Test XI for The Last Quarter Century

[trundler]

Not really where the thread was heading, but here's a bunch of teams featuring some of my favourite players from the past 25 years.

'STRAYA

1 Simon Katich
2 Mark Taylor*
3 David Boon
4 Damien Martyn
5 Brad Hodge
6 Michael Bevan
7 Adam Gilchrist+
8 Shane Warne
9 Jason Gillespie
10 Damien Fleming
11 Peter Siddle

12 Ian Harvey


POMMIELAND

1 Nick Knight
2 Marcus Trescothick
3 Alec Stewart
4 Kevin Pietersen
5 Nasser Hussain*
6 Andrew Flintoff
7 Craig White
8 Jack Russell+
9 Phil DeFreitas
10 Darren Gough
11 Phil Tufnell

12 Tim Bresnan


#PRESSURE XI

1 Virender Sehwag
2 Sachin Tendulkar
3 Rahul Dravid
4 Virat Kohli
5 VVS Laxman
6 Sourav Ganguly*
7 MS Dhoni+
8 Ajit Agarkar
9 Anil Kumble
10 Javagal Srinath
11 Harbhajan Singh

12th Ajinkya Rahane


UNZUD

1 Nathan Astle
2 Stephen Fleming*
3 Ross Taylor
4 Craig McMillan
5 Jesse Ryder
6 Brendon McCullum+
7 Chris Cairns
8 Chris Harris
9 Daniel Vettori
10 Dipak Patel
11 Shane Bond

12 Jacob Oram


GREEN DRAGONS

1 Saeed Anwar
2 Aamer Sohail
3 Inzamam-ul-haq
4 Mohammad Yousuf
5 Misbah-ul-haq*
6 Shahid Afridi
7 Moin Khan+
8 Wasim Akram
9 Saqlain Mushtaq
10 Shoaib Akhtar
11 Waqar Younis

12 Wahab Riaz


SAFFAS

1 Graeme Smith*
2 Herschelle Gibbs
3 Hansie Cronje
4 AB de Villiers
5 Jonty Rhodes
6 Brian McMillan
7 Lance Klusener
8 Mark Boucher+
9 Pat Symcox
10 Dale Steyn
11 Allan Donald

12 Fanie De Villiers


LITTLE LANKANS

1 Sanath Jayasuriya
2 Tillakaratne Dilshan
3 Kumar Sangakkara
4 Aravinda de Silva
5 Mahela Jayawardene
6 Arjuna Ranatunga
7 Romesh Kaluwitharana+
8 Chaminda Vaas
9 Rangana Herath (His Roundness)
10 Muttiah Muralitharan
11 Indika Gallage

12 Avishka Gunawardene


WINDIES

1 Chris Gayle
2 Ramnaresh Sarwan
3 Brian Lara
4 Shiv Chanderpaul
5 Jimmy Adams*
6 Carl Hooper
7 Dinesh Ramdin+
8 Roger Harper
9 Ian Bishop
10 Curtly Ambrose
11 Courtney Walsh

12 Fidel Edwards


REST OF THE WORLD

1 Brendan Taylor
2 Grant Flower
3 Murray Goodwin
4 Andy Flower+
5 Steve Tikolo
6 Shakib Al Hasan
7 Heath Streak*
8 Andy Blignaut
9 Eddo Brandes
10 Mashrafe Mortaza
11 Rashid Khan

12 Trent Johnston

Stopped reading at Australia without Ponting, sorry

 

[trundler]

Underrated Test XI from the Last 25 years

Justin Langer
Gary Kirsten
Mahela Jayawardene *
Andy Flower +
Graham Thorpe
Shiv Chanderpal
Shaun Pollock
Ryan Harris
Saqlain Mushtaq
Shane Bond
Courtney Walsh

IMO, this is good enough to compete against any ATG XI including the one featuring Bradman and Sobers

Guys like Shiv, Pollock and Walsh are terribly underrated by the general cricketing fanbase, maybe less so by us but we're hardly a large sample size. I like the XI bagapath, except for Mahela. He was just useless. Average drops to the high 30s once you take out just SL and Bangladesh. Does Dravid count?

 

[Mr Miyagi]

Guys like Shiv, Pollock and Walsh are terribly underrated by the general cricketing fanbase, maybe less so by us but we're hardly a large sample size. I like the XI bagapath, except for Mahela. He was just useless. Average drops to the high 30s once you take out just SL and Bangladesh. Does Dravid count?

Dravid doesn't count.

 

[trundler]

Younis Khan, maybe? Kevin PIetersen is a reverse Shiv. Overrated by most people, not rated that highly here.

