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Select Your Team

Mister Wright

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Jaques
Hayden
Ponting
Hussey
Katich
Watson/Symonds
Haddin
Krejza/Noffke
Lee
Clark
Bollinger

That probably looks a bit like a cop-out at the moment, but it'd depend on expected pitch conditions. If the pitch was expected to turn at any stage I'd play Krejza and Watson, else I'd go with Noffke and Symonds. I have more faith in Watson as a Test cricketer than Symonds overall despite their Test records at present but whilst I have an obvious preference (some might even say bias) towards Watson, I realise that his bowling would be pretty inconsequential if there were already four quicks in the team. Symonds would offer balance to the attack with his off breaks as the fifth bowler in the event of Krejza not playing and whilst I don't actually think he's as good a batsman as Watson as such, he's more suited to batting #6 than he is and has performed far beyond my expectations in Test cricket.

I think Jaques would offer more than Clarke as well and whilst Johnson hasn't really been poor enough to get dropped as such, I wouldn't pick him if I was picking a team from scratch which is what I'm doing here.
Are you selecting this as your best possible side with all fit, or were you unaware that Jaques is most likely out for the summer?
 

Athlai

Not Terrible
NZ test side to face Australia

1. Jamie How
2. Tim McIntosh
3. Peter Fulton
4. Ross Taylor
5. Jesse Ryder
6. Jacob Oram
7. Brendon McCullam
8. Daniel Vettori
9. James Franklin
10.Kyle Mills
11. Tim Southee

Can you just tell me how good low that side bats, Mills at 10! Southee at 11!
this side has the three best quicks in New Zealand, and a sensible batting line-up: Fulton back where he always should be McCullam back where he belongs and the opening problem getting fixed. I also love having Jesse Ruder down at five.
Besides McIntosh this is a pretty sweet looking team.
 

masterblaster

International Captain
Sorry, I was talking about Test selection.
Well, since Irfan's bowling has really deteriorated over the past few seasons, he's not in contention for a place in the team as a primary bowler. His batting and his attitude are real strengths though and he's perfect for a situation where India choses to play 5 bowlers.

With Ganguly's retirement, this could be a real option especially when we travel abroad to places like England and New Zealand. As a ODI player, he will be always in the 15 or 16 man squad. In test matches however, especially with the emergence of Ishant Sharma and continued presence of Munaf Patel and RP Singh he'll definitely find it tough to find a spot in the test side purely as a bowler.
 

Prince EWS

Global Moderator
No Clarke?

Seems to have copped a bit of a pounding on this forum lately, particularly in this thread.
I'm sure you're loving it - didn't you used to lead the anti-Clarke association a while back? :p

He's obviously not a terrible batsman, but he's rarely scored runs in a situation other than when Australia were well on top. He's done it a couple of times but he tends to fail much more often than not when he's needed so I'd rather see Katich slip back into the middle order and Jaques open. I'm 100% positive Clarke would be back soon enough if he was dropped now - it'd give him a chance to score some runs in tougher situations for NSW (something he never really did enough of before he was picked in the first place) and learn to cope with pressure situations better if nothing else.

Leaving out a player like Clarke isn't a luxury many teams could be afforded but when you have a middle order batsman opening the batting and an opener who averages 47 odd in Tests on the bench, competition is tough. I think Katich and Jaques are better options at the current time.

All that said, I wouldn't actually drop Clarke as such now - I don't think a dropping is actually warranted. I'd leave leave him out if I was picking a team from scratch which is a different thing altogether.
 

Mister Wright

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
I'm sure you're loving it - didn't you used to lead the anti-Clarke association a while back? :p

He's obviously not a terrible batsman, but he's rarely scored runs in a situation other than when Australia were well on top. He's done it a couple of times but he tends to fail much more often than not when he's needed so I'd rather see Katich slip back into the middle order and Jaques open. I'm 100% positive Clarke would be back soon enough if he was dropped now - it'd give him a chance to score some runs in tougher situations for NSW (something he never really did enough of before he was picked in the first place) and learn to cope with pressure situations better if nothing else.

Leaving out a player like Clarke isn't a luxury many teams could be afforded but when you have a middle order batsman opening the batting and an opener who averages 47 odd in Tests on the bench, competition is tough. I think Katich and Jaques are better options at the current time.

All that said, I wouldn't actually drop Clarke as such now - I don't think a dropping is actually warranted. I'd leave leave him out if I was picking a team from scratch which is a different thing altogether.
Haha. I was totally against his initial selection when everyone on here was saying he was the next Ponting. He has throughout his whole career had obvious deficiencies in his technique and mind set. I don't think when he was dropped originally that he was given enough time to sort out his game. I think he scored one double hundred and then was pretty much straight back into the side.

