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Rest of the World XIs to play Australia

Tim

Cricketer Of The Year
I've been participating in another forum where ppl have been selecting their ROW XI to take on Australia..overall these are the players who got the most votes: (In batting order)

Michael Vaughan
Herchelle Gibbs
Brian Lara
Sachin Tendulkar
Rahul Dravid
Jacques Kallis
Mark Boucher
Shaun Pollock
Shane Bond
Makhaya Ntini
Muttiah Muralitharan

I pushed for the inclusion of Stephen Fleming as captain, I think his average of 38 is decent enough & I think his captaincy against Australia in recent times deserves him a spot in the team..I don't think its just about statistically selecting the best XI.
 

Mister Wright

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
If you want to beat Australia you need to select players that have done consistently well against Australia.

For starters you need Vaughan he loves to make runs against Australia (granted he has only played one series against them)

You need Laxman, he can barely score a run against anyone else, but put him against the Aussies and sudenly he is Don Bradman.

You need Lara, because this guy just steps up when it comes to playing Australia.

You need Bond, because he troubles Australia every time.

Ahktar (sp) he might not be consistent, but he can bowl that one spell that just punishes Australia, he has done it twice - Gabba one-dayer & Sharja (sp) test match.

The spinner is probably the hardest - you would think Harbijan, but we've only seen him do well in India, I can't wait to see how he goes in Australia, but for now I would have Vettori.

The allrounder possie has to go to Cairns, although he is not bowling as well as he used to. The other candidates are Pollock and Streak. Haven't really seen enough of Streak against the Aussies, but Pollock hasn't done anything spectacular (consistently) against the Aussies.

As far as captain goes, I think you need Fleming, he sticks it to the Aussies, and stays to his guns. It would be between him and Ganguly, but I think Fleming is the better bat.

For Keeper, I would go Flower, but he has retired so Boucher is the next choice.

So the team:

Vaughan
Gibbs
Laxman
Tendulkar
Lara
Fleming (c)
Boucher (wk)
Streak
Vettori
Bond
Ahktar

12th Man: Cairns
 

Tim

Cricketer Of The Year
Maybe Ahktar but I guarantee you in, for example, a 5 ODI series, he'll bowl one good spell and then get absolutely carted in the other 4 ODI's.

Marc, that team was selected by about 20 other forum members & I presume the team was as if the ROW would play Australia right now.
 

Eclipse

International Debutant
Mister Wright said:
If you want to beat Australia you need to select players that have done consistently well against Australia.

For starters you need Vaughan he loves to make runs against Australia (granted he has only played one series against them)

You need Laxman, he can barely score a run against anyone else, but put him against the Aussies and sudenly he is Don Bradman.

You need Lara, because this guy just steps up when it comes to playing Australia.

You need Bond, because he troubles Australia every time.

Ahktar (sp) he might not be consistent, but he can bowl that one spell that just punishes Australia, he has done it twice - Gabba one-dayer & Sharja (sp) test match.

The spinner is probably the hardest - you would think Harbijan, but we've only seen him do well in India, I can't wait to see how he goes in Australia, but for now I would have Vettori.

The allrounder possie has to go to Cairns, although he is not bowling as well as he used to. The other candidates are Pollock and Streak. Haven't really seen enough of Streak against the Aussies, but Pollock hasn't done anything spectacular (consistently) against the Aussies.

As far as captain goes, I think you need Fleming, he sticks it to the Aussies, and stays to his guns. It would be between him and Ganguly, but I think Fleming is the better bat.

For Keeper, I would go Flower, but he has retired so Boucher is the next choice.

So the team:

Vaughan
Gibbs
Laxman
Tendulkar
Lara
Fleming (c)
Boucher (wk)
Streak
Vettori
Bond
Ahktar

12th Man: Cairns
Ahktar avrages about 40 in test's against Australia. Murili has done better than Vettori and Bond is unproven against Australia in tests.
 

Tim

Cricketer Of The Year
Yeah you're right, i'd have Murali ahead of Vettori..although Vettori would be my back up spinner.

As for Bond..despite only playing 2 tests against Aus..you'd have to pick him on his ODI form against them.
 

age_master

Hall of Fame Member
i think that i would go

Michael Vaughan
Herchelle Gibbs
Brian Lara
Sachin Tendulkar
Rahul Dravid
Jacques Kallis
Mark Boucher
Shaun Pollock
Shane Bond
Shoaib Akhtar
Muttiah Muralitharan

i would be tempted to play Saqlain Mushtaq as a 2nd spinner, but that would depend on the pitch. i would have Lara as captain, he would do a desant hib, certainly flemming isn't good enough to get in on his batting, and i think that the runs that say Dravid would make would make up for any less of a captain lara is over flemming.
 

Tim

Cricketer Of The Year
I totally disagree with the idea that a team full of individual stars would roll Australia.
I think you need to be covered in all area's & that includes having the best Captain available..and I don't think an average of 38 is that bad really.
 

