• Welcome to the Cricket Web forums, one of the biggest forums in the world dedicated to cricket.

    You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join the Cricket Web community today!

    If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us.

All time world test XI selection

Prince EWS

Global Moderator
Kallis definitely up there but I feel in a hypothetical ATG slip cordon I'd rather have someone like Dravid/Mahela/Waugh/Taylor for the spinners. Cannot overstate how good he was to Kumble and Harbhajan. Kumble especially was a challenging bowler to have to take catches in the slips because of the strange pace and trajectory. Kallis was one of the very best to the pacers for sure, but with no spinner throughout his career in his team to actually create consistent chances, not sure how he'd do in the slips off Warne or Murali.

Very few are capable of the kinds of catches Dravid used to take, like the one at 0:35 here. A full blooded cut at point blank range to the wrong hand. Him and Mahela are very overlooked in ATG slippers conversation imo.

Mahela was better to the quicks than Dravid IMO, but yeah both gun to spin.
 

kyear2

Cricketer Of The Year
Kallis definitely up there but I feel in a hypothetical ATG slip cordon I'd rather have someone like Dravid/Mahela/Waugh/Taylor for the spinners. Cannot overstate how good he was to Kumble and Harbhajan. Kumble especially was a challenging bowler to have to take catches in the slips because of the strange pace and trajectory. Kallis was one of the very best to the pacers for sure, but with no spinner throughout his career in his team to actually create consistent chances, not sure how he'd do in the slips off Warne or Murali.

Very few are capable of the kinds of catches Dravid used to take, like the one at 0:35 here. A full blooded cut at point blank range to the wrong hand. Him and Mahela are very overlooked in ATG slippers conversation imo.

Dravid was indeed special, and one that I forgot about in my earlier list.

The challenge with the ATG teams though is to find the best combination of batsman and catcher, same way with the batting or bowling all-rounders. So the primary skill of batting or bowling must always be good enough to be in the team.
With regards to the slip fielder for spin in an ATG team, Sobers should be able to fill that role, if not, then a Smith or Lara could more than suffice, but Sobers was brilliant everywhere close to the bat and at slip especially.
 

ataraxia

International Coach
B Richards
B Simpson (purposely avoiding WG, again)

Trueman
Barnes (thx morgs)

Ames

Headley

Captain for 2nd XI?

edit: adjusted a couple of times
Scrap the quoted vote for me please, as I can't edit or delete it now.

B Richards
B Simpson

Trueman
Wasim

de Villiers to keep (because of team balance, assuming Miller plays)

Sangakkara

Has 2nd XI captain been done?
 

271 & 16/166

School Boy/Girl Captain
Would have thought the quality of keeping would have been a major factor for the one specialist spot, Don Tallon, should be here, ATGs thought Tallon was unmatched
 

The Sean

Cricketer Of The Year
Update, for those interested:

Opening batsmen:
9 Four-Test Baz
9 Boycott
8 Simpson
7 Greenidge
5 Hayden
4 Sehwag
3 Mitchell
2 Smith
1 Morris

Opening bowlers:
17 Lillee
11 Trueman
9 Wasim
4 Donald
2 Lindwall
2 Walsh
2 Davidson
1 Garner

Wicketkeepers:
8 Ames
3 Healy
3 Waite
3 Watling
2 De Villiers
1 Boucher
1 Cameron
1 Flower
1 Prior
1 Sangakkara

First drop:
8 Headley
5 Sangakkara
4 Ponting
3 Barrington
3 Chappell
1 Dravid
 

The Sean

Cricketer Of The Year
So I'm not sure how much longer this will go on or how much voting is left to be done, but as it stands right now we've got Boycott, Lillee, Trueman, Ames and Headley all through, but we need a tie-break for Bobby and Baz.
 

trundler

Request Your Custom Title Now!
He made the Cricinfo 2nd team, so not so much
That just means their XI has even less credibility.

Daily reminder Boycott averaged more over a much, much longer FC career (271 more matches!) with 70 more tons. And Mark Waugh had basically the same career despite playing 100+ tests and Shield cricket at its strongest. Assumptions aren't good enough to get ahead of proven legends.
 

ankitj

Hall of Fame Member

Red

The normal awards that everyone else has
So I'm not sure how much longer this will go on or how much voting is left to be done, but as it stands right now we've got Boycott, Lillee, Trueman, Ames and Headley all through, but we need a tie-break for Bobby and Baz.
Thanks mate. Work’s been hectic but I’m on 3 weeks leave now. I’ll break the tie with a vote for Simpson. Think Baz was better but Simmo proved how good he was with longevity. Pretty handy bowler and elite slipper too.

Boycott
Simpson
Headley
-
-
-
Ames +
-
-
Lillee
Trueman
 

Top