Test XI for The Last Quarter Century

[trundler]

ODIs 93-18.


Tendulkar
Lara
Ponting
Kohli
DeVilliers
Dhoni +
Klusener
Pollock
Wasim
Murali
McGrath


Gilchrist +
Jayasuriya
M.Waugh
Bevan
Watson
Symonds
Hussey
Flintoff
Shakib
Waqar
Donald

Fine side as always, Red Hill. My only objection would be having openers of a similar ilk together i.e 2 go-steady guys instead of having an explosive openers to go with a more 'moderate' one. The number 7 spot is hardest to pick for me and I too end up vouching for Klusener.

 

[trundler]

Donald and Waqar bowling together in an ODI would be great! On an off day it would be a severe thrashing but it would be sheer carnage more often than not.

 

[Days of Grace]

Tests 1993-2018

ML Hayden
V Sehwag
BC Lara
SR Tendulkar
KC Sangakkara (c)
JH Kallis
AC Gilchrist (wk)
DW Steyn
Waqar Younis
M Muralitharan
GD McGrath

Warne to come in for one of the seamers. I was close to selecting him anyway but didn't trust Kallis fully as the third seamer.

1968-1993

SM Gavaskar
G Boycott
IVA Richards
GS Chappell (c)
RG Pollock
GS Sobers
APE Knott (wk)
Imran Khan
RJ Hadlee
MD Marshall
BS Chandrasekhar

Lillee 12th man

1968-1993 is ***y as ****.

 

[trundler]

Sanga prefers to bat up the order though. And yeah, Kallis never carried a heavy workload and you'd want him to be at his best to bore the crowds into committing suicide.

 

[Burgey]

DOG, I've always admired your work but your omission of TOTAB from the 1968-93 side is a ****ing travesty. Either Chappell or Pollock should be set aside - Pollock arguably because he played about 10 tests in the relevant period, Chappell because he picked and chose his tours (can't blame him for not wanting to go to Chennai, but still).

 

[trundler]

Gavaskar and Boycs opening together is a not-so-great idea too. Dear lord, spare me from even the thought of 12 hours for a partnership of a 50 runs. Pairing the guy who blocked his way to 36 off 174 balls and the guy who got dropped after making his highest score for being a selfish bastard. I'll take Gavaskar as he had more gears and a more attacking opener instead of Boycs, like Greenidge or Barry Richards. Plus, Burgey's right for once about TOTAB. Should be there in for Pollock. Great record everywhere. Great fielder and a handy bowler too. Great batting depth in the team though.

 

[Burgey]

Gavaskar and Boycs opening together is a not-so-great idea too. Dear lord, spare me from even the thought of 12 hours for a partnership of a 50 runs. Pairing the guy who blocked his way to 36 off 174 balls and the guy who got dropped after making his highest score for being a selfish bastard. I'll take Gavaskar as he had more gears and a more attacking opener instead of Boycs, like Greenidge or Barry Richards. Plus, Burgey's right as always about TOTAB. Should be there in for Pollock. Great record everywhere. Great fielder and a handy bowler too. Great batting depth in the team though.

Cheers.

Yeah I thought Greenidge for one of Boycs or Sunny too. Difficult to advocate exclusion of Pollock for playing limited tests then include Barry Richards, despite him undoubtedly being a great player.

 

[Mr Miyagi]

DOG, I've always admired your work but your omission of TOTAB from the 1968-93 side is a ****ing travesty. Either Chappell or Pollock should be set aside - Pollock arguably because he played about 10 tests in the relevant period, Chappell because he picked and chose his tours (can't blame him for not wanting to go to Chennai, but still).

Gavaskar and Boycs opening together is a not-so-great idea too. Dear lord, spare me from even the thought of 12 hours for a partnership of a 50 runs. Pairing the guy who blocked his way to 36 off 174 balls and the guy who got dropped after making his highest score for being a selfish bastard. I'll take Gavaskar as he had more gears and a more attacking opener instead of Boycs, like Greenidge or Barry Richards. Plus, Burgey's right for once about TOTAB. Should be there in for Pollock. Great record everywhere. Great fielder and a handy bowler too. Great batting depth in the team though.

It is just Burgey's starting argument. Once he is in that team, he point out that Border played 21 tests in the 1993-2018 team and should qualify for that also. Was just coming into rich form seeing Queensland win the 1994/95 Sheffield Shield averaging over 50.

 

[trundler]

I just included Barry as an alternative. Greenidge and Gavaskar sounds great though it'd be fun to see which selfish bastard runs the other one out for his 100 between Boycs and Gavaskar

 

[trundler]

Plus, with Gavaskar and Greenidge you can call your opening partnership the Double G's. Now who wouldn't love a pair of that?

