition put against him. He succeeded in India against great spin, in Australia against all comers etc. I'd suggest you read SJS' article re Sehwag on this site front page before you dismiss him so lightly - I'd argue the point but I'd merely be poorly paraphrasing him.

Finally, as Sean said, there were only three truly great bowlers this decade, ludicrous in my view
not to take all three.

 

[bagapath]

Finally, as Sean said, there were only three truly great bowlers this decade, ludicrous in my view
not to take all three.

those three are tough to ignore even in an all time XI. in the team of the decade, there shouldnt even be a discussion!

 

[aussie]

ODI team:

Tendulkar
Watson
Ponting (c)
KP
Symonds
Dhoni+
Flintoff
Vettori
Lee
Murali
Bond

12th & 13th man: McGrath, Yuvraj/Gilchrist


Test:

Langer
Hayden
Ponting
Lara
KP
Sangakkara/Gilchrist
Flintoff
Warne (c)
Akhtar
Murali
McGrath

12th man: Kallis

 

[King Pietersen]

Tests

Virender Sehwag
Matthew Hayden
Ricky Ponting
Rahul Dravid
Jacques Kallis
Brian Lara
Adam Gilchrist +
Shane Warne *
Dale Steyn
Muttiah Muralitharan
Glenn McGrath

ODi's

Matthew Hayden
Sachin Tendulkar
Ricky Ponting
Jacques Kallis
Kevin Pietersen
MS Dhoni +*
Andrew Flintoff
Brett Lee
Muttiah Muralitharan
Shane Bond
Glenn McGrath

 

[Matt79]

ODI team:

Tendulkar
Watson
Ponting (c)
KP
Symonds
Dhoni+
Flintoff
Vettori
Lee
Murali
Bond

12th & 13th man: McGrath, Yuvraj/Gilchrist



Test:

Langer
Hayden
Ponting
Lara
KP
Sangakkara/Gilchrist
Flintoff
Warne (c)
Akhtar
Murali
McGrath

12th man: Kallis

wow, Watson over Hayden or a couple of the other ODI openers who did the rounds this decade? And Lee over McGrath? Itstl.

 

[bryce]

TEST
1.Hayden
2.Langer
3.Ponting*
4.Tendulkar
5.Kallis
6.Gilchrist+
7.Flintoff
8.Pollock
9.Warne
10.Muralidaran
11.McGrath

ODI
1.Hayden
2.Gilchrist+
3.Ponting*
4.Tendulkar
5.Kallis
6.Symonds
7.Flintoff
8.Pollock
9.Bond
10.Muralidaran
11.McGrath

Ceratin players not considered, Lara, Cairns Donald etc

 

[NUFAN]

Atleast 20 games played in the 2000s.

For test

Gayle - Gambhir - Lara - Ponting (c) - Tendulkar - Chanderpaul - Sangakkara (wk) - Flintoff - Warne - Mcgrath - Walsh

For ODI - atleast 30 games played in the 2000s

Gayle - Kallis - Tendulkar - ponting (c) - Hussey - beaven - Dhoni (wk) - Flintoff - Akram - Muralitharan - Mcgrath

It's safe - not a winning team. You clearly don't know anything about cricket and the importance of contrast - variation.

Why on earth would you select Kallis as your opening batsman in ODI?
Why would you pick Chanderpaul in front of someone like Kallis in your test team?
Why pick Gayle ahead of the many openers who offer more?
Why bat Ponting at number 4 when he always bat at 3?
Why no Gilchrist, especially in Tests, or did you look at statz?


On the plus, I think Walsh is a good selection.

 

[aussie]

wow, Watson over Hayden or a couple of the other ODI openers who did the rounds this decade? And Lee over McGrath? Itstl.

Haa ye very controversial indeed . Well lets me explain why i decided to defy covention here:

The overiding factor in my ODI team selection was i wanted 6 strong bowling options (4 quicks & 2 spinners). Normally 5 very good options is indeed good enough, but i always feel having a extra quality bowler would be good in case of of the on of the 5 has a bad day & you have to go to part-time to fill in his overs.


For the openers of course Tendy has one spot locked down. His potential partners based on performances i'd say are only Gilchrist, Gayle, Hayden & Uncle Sanath.


In the middle-order between numbers 3-6 Ponting, KP, Yuvraj, Symonds, Dhoni are the strongest contenders IMO for 2000s era, with Hussey & Bevan close behind.

I dont consider Kallis for a middle-order option since if he is playing he has to bat # 3, given his slowish ODI batting pace. So since Ponting is the unanimous choice there, Kallis cant play for me especially over any of those other middle-order candidates.

