Best all time XI for each country

[morgieb]

Champions XI

1. Salman Butt
2. Herschelle Gibbs
3. Ajay Jadeja
4. Mohammad Azharuddin
5. Saleem Malik
6. Hansie Cronje (c)
7. Kamran Akmal (wk)
8. Manoj Prabhakar
9. Nicky Boje
10. Mohammad Asif
11. Mohammad Aamir

I loled.

 

[ankitj]

I have compiled my team and squad for each of the top 7 test sides. I gave myself the challenge of picking a batting and bowling reserve for each country.

Australia


West Indies



England



South Africa



Pakistan


India



New Zealand

Will want to know why you choose Undeewood over Laker for England. Even cricinfo XI chose Underwood when Lakers seems to have a very strong resume.

 

[Prince EWS]

Yeah Laker's a criminally under-rated great of the game. I realise that sounds like a bit of an oxymoron, but while people will generally think "Yeah, great bowler" when you mention Laker, people don't normally bring him up in the first place.

 

[smash84]

Most inexplicable though is the inclusion of Akmal in the AT Pak XI

 

[Blakus]

Yeah Laker's a criminally under-rated great of the game. I realise that sounds like a bit of an oxymoron, but while people will generally think "Yeah, great bowler" when you mention Laker, people don't normally bring him up in the first place.

Personally I have him as the 5th greatest spinner ever (Behind Murali, Warne, Oreilly and Grimmett). That being said, I tend to pick Rhodes for the English spinners slot on account of his superior batting skills.

 

[Howe_zat]

Most inexplicable though is the inclusion of Akmal in the AT Pak XI

Andy Zaltzman on Kamran Akmal:

After scoring five brilliant centuries in two months in 2005-06 (three in Tests, two in ODIs), he sunk into a fallow period in which his ineptitude with the bat often matched his seismically shaky wicketkeeping, in which he remained flawless apart from his glovework, footwork and headwork. At times, he has not so much been ham-fisted, as appeared to be keeping wicket with two live pigs strapped to ends of his arms.

On his performance at Trent Bridge 2010:

It is hard to imagine a worse match performance than that by Umar’s brother Kamran, a spectacular array of wicketkeeping howlers neatly interlocked with a pair of noughts with the bat, comprising perhaps the worst individual performance in any medium since novelty children’s entertainer Mr Chicken’s dismal effort at playing King Lear, which consisted of a three-hour chicken impression in which he persistently called all of his daughters "Eggie".

 

[stephen]

WTF........Please. For God's sake. Do not insult the Pakistan wicket keeping tradition. We have had decent keepers in the past such as Imtiaz Ahmed, Bari, Latif, and Moin Khan. How come Akmal is the keeper in the Pakistan all time XI??? And who is the Khan in the reserves??? Majid Khan, Mohsin Khan, Shahid Khan, Sohail Khan?????

The batting reserve was a difficult spot for Pakistan. I chose Younis Khan as I'm not massively aware of a lot of older Pakistani batsmen and he has the numbers.

Most inexplicable though is the inclusion of Akmal in the AT Pak XI

Ok, this was one of the few positions that I went mostly on raw statistics.

Akmal has the highest batting average and the highest wickets per match of any wicket keeper that has more than ten dismissals. If it hadn't have been so late at night I probably would have picked Rashid Latif instead. Still, I think his raw numbers will surprise most:

Cricket Records | Records | Pakistan | Test matches | Most dismissals | ESPN Cricinfo

Will want to know why you choose Undeewood over Laker for England. Even cricinfo XI chose Underwood when Lakers seems to have a very strong resume.

Underwood vs Laker is not an argument I'd like to get into. Both were fine bowlers and both could be considered for the role. On a different day I'd have picked Laker.

 

[smash84]

The batting reserve was a difficult spot for Pakistan. I chose Younis Khan as I'm not massively aware of a lot of older Pakistani batsmen and he has the numbers.



Ok, this was one of the few positions that I went mostly on raw statistics.

Akmal has the highest batting average and the highest wickets per match of any wicket keeper that has more than ten dismissals. If it hadn't have been so late at night I probably would have picked Rashid Latif instead. Still, I think his raw numbers will surprise most:

Cricket Records | Records | Pakistan | Test matches | Most dismissals | ESPN Cricinfo



Underwood vs Laker is not an argument I'd like to get into. Both were fine bowlers and both could be considered for the role. On a different day I'd have picked Laker.