I've actually been very impressed with some of his innings. His 100 in Adelaide against England is actually one of my favourite innings of all time.
 

G.I.Joe

International Coach
Indian test team against England:

Sehwag (vc)
Gambhir
Laxman
Tendulkar
Badrinath
Vijay
Dhoni + (c)
Harbhajan
Zaheer
Mishra
Ishant
__________

Munaf
Rudra Pratap
Pujara

Dravid to earn his ticket back via the Ranji route. It worked for Ganguly, the selectors should have a word with him too. Murali Vijay is the incumbent and thus replaces Dravid, with Badrinath replacing Ganguly. Ideally, I'd have liked a straight swap of Pujara for Dravid, but Vijay has done just enough in his debut test to be allowed a chance to fail. Cheteshwar Pujara is the natural successor to Rahul Dravid, the guy can score big and bat long, really long. Superb defence and excellent powers of concentration. His presence in the squad will be essential in the post Dravid era to counter balance the succession of strokemakers in the batting line up. I'd seriously look at blooding him even before Rohit comes into the picture.


Indian ODI lineup against England, assuming no one needs to be rested:

Tendulkar
Sehwag
Gambhir
Raina
Yuvraj
Rohit
Dhoni + (c)
Harbhajan
Mishra
Zaheer
Ishant
___________

I'd be looking at Sehwag closely. He needs to show some semblance of consistency or his Delhi mate Shikhar Dhawan gets to make his debut. I believe Dhawan is currently the best limited overs batsman in the country to not play for India. And he's an electric fielder to boot.

Harbhajan also needs to start picking up wickets in ODIs, and not just contain the runs. Failing this, he needs to be replaced by Yusuf Pathan who brings his batting into the equation too. Yusuf's inclusion would also allow India to play Irfan instead of one of the batsmen, giving us 5 bowlers with batting depth upto 8.
 

Uppercut

Request Your Custom Title Now!
I'll pick my current local team

Cook
Strauss
Key
Pietersen
Shah
Collingwood
Flintoff
Foster i suppose, whoever's the best with the gloves and decent enough with the bat
Hoggard
Anderson
Panesar on turners, if not then Simon Jones if fit, if not then Harmison

Really difficult to fill out the batting lineup, and really difficult to choose who to leave out of the bowling lineup. Accurate reflection of England atm IMO.
 

weldone

Hall of Fame Member
Indian ODI XI against England-

Sehwag
Tendulkar
Gambhir
Raina
Yuvraj
Dhoni
I. Pathan
Mishra
Harbhajan
Zaheer
Ishant

Indian Test XI against England-

Gambhir
Sehwag
Laxman
Tendulkar
Badrinath
Kaif
Dhoni
Mishra
Harbhajan
Zaheer
Ishant
 

Athlai

Not Terrible
How
Richardson
Fleming (c)
Taylor
Ryder
Oram
McCullum (wk)
Vettori
Franklin
Mills
Southee/Patel

Best tail in the world. :cool:
 

NZTailender

I can't believe I ate the whole thing
I don't think he played in the IPL, and has retired from all other cricket.
Still, Katman would probably be there.
Playing ICL. He's on about the same retirement level as Warne and McGrath, who you included in your team.
 

morgieb

Request Your Custom Title Now!
1. ML Hayden
2. JL Langer
3. RT Ponting
4. DR Martyn
5. SM Katich
6. MEK Hussey
7. AC Gilchrist
8. SK Warne
9. B Lee
10. SR Clark
11. GD McGrath

EDIT: Didn't know that Marto was still playing.
 

wpdavid

Hall of Fame Member
SA test team to tour Australia

1. McKenzie
2. Smith
3. M van Jaarsveld
4. Kallis
5. Amla
6. de Villiers
7. Boucher
8. Klusener
9. Harris (spinning pitch) /Tsotobe (seaming)
10. M Morkel
11. Steyn

Backup/ODI specialists
Gibbs, Puttick, Kuhn, Botha, Ntini, Duminy, Kemp, M van Wyk, Nel, Tshabalala, du Preez, Langeveldt

Players I would not have near the side
A Morkel, Bosman, Louw, Ontong, R Peterson, Parnell (yet), Philander, A Peterson

Prince not even backup? :-O
 

pup11

International Coach
My Aussie team to face NZ

1.M.Hayden
2.S.Katich
3.R.Ponting (C)
4.M.Hussey
5.M.Clarke
6.S.Watson
7.B.Haddin (wk)
8.J.Krejza
9.B.Lee
10.D.Bollinger
11.S.Clark
 

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