silentstriker
The Wheel is Forever
Let's say you were the coach of a new up and coming Test nation (Bangladesh for example), and you had a choice of picking and importing three current players from the beginning of their careers to start your team, and then building around them. Who would you pick?
Rules:
You get the players for their entire careers (Tendulkar 1989-, Dravid 1996-), etc. You can only pick three players, and all must be current players (i.e no Bradman, Ambrose, etc). You know in advance how they will turn out.
Please list three players, and list WHY you want to pick them.
1) Glenn McGrath: Bowlers win matches, and no one bowls out the top order quite like him. An obvious first choice.
2) Muttiah Muralitharan: Bowlers win matches, and no one dominates a game quite like him.
3) Shane Warne: Bowlers win matches, and he has high cricketing acumen. He can dominate as well and bowl long spells, and he'd also be my captain. Plus, to keep him happy, I'd supply him with a never ending stream of women. And all the cell phones he wants.
Plus, Warne + Murali bowling in tandem against England means England would implode within 20 overs.
I would say that a bowling attack of McGrath, Warne and Murali would pretty much make it the equal and probably better of any in the world, regardless of who the fourth (and perhaps fifth) bowlers are. We obviously wouldn't be world beaters without a batting lineup, but I bet we'd be in contention in a lot of games and even win our fair share.
And you'd need the two spinners, cause our batting means they'll be defending low scores a lot.
In the end, quality bowling > quality batting, as India keeps demonstrating throughout its history.
Others who were in contention:
Tendulkar: AAARGH. I cannot believe I am leaving him out. He is my all time favorite player. Sachin, please forgive me! But the fact is, that he is a batsman, and bowlers are just more important. Otherwise he'd be in there.
Flintoff: Fantastic, but he was ordinary for a large part of his career before becoming brilliant.
Rules:
You get the players for their entire careers (Tendulkar 1989-, Dravid 1996-), etc. You can only pick three players, and all must be current players (i.e no Bradman, Ambrose, etc). You know in advance how they will turn out.
Please list three players, and list WHY you want to pick them.
1) Glenn McGrath: Bowlers win matches, and no one bowls out the top order quite like him. An obvious first choice.
2) Muttiah Muralitharan: Bowlers win matches, and no one dominates a game quite like him.
3) Shane Warne: Bowlers win matches, and he has high cricketing acumen. He can dominate as well and bowl long spells, and he'd also be my captain. Plus, to keep him happy, I'd supply him with a never ending stream of women. And all the cell phones he wants.
Plus, Warne + Murali bowling in tandem against England means England would implode within 20 overs.
I would say that a bowling attack of McGrath, Warne and Murali would pretty much make it the equal and probably better of any in the world, regardless of who the fourth (and perhaps fifth) bowlers are. We obviously wouldn't be world beaters without a batting lineup, but I bet we'd be in contention in a lot of games and even win our fair share.
And you'd need the two spinners, cause our batting means they'll be defending low scores a lot.
In the end, quality bowling > quality batting, as India keeps demonstrating throughout its history.
Others who were in contention:
Tendulkar: AAARGH. I cannot believe I am leaving him out. He is my all time favorite player. Sachin, please forgive me! But the fact is, that he is a batsman, and bowlers are just more important. Otherwise he'd be in there.
Flintoff: Fantastic, but he was ordinary for a large part of his career before becoming brilliant.
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