All Time Australian XI game

[jimmy101]

Yeah. Pattinson too low for mine. Pattinson fit easily makes Aus E and maybe even D, just on his record so far.

Bichs getting shafted with the permanent 12th man role, & Patto not getting selected when he rightfully should runs pretty parallel with Australia's selection policies anyway.

 

[Starfighter]

Bichel's a Queenslander. Doesn't really deserve selection.

 

[NUFAN]

Whitty was the one name that I didnt anticipate would get picked as early as he did. Not really a cricketer I would have thought of - nice record though.

 

[NUFAN]

Also, Im curious.. How do people make their picks？ Did anyone decide to name their own personal XIs or create an ordered list and just pick the best player they had listed？Or was it always a case of gut selection/general knowledge with some quick research to decide when its a tough choice.

 

[Starfighter]

For the batting I did a lot of statsguru-ing, gut selection and copying what other people were doing.

Bowling, which I am much more knowledgeable about, was almost entirely personal bias choice, aside from looking up the list of test players to remember who existed.

 

[jimmy101]

For me, I was just picking who I thought was the best available for said position.

I think we churned out some good teams that are bang on most of the time. Toshack should've been picked earlier though imo

 

[Teuton]

I look through test stats then combine with what I have read about them to get a big list more or less

 

[Flametree]

I have a sad knowledge of folk's test records... I would create my own xi based on the players available and choose them for the spots available. Came a cropper sometimes when the team formation chosen didn't match mine (eg, both Australia and England's first xi's have one more seam bowler than I think is needed...).

Curious how the last team ended up with two offspinners. Seems to be lacking a pace bowler. I doubt too many people picked Miller for his seam-uppers....

 

[NUFAN]

I had a choice between Laver and Yardley and went for the guy who I thought contributed more. Tom Moody and the fact that Miller could actually bowl seamers meant that I was fine with the extra spinning option.

 

[jimmy101]

What were the biggest surprises on you end Nufan? We're there any players in particular you thought got picked too early/late?

 

[NUFAN]

I mentioned Whitty earlier as a surprise pick. I also didnt expect Oldfield ahead of Tallon who I thought had finished his career as the best Aussie keeper.

Ian Johnson was picked quite late, I had to double check that he hadnt been picked when he started getting nominated. I also thought that Stuart Clark would have been picked earlier, even though I dont mind where he was picked. Law making it from 1 Test is probably lucky too.

But hey, there were 176 selections, I really like the teams.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Law was a better player than a lot of guys that played a lot more Tests though

 

[NUFAN]

I love Law the QLD Sheffield Shield captain but I stand by the probably lucky comment. If he makes say 24 instead of the 54no vs. a weak SL bowling attack, I dont think he makes it so that one particular innings has meant a lot.

Just my opinion, I get why he was picked.

 

[Red]

I mentioned Whitty earlier as a surprise pick. I also didnt expect Oldfield ahead of Tallon who I thought had finished his career as the best Aussie keeper.

Ian Johnson was picked quite late, I had to double check that he hadnt been picked when he started getting nominated. I also thought that Stuart Clark would have been picked earlier, even though I dont mind where he was picked. Law making it from 1 Test is probably lucky too.

But hey, there were 176 selections, I really like the teams.

I had always thought Oldfield was Australia's greatest keeper, perhaps with Healy. Tallon was obviously great too but benefitted from Bradman's endorsement.

Oldfield spent his career keeping to some pretty impressive spinners such as Mailey, Grimmett, OReilly and Fleetwood-Smith, and from all accounts was a true great up at the stumps.

 

[jimmy101]

I also wonder if Tallon would be rated as highly without Bradman's endorsement.

 

[jimmy101]

Top 4 Australian wicketkeepers on keeping ability alone would have to be Blackham, Oldfield, Tallon & Healy.