Mister Wright

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
You're right! It doesn't matter how good a batsman the captain is (as long as they aren't craphouse eg. Mahmud). A great captain can save the runs in the field and put pressure on the opposition batsman. Just look at how many runs Lara let go in the recent series, at time the Windies were just going through the motions waiting for the batsman to get tired. Whereas Fleming always puts pressure on, and sticks to his plans. N.Z. may not always win but they are always in the hunt, they are a much better side since Fleming became captain.
 

Mister Wright

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Eclipse said:
Ahktar avrages about 40 in test's against Australia. Murili has done better than Vettori and Bond is unproven against Australia in tests.
Keep in mind that Ahktar has never really had the support from the other end, and when was the last time Pakistan had a decent captain. I think if you put him in a side of the best talent from around the world with a captain like Fleming you would see a different Ahktar, but then I could be wrong?
 

Tim

Cricketer Of The Year
I believe that Fleming is owed alot to the fact that NZ are ranked 3rd in tests.
Its well documented that NZ don't have big name players, although I think that is beginning to change however since Fleming has been in charge..NZ have risen from wooden spooners with Zimbabwe to a more than decent test side.

As far as im concerned, you have to have Fleming in that team..especially if its against Australia.
 

marc71178

Eyes not spreadsheets
Tim said:
Marc, that team was selected by about 20 other forum members & I presume the team was as if the ROW would play Australia right now.
I guessed that - it's interesting to see how much debate this topic provokes already, and how many differing views we get.

For me, it should be a team based on their abilities in all games, not just versus Australia, so I'd currently go:

Richardson
Vaughan
Lara (c)
SRT
Kallis
Flintoff
Stewart
Pollock
Harbajan
Akhtar
Murali

May cause a few eyebrows to be raised, but with Shoaib and Shaun taking the new ball, backed up by Freddie and Jacques and then decent spinners the bowling is well covered...
 

marc71178

Eyes not spreadsheets
Mister Wright said:
Keep in mind that Ahktar has never really had the support from the other end, and when was the last time Pakistan had a decent captain.
Are you Shoaib in disguise?

He's over-rated and all he does is bowl fast IMO.

I still put him in there as a shock bowler, but only because 3 of the World's best quicks are not available for selection, and he only just edged Ntini out from my team.

By the way, AA was disregarded on account of not wanting to make the match too uneven...
 

Tim

Cricketer Of The Year
Is Alec Stewart eligible for selection Marc?
It should be current players.
 

Tim

Cricketer Of The Year
I wouldn't even include Ahktar...8 times out of 10 Australia will deal to him.
 

Craig

World Traveller
marc71178 said:

Richardson
Vaughan
Lara (c)
SRT
Kallis
Flintoff
Stewart
Pollock
Harbajan
Akhtar
Murali

Picking Flintoff? What are you mad? The only likely result when he is bowling is the umpire signalling the fours and sixes off his bowling when bowling to Ponting or Gilchrist.

Flintoff simply lacks the ability to pitch the ball up.

Harbhajan would only be worth selecting on spinner friendly wickets as that is where he will be effective - like all finger spinners.
 

Mr Mxyzptlk

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Mister Wright said:
Just look at how many runs Lara let go in the recent series, at time the Windies were just going through the motions waiting for the batsman to get tired. Whereas Fleming always puts pressure on, and sticks to his plans. N.Z. may not always win but they are always in the hunt, they are a much better side since Fleming became captain.
Clearly you weren't watching the same series. I don't think I'm being biased when I say that Lara didn't really do much wrong in that series. He gave his bowlers attacking fields early on, showing good improvisation, but the bowlers simply did not bowl to the fields. Therefore, what choice does he have when the bowlers are largely bowling crap and the score is 400+ for 3 or 4 wickets?
 

Mr Mxyzptlk

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marc71178 said:
Are you Shoaib in disguise?

He's over-rated and all he does is bowl fast IMO.

I still put him in there as a shock bowler
I don't consider Shoaib a bowler at all and I don't see how the ICC can.
 

Mr Mxyzptlk

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Statistically it would look something like this...

Herschelle Gibbs
Graeme Smith
Brian Lara
Sachin Tendulkar
Shiv Chanderpaul/Yosuf Youhana
Jacques Kallis
Mark Boucher
Shaun Pollock
Shane Bond
Shoaib Akhtar
Muttiah Muralitharan

Chanderpaul has scored 6 hundreds in his last 28 innings and averages over 60 over that period. Statistically Smith is up among the highest averages over the last two years.

Since 2001, Lara has averaged better than any player in world cricket.

1 B C Lara (WIN) 71.96
2 H P Tillakaratne (SRL) 71.25
3 R T Ponting (AUS) 69.86
4 A C Gilchrist (AUS) 66.92
5 M L Hayden (AUS) 65.21
6 G C Smith (SAF) 61.41
7 S Chanderpaul (WIN) 60.09
8 Inzamam-Ul-Haq (PAK) 60.05
9 S R Tendulkar (IND) 59.13
10 J H Kallis (SAF) 58.00
 

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