 

[Daemon]

Yeah Younis counts imo. **** it would've been great to see him against India in 2015 or so.

 

[Borges]

Guys like Shiv, Pollock and Walsh are terribly underrated by the general cricketing fanbase, maybe less so by us but we're hardly a large sample size.

When very young, children tend to believe that their parents are the two greatest people in the universe..
All fans are like young children, in their belief in the absolute superiority of their favourite players.
The only difference being that children, when they become older also become wiser.

Going by the posts in this forum, we are clearly worse than the average collection of cricket fans:
the less well bred among us resort to serial personal abuse when their fond beliefs are questioned.

 

[Mr Miyagi]

When very young, children tend to believe that their parents are the two greatest people in the universe..
All fans are like young children, in their belief in the absolute superiority of their favourite players.
The only difference being that children, when they become older also become wiser.

Going by the posts in this forum, we are clearly worse than the average collection of cricket fans:
the less well bred among us resort to serial personal abuse when their fond beliefs are questioned.

Sometimes, as children we criticise those who are truly great unfairly, and if playig for our favourite team do not truly appreciate them until they are gone.

Sometimes this is fair. Sometimes it is overstated.

As for personal abuse over fond beliefs over players - well I aint got time for that myself.

 

[Mr Miyagi]

Younis Khan, maybe?

Anyone who doesn't rate his 4th innings average needs a reality check in not rating him and why.

But I think he flies under the radar as he wss dull and unattractive to watch both.

 

[bagapath]

Younis Khan, maybe? Kevin PIetersen is a reverse Shiv. Overrated by most people, not rated that highly here.

I think MoYo can replace Mahela if push comes to shove

 

[trundler]

When very young, children tend to believe that their parents are the two greatest people in the universe..
All fans are like young children, in their belief in the absolute superiority of their favourite players.
The only difference being that children, when they become older also become wiser.

Going by the posts in this forum, we are clearly worse than the average collection of cricket fans:
the less well bred among us resort to serial personal abuse when their fond beliefs are questioned.

That's not what I meant. I only meant CW represents a microscopic portion of cricket fans. The consensus seems to be that Marshall was the greatest quick ever here whilst outside CW I bet more people would vouch for Akram. Now, I have found most people reasonable here and only some resort to personal abuse which is uncalled for. The child looking up the parent analogy is very apt. That's how I revered McGrath. The fast bowler I wanted to be. The guy who conquered the world not being express. I wanted to be him. It is only after forming an opinion based on emotion do we seek to justify it with stats and facts.
And on Younis, he flew under the radar for a large part of his career like Shiv. It was like "**** he's got 10,000 runs and 30 tons!Wow!" He's highly underrated and his 4th innings average is indeed great.

 

[trundler]

Maybe Laxman can come in if YK is ineligible.

If all the players are at their absolute best than this team is very formidable. Langer was better than Hayden when he got going. Pollock was basically McGrath with a slightly worse strike rate for 78 tests. Flower is an ATG batsman by all standards, without even considering that he was Zimbabwe's only decent bat. An honourable mention here would be Brendan Taylor. Not as good obviously but I feel he's very good and never gets noticed.

 

[trundler]

Streak deserves a mention too. The only guy looking out of place there is Saqlain. He wasn't good enough in tests.

 

[Daemon]

Laxman is overrated if anything. Played some great innings and is known for dominating Australia (but averaged a smidge under 50 against them). I'd put him in a category that's below someone like KP.

 

[harsh.ag]

Laxman is unrateable. He's just Laxman.

 

[trundler]

Hmm need an overrated XI then. YK makes it into the underrated one anyway

 

[Jack1]

Laxman batted 5 and 6 most of his test career and only averaged 45.97. That is not good enough for a 3rd XI team team of last 25 years. His ODI stats are pretty hopeless. 30 average 71 sr

 

[Engle]

I've always felt that the most underrated cricketer is Chaminda Vaas ( 355 wkts @ 29 and 3000+ runs @ 24+) in Tests deserves some attention

 

[trundler]

Vaas so underrated we left him out from our underrated XI. He was a decent bowler. Great in ODIs. Had Murali hogging all the limelight and taking all the fifers.

 

[Burgey]

Vaas really is under rated massively.

In the running for an under rated XI might be blokes like Steve Fleming as well. Was a very good player for NZ for a long time. Not an ATG but a consistently good performer who flies under the radar.

 

[trundler]

Yeah, we set such ridiculous high standards when we make an all time XI. Guys like him, Inzamam, Damien Martyn etc don't really come up when we make such an XI but they were all fantastic players. Maybe Martin can make it into the underrated XI too. **** we need a second underrated XI!