 

[Teuton]

... Grout's teammates also raved about him as a pure keeper

 

[NUFAN]

Australia XI: 1. VT Trumper 2. ML Hayden 3. DG Bradman * 4. GS Chappell 5. AR Border 6. KR Miller 7. AC Gilchrist + 8. RR Lindwall 9. SK Warne 10. DK Lillee 11. GD McGrath	Australia A XI 1. AR Morris 2. RB Simpson 3. RT Ponting 4. RN Harvey 5. SPD Smith 6. SR Waugh * 7. IA Healy + 8. AK Davidson 9. JN Gillespie 10. WJ Reilly 11. FR Spofforth	Australia B XI 1. WM Lawry 2. WH Ponsford 3. C Hill 4. SJ McCabe 5. MJ Clarke * 6. KD Walters 7. RW Marsh + 8. MG Johnson 9. CBT Turner 10. CV Grimmett 11. JR Thomson	Australia C XI 1. WM Woodfull 2. JL Langer 3. CG Macartney 4. AL Hassett 5. MEK Hussey 6. MA Noble 7. RB Benaud * 8. WAS Oldfield + 9. RJ Harris 10. GD McKenzie 11. WA Johnston	Australia D XI 1. DA Warner 2. SG Barnes 3. IM Chappell * 4. DR Martyn 5. ME Waugh 6. WW Armstrong 7. JM Gregory 8. D Tallon + 9. H Trumble 10. CJ McDermott 11. TM Alderman	Australia E XI 1. MA Taylor * 2. W Bardsley 3. DC Boon 4. NCL O'Neill 5. DM Jones 6. J Ryder 7. G Giffen 8. JM Blackham + 9. MG Hughes 10. SCG MacGill 11. BA Reid
Australia F XI 1. MJ Slater 2. A Jackson 3. IR Redpath 4. RM Cowper 5. DS Lehmann * 6. SR Watson 7. BJ Haddin + 8. B Lee 9. JR Hazlewood 10. NM Lyon 11. JJ Ferris	Australia G XI 1. WA Brown 2. HL Collins * 3. GN Yallop 4. KJ Hughes 5. SM Katich 6. WL Murdoch 7. GJ Gilmour 8. MA Starc 9. ATW Grout + 10. EA McDonald 11. H Ironmonger	Australia H XI 1. KR Stackpole 2. CC McDonald 3. BC Booth * 4. PJP Burge 5. VS Ransford 6. C Kelleway 7. H Carter + 8. DW Fleming 9. WJ Whitty 10. AA Mailey 11. RM Hogg	Australia I XI 1. RA Duff 2. JHW Fingleton 3. KC Wessels 4. UT Khawaja 5. AG Kippax 6. CL McCool 7. PR Reiffel 8. JJ Kelly + 9. MHN Walker 10. GF Lawson * 11. GE Palmer	Australia J XI 1. J Darling * 2. CLJ Rogers 3. GS Blewett 4. R Edwards 5. AC Voges 6. A Symonds 7. RG Archer 8. GRA Langley + 9. SR Clark 10. AN Connolly 11. JV Saunders	Australia K XI 1. RB McCosker 2. GR Marsh 3. FA Iredale 4. PS McDonnell * 5. SG Law 6. KD Mackay 7. WB Phillips + 8. A Cotter 9. PM Siddle 10. AA Mallett 11. ERH Toshack
Australia L XI 1. PA Jaques 2. C Bannerman 3. SE Marsh 4. BJ Hodge 5. DW Hookes * 6. GRJ Matthews 7. HV Horden 8. JL Pattinson 9. BN Jarman + 10. G Dymock 11. LS Pascoe	Australia M XI 1. GM Wood 2. PJ Hughes 3. AP Sheahan 4. GM Ritchie 5. SE Gregory * 6. MG Bevan 7. TD Paine + 8. NJN Hawke 9. AG Hurst 10. CG Rackemann 11. JB Iverson	Australia N XI 1. MTG Elliott 2. BM Laird 3. JW Burke 4. MJ North 5. JM Taylor 6. SJE Loxton 7. LV Maddocks + 8. PJ Cummins 9. IWG Johnson * 10. BW Hilfenhaus 11. E Jones	Australia O XI 1. AMJ Hilditch 2. AC Bannerman 3. ML Love 4. P Toohey 5. GJ Cosier 6. TM Moody 7. PM Nevill + 8. B Yardley 9. MS Kasprowicz 10. CR Miller 11. WM Clark

Maybe we should have a discussion thread for all of these different teams but curious to know if anyone is feeling Smith and Warner are a little high if they never play again or in the rightful place?

 

[stephen]

Smith is definitely 2nd XI for me even if he retired today. Warner can gagf.

 

[jimmy101]

FTR I would swap Smith & McCabe, and swap Warner for Jackson.

Other than that, Frank Laver could, and should, have made one of these teams. Possibly at the expense of Moody.

But yeah, a discussion/comparison thread would be fascinating.