Athlai
Not Terrible
"Be brave. Take risks. Nothing can substitute experience.”
Paulo Coelho said this and this thought is often applied to cricket. An experienced outfit should better an inexperienced outfit. This got me thinking about just how experienced most teams are these days.
If we take every teams last playing XI and add up their combined caps what should we expect to see? An average of how many matches? How many will we see, and how many should we see?
Lets find out:
Firstly lets compare the Ashes teams:
Australia
319 caps @ 29
The immense experience of Ponting bolsters a rather inexperienced lineup. Hauritz, Hilfenhaus, Hughes, North and Siddle making up almost half the team don't even add up to the average number of caps per the Aussie squad, with just 24 between them.
Also interesting to note that Clarke has become the second most capped player in the Australian team.
England
414 @ 37.6
Only Bopara and Swann have less than 10 matches under their belts and if we extend that to 20 only Prior and Broad are added to the list. However Flintoff the most experienced player (76M) falls 56 matches behind Ponting. A group of veterans with no distinguished leaders.
India
729 @ 66.3
With Dravid Laxman and Tendulkar holding 100+ caps between them, as well as Harby, Zaheer and Sehwag hovering around the 70 mark, India holds an immensely experienced group of players. Munaf Patel and Ishant Sharma are the only ones without 20 caps but are being given match time along with veterans early on in their careers.
New Zealand
277 @ 25.2
Vettori holds a third of his teams caps while McCullum and Martin hold onto another third. New Zealand are still essentially a very young line up, with Vettori just turning 30 and only Martin and O'Brien appearing within a few years of expected retirement. If Ryder, Taylor and Guptill can stick around, the teams experience in coming years should steadily rise.
South Africa
634 @ 57.6
Boucher, Kallis, AB, Smith and Prince reflect a very experienced batting lineup. However besides Ntini and to a lesser extent Steyn South Africa's bowling is relatively inexperienced. However they still have a good few years in some of the top players as they blood in their new attack. Parnell could be seeing a fair few caps come his way.
West Indies (not the fake one against Bangers)
447 @ 40.6
The big 3 of Chanderpaul, Gayle and Sarwan make up for most of this teams experience, yet Taylor, Edwards and Ramdin represent the next generation coming through into this team. After finally dropping Powell, hopefully their bowling attack may change course and the West Indies may rise again.
Pakistan
255 @ 23.2
A team on the rebuild after a long hiatus. A curious mix of experience lies within the Pakistani lineup, where 5 players have over 20 caps and 5 have under 5. With talk of neutral Test venues in the air, hopefully Pakistan can get some experience under their younger players belts.
Sri Lanka
459 @ 41.7
After Murali goes Sri Lanka will lose a fair amount of their experience. With 5 players of over 50 Test experience in the regular lineup Sri Lanka are integrating the old with the new, the VERY new. Besides Dilshan, Jayawardene, Samaraweera, Murali and Sangakkara the next most experienced player is Warnapura with 13 matches. After losing Vaas and the loss of Murali upcoming, its important for Sri Lanka to get matches into their future attack. Kulasekara and Mendis and a Malinga returning from injury should feature heavily in the equations in upcoming years. But is it to late for them to gain the experience of the past greats?
Paulo Coelho said this and this thought is often applied to cricket. An experienced outfit should better an inexperienced outfit. This got me thinking about just how experienced most teams are these days.
If we take every teams last playing XI and add up their combined caps what should we expect to see? An average of how many matches? How many will we see, and how many should we see?
Lets find out:
Firstly lets compare the Ashes teams:
Australia
319 caps @ 29
The immense experience of Ponting bolsters a rather inexperienced lineup. Hauritz, Hilfenhaus, Hughes, North and Siddle making up almost half the team don't even add up to the average number of caps per the Aussie squad, with just 24 between them.
Also interesting to note that Clarke has become the second most capped player in the Australian team.
England
414 @ 37.6
Only Bopara and Swann have less than 10 matches under their belts and if we extend that to 20 only Prior and Broad are added to the list. However Flintoff the most experienced player (76M) falls 56 matches behind Ponting. A group of veterans with no distinguished leaders.
India
729 @ 66.3
With Dravid Laxman and Tendulkar holding 100+ caps between them, as well as Harby, Zaheer and Sehwag hovering around the 70 mark, India holds an immensely experienced group of players. Munaf Patel and Ishant Sharma are the only ones without 20 caps but are being given match time along with veterans early on in their careers.
New Zealand
277 @ 25.2
Vettori holds a third of his teams caps while McCullum and Martin hold onto another third. New Zealand are still essentially a very young line up, with Vettori just turning 30 and only Martin and O'Brien appearing within a few years of expected retirement. If Ryder, Taylor and Guptill can stick around, the teams experience in coming years should steadily rise.
South Africa
634 @ 57.6
Boucher, Kallis, AB, Smith and Prince reflect a very experienced batting lineup. However besides Ntini and to a lesser extent Steyn South Africa's bowling is relatively inexperienced. However they still have a good few years in some of the top players as they blood in their new attack. Parnell could be seeing a fair few caps come his way.
West Indies (not the fake one against Bangers)
447 @ 40.6
The big 3 of Chanderpaul, Gayle and Sarwan make up for most of this teams experience, yet Taylor, Edwards and Ramdin represent the next generation coming through into this team. After finally dropping Powell, hopefully their bowling attack may change course and the West Indies may rise again.
Pakistan
255 @ 23.2
A team on the rebuild after a long hiatus. A curious mix of experience lies within the Pakistani lineup, where 5 players have over 20 caps and 5 have under 5. With talk of neutral Test venues in the air, hopefully Pakistan can get some experience under their younger players belts.
Sri Lanka
459 @ 41.7
After Murali goes Sri Lanka will lose a fair amount of their experience. With 5 players of over 50 Test experience in the regular lineup Sri Lanka are integrating the old with the new, the VERY new. Besides Dilshan, Jayawardene, Samaraweera, Murali and Sangakkara the next most experienced player is Warnapura with 13 matches. After losing Vaas and the loss of Murali upcoming, its important for Sri Lanka to get matches into their future attack. Kulasekara and Mendis and a Malinga returning from injury should feature heavily in the equations in upcoming years. But is it to late for them to gain the experience of the past greats?