So thats why i went for Watson to open, since he gives me that 4th seamer option that i want. Plus Hayden peak as an ODI opener was VERY short compared to Watson who has been very good for a good 3 years (although injuries have of course affected it). Hayden zenith was just before the 2007 WC & it lasted until VB series 2008


For McGrath, he indeed deserves to play over either Lee or Bond. So leave him out is just a slight biased towards having two 90 mph opening the bowling.

But overall i dont believe picking Watson & leaving out pigeon weakens the team in any way TBF.

 

[Matt79]

A sixth bowling option is nice, but in the case of that team, I'd have been happy to say that Symonds and Tendulkar could perform that role. Personal decision though I guess.

 

[stephen]

Yes, Fred is the best all-rounder we've seen this decade

DWTA.

Kallis
Gilchrist
Flintoff (though Johnson was very close and will probably overtake Flintoff in stature after a few more years).

 

[bryce]

Cairns & Pollock weren't bad either

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

I think cricinfo's ODI team was almost perfect.

They had:
Sanath Jayasuriya
Sachin Tendulkar
Ricky Ponting
Jacques Kallis
Andrew Symonds
Adam Gilchrist
Andrew Flintoff
Shaun Pollock
Brett Lee
Glenn McGrath
Muttiah Muralitharan

The only selections I could take issue with are Jayasuriya and Kallis. I'd prefer Hayden at the top, or failing that, Gilchrist to open with someone else in the middle order. Kallis isn't a terrible choice but if he's not going to bowl I'd say guys like Pietersen, Hussey or Dhoni as finishing options in the lower middle order would be better.

 

[Jono]

Haha its an awesome team but a bit of a cop out having Gilly at 6.

I'd open with Gilly, drop Jayasuriya (harsh though) and perhaps drop Kallis for Dhoni.

No biggie though, top team.

Edit: Actually just noticed KP is not there. Hmm

 

[stephen]

I wouldn't have Kallis in an ODI team of the decade.

KP would have made a much better choice.

Similarly, I like Hayden's brutality at the top of the order from 2007 onward. Would pick him over Jaya for essentially his world cup heroics.

 

[Streetwise]

.

KP would have made a much better choice.

.

And Hussey would be a better choice than KP.

 

[The Sean]

Hayden - Sehwag are two frauds in my opinion. Sehwag scored most of his runs on flat wickets on his home grounds, he's not an internationally proven player. So he has no right to be given a spot over gayle. I notice with most of these 11 the teams are stacked up to score 1200 runs, whats the point of that ?

It's so easy to pick players with inflated records instead of looking at the details and the obvious question marks in their records.

Walsh is a better bowler than Steyn, and two spinners ?

Why even bother to use specialize openers ? your team is boring, and unimaginative.

It's safe - not a winning team. You clearly don't know anything about cricket and the importance of contrast - variation.

I'm glad we had this chat.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Might as well have a bash. My Noughties test XI:

1) Hayden
2) Langer
3) Ponting*
4) Tendulkar
5) Lara
6) Kallis
7) Gilchrist+
8) Pollock
9) Warne
10) Shoaib Ahktar
11) McGrath

Langer gets the nod over Smith & Sehwag because (IMHO) he has a sounder technique against early new-ball movement than either and is also pretty familiar with the big lad at the other end, so it makes sense not to split them up. 3-6 choose themselves for mine and the order could be juggled according to match conditions and/or taste.

Gilly another no-brainer and Polly & SKW at #s 8 & 9 give a nice depth to the batting order. No Murali obviously contentious, but I always like a bit of express pace if possible & if Shoaib misses out Kallis at first change makes the seam attack look a bit light, perhaps.

 

[Sir Alex]

My test team

Hayden
Sehwag
Ricky Ponting
Sachin Tendulkar
B Lara
Rahul Dravid
A Gilchrist
S Pollock
M Muralitharan
G McGrath
S Bond

ODIs

S Tendulkar
M Hayden
MS Dhoni (c) wk
R Ponting
Y Singh
A Symonds
A Flintoff
S Pollock
S Afridi
G McGrath
S Bond

 

[Sir Alex]

My ODI side is batting heavy which I think is okay because nowadays not even 400 scores are impossible to chase down. The bowlers are all top drawer in terms of economy rate which is what matters in ODIs. I chose Afridi as spinner because the loss by way of SR and ER due to non selection of Murali is made up by explosive batting and other part time spinners in Yuvraj Singh and Symonds.

 

[GIMH]

DWTA.

Kallis
Gilchrist
Flintoff (though Johnson was very close and will probably overtake Flintoff in stature after a few more years).

puuuuuuuuuhlease