 

[Mr Miyagi]

Plus, with Gavaskar and Greenidge you can call your opening partnership the Double G's. Now who wouldn't love a pair of that?

Not sure Gordon wants to share with Sunil on that front.

 

[trundler]

Boo, imagine all the fun Benaud would have with that.

 

[Days of Grace]

Dat middle order though...

 

[Mr Miyagi]

Boo, imagine all the fun Benaud would have with that.

Gautam Gambhir with Gordon Greenidge is upping the fun stakes.

The g-quad, double double g's....

 

[trundler]

Hey there is such a thing as too much, ya know, even if it's a good thing.

 

[Jack1]

Ah, fair enough. Looks like we are more or less at a consensus in the first XI, except for the openers. Now how different would a ODI XI be?

This was actually interesting for me. Because you only have 300 balls to face it makes it very complicated. You can afford to have pinch hitters with low averages (in comparison to Kohli and De Villiers) when you Kohli and De Villiers in the side. My theory is go with the pinch hitters and get off to a flier. The batsman that come in after are so personally competitive that it's irrelevant what's on the board when they come in anyway, they will score decent runs at a good rate. As a result the team is pretty wild and kind of blew my mind. I didn't expect to be picking Maxwell and Russell. But after researching the team I feel like it's essential to get the best out the team. And they are both good fielders which is a huge bonus. Andre Russell has to be in their as a lower order hitting with his huge strike rate and good fielding ability. Maxwell, Buttler and Russell all can be in. The 5th bowler is Watson (reason he's in the team and decent enough batting), not Russell (or Maxwell). You probably don;'t need a 5th bowler though, or at least now much from him. I reckon you could bowl out the 4 main bowlers and by that point the opposition will be in trouble anyway. Watson and Russell could then both in tandem if necessary in the last 10, but that's going to most likely be to lower order and/or tail and they are actually both good bowlers. If there's an injury they are also both good options anyway in emergency.

I feel like picking good test batters or high average ODI batters for the sake of it is very counter productive as you don't want to waste any deliveries. Ideally you want to be almost bowled out for the highest total possible. Even better is a team that on average gets bowled out in exactly 50 overs with the highest combined strike rate, with very good bowling and fielding still. I couldn't ignore Rashid Khan considering he's a good lower order hitter too. In fact he was the first bowler I picked.

1. Maxwell
2. Buttler
3. Kohli (c)
4. De Villiers
5. Watson
6. Gilchrist (wk)(vc)
7. Andre Russell
8. Rashid Khan
9. Shaun Pollock
10. Ambrose
11. McGrath

comparison with my test team:

tests

1. Hayden
2. Tendulkar
3. Ponting (c)
4. Kallis
5. Sangakkara
6. De Villiers
7. Gilchrist (wk)(vc)
8. Philander
9. Ambrose
10. Murali
11. McGrath
Sub fielder: Collingwood

 

[TheJediBrah]

Tests 1993-2018

ML Hayden
V Sehwag
BC Lara
SR Tendulkar
KC Sangakkara (c)
JH Kallis
AC Gilchrist (wk)
DW Steyn
Waqar Younis
M Muralitharan
GD McGrath

Warne to come in for one of the seamers. I was close to selecting him anyway but didn't trust Kallis fully as the third seamer.

1968-1993

SM Gavaskar
G Boycott
IVA Richards
GS Chappell (c)
RG Pollock
GS Sobers
APE Knott (wk)
Imran Khan
RJ Hadlee
MD Marshall
BS Chandrasekhar

Lillee 12th man

1968-1993 is ***y as ****.

Warne & Murali should be interchangeable depending on where you're playing

In Asia: Murali (or both), outside Asia: Warne

 

[trundler]

There's a fundamental problem with that. A flier isn't a guarantee though. Wasim Akram once said that he loved bowling to pinch hitters. Against bowling of that standard Maxwell is going to most probably play an incredibly stupid stroke and get out. Guy cant even keep his own in the IPL against... Indian bowling. Rashid is way, way too unproven as of yet. Would rather have Saqi than him as of NOW, The openers are basically a walking wicket for a top-notch bowler. Great idea, not so great execution. Dhoni would be a better fit at 6. We don't know how Gilly would do down the order.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Having Maxwell open and Gilly at 6 is nonsensical. It's just swapping them out of their best positions for a silly reason. Same with Watson. Watson and Gilly both far better up the top.

Maxwell shouldn't even be close to an ATG side regardless

 

[trundler]

Maxwell is at the point where he shouldn't be near a franchise league T20 side. The Twatto should not be in consideration anyway too but he isn't that much of a poor pick compared to Maxwell but still is. There have been so many hard-hitting proper openers like Gilly and Sanath to go and pick a bloke like Maxwell. Just pick Afridi, you get the extra bowling that way at least.