Middle order face off! Lara AND Tendulkar Vs. Richards AND Chappell

[benchmark00]

Popping collars on leather jackets is waaaay too Fonzie.

& Clarke's no Arthur Fonzarelli.

Ayyyyy.

 

[Migara]

how about
Saqlain on those indian wickets????? He gave sachin a pretty good run for his money

Saqlain + Kumble + rehman would be the combo for me on Indin wickets. Murali and Warne were better on oitches which had lesser spin, possibly because all other bowlers were in effective on them.

 

[Migara]

need 5 specialist ATG bowlers against batsmen with superior techniques and who generally play on the back-foot.

Sehwag
Ponting - must open
Lara
Tendulkar
Waugh - he'll grind out more runs than anyone with the tail- plus he's an awesome captain
Gilchrist
Akram - his variety will be hard to cope with
Warne -
Donald - need a ATG with pace
Murali -
McGrath - he'll test their patience like no one else

12th man - Ambrose

Sanga to open in the place of Sehwag.\

Sanga-Ponting-Kallis-Lara-SRT and Gilly would be one heck of a strong batting line up

 

[Migara]

Partially agree with this part.

If I think any batsman of the last 40 years was ideal not to give McGrath his wicket, it would be Gavaskar. I personally think that in the last 20 years batsmen with best defensive techniques (and patience) have been Tendulkar, Kallis, Waugh and Dravid - and Gavaskar was quite a few notches above all of them in that regard.

And pretty much agree on the spinners' part. If Lara and Tendulkar could dominate Warne and Murali, I don't see any reason why Gavaskar and Miandad couldn't. And, many might not know this, Gavaskar was indeed an attacking batsman against spinners in general.

I'd say the reverse as well. Windies pace quartret and pacemen of yesteryear depended on intimidation. So you could argue that attacking batsmen would have done better against them.

 

[harsh.ag]

You couldn't any utility from the best bowler of the 1980s?

It Figures | Cricket Blogs | ESPN Cricinfo

Sorry Smali, but I said additional utility; don't you think Hadlee gives a better variation in bowling after Marshall and Lillee than Imran? Botham ahead of him because he was a better batsman. I hope you can agree to that at least. If you had to, who would you replace out of Marshall, Hadlee and Lillee with Imran? Or would you just remove Qadir, and go with an all-pace attack?

 

[Jager]

Replace Lillee with Imran

 

[smash84]

Sorry Smali, but I said additional utility; don't you think Hadlee gives a better variation in bowling after Marshall and Lillee than Imran? Botham ahead of him because he was a better batsman. I hope you can agree to that at least. If you had to, who would you replace out of Marshall, Hadlee and Lillee with Imran? Or would you just remove Qadir, and go with an all-pace attack?

I would replace either of those bowlers with Imran and not lose much. Imran is definitely comparable to all these guys and he has one other weapon that the others don't, reverse swing. Especially helfpul if you end up in SC conditions.

And I agree with Botham being the better batsman but if you really want to include him in the team because of his batting then your team can be improved quite a bit. In fact removing him and putting Imran instead of him already makes the team much better.