Did you know that Kamran Khatmal (Khatmal is a blood sucking insect) dropped 36 catches in 17 test matches in 2009-2010 (not including the England series)

 

[smash84]

Thanks Howe_zat for quoting Andy Zaltaman on Khatmal. At least that puts things in perspective.

 

[stephen]

Did you know that Kamran Khatmal (Khatmal is a blood sucking insect) dropped 36 catches in 17 test matches in 2009-2010 (not including the England series)

No I didn't know that.

Like I said, I have not followed Pakistan closely in recent times. I went purely on stats. I will happily agree that upon reflection I was wrong. Unfortunately, statistically, he is the best that Pakistan has produced (highest batting average and highest dismissals/test). His dismissals/test was so far ahead of Wasim Bari it's ridiculous. Almost the same number in thirty less tests.

Now that it's not late at night I would put Rashid Latif in that position.

 

[ankitj]

Personally I have him as the 5th greatest spinner ever (Behind Murali, Warne, Oreilly and Grimmett). That being said, I tend to pick Rhodes for the English spinners slot on account of his superior batting skills.

I will have in my top 5 too, may be ahead of Grimmet. Rhodes has a pretty ordinary test record for mine.

 

[Prince EWS]

Personally I have him as the 5th greatest spinner ever (Behind Murali, Warne, Oreilly and Grimmett).

I definitely think he belongs in the top five. I'd be more inclined to put him at 3 or 4 than 5 though if we're just talking about bowling alone.

 

[weldone]

Personally I have him as the 5th greatest spinner ever (Behind Murali, Warne, Oreilly and Grimmett). That being said, I tend to pick Rhodes for the English spinners slot on account of his superior batting skills.

Yeah, my top 6 are definitely Murali (not Karthik ), O'Reilly, Warne, Grimmett, Laker and Verity. - 3 leggies, 2 offies and 1 LHS.

It gets much trickier after the top 6. All of Benaud, the 5 Indians (Kumble, Bedi, Gupte, Prasanna, Chandra), Tayfield, Rhodes, Blythe, the Saffie trio (Faulkner, Schultz, Vogler), Qadir, Saqlain, Underwood etc. come to mind...I can't make up my mind once and for all about this flock.

Probably, this warrants a separate thread.

 

[Howe_zat]

I definitely think he belongs in the top five. I'd be more inclined to put him at 3 or 4 than 5 though if we're just talking about bowling alone.

He's certainly up there, he's still the top FC wicket-taker of all time, which means something but it meant so much more in his time, when FC cricket was to Tests what league football/soccer is the World Cup.

His other point is that his name in the line-up gives you a tremendous amount of flexibility. He's also the only Test cricketer to have batted at every position, 1-11.

The question over his inclusion is always the all-rounder's bane, that is how does he rate on these things individually? Is he a better opener than Hutton? A better all-rounder than Botham? A better spinner than Laker, Verity or Underwood? You could plausibly argue "no" to all these.

 

[Prince EWS]

He's certainly up there, he's still the top FC wicket-taker of all time, which means something but it meant so much more in his time, when FC cricket was to Tests what league football/soccer is the World Cup.

His other point is that his name in the line-up gives you a tremendous amount of flexibility. He's also the only Test cricketer to have batted at every position, 1-11.

The question over his inclusion is always the all-rounder's bane, that is how does he rate on these things individually? Is he a better opener than Hutton? A better all-rounder than Botham? A better spinner than Laker, Verity or Underwood? You could plausibly argue "no" to all these.

I was talking about Laker being in the top five spinners; not Rhodes in the allrounders list, FTR. Unless you just quoted my post by mistake.

 

[Howe_zat]

I was talking about Laker being in the top five spinners; not Rhodes in the allrounders list, FTR. Unless you just quoted my post by mistake.

Whoops. So you were. Howefail.

 

[smash84]

Yeah, my top 6 are definitely Murali (not Karthik ), O'Reilly, Warne, Grimmett, Laker and Verity. - 3 leggies, 2 offies and 1 LHS.

It gets much trickier after the top 6. All of Benaud, the 5 Indians (Kumble, Bedi, Gupte, Prasanna, Chandra), Tayfield, Rhodes, Blythe, the Saffie trio (Faulkner, Schultz, Vogler), Qadir, Saqlain, Underwood etc. come to mind...I can't make up my mind once and for all about this flock.

Probably, this warrants a separate thread.

i think this is a great idea for a thread.

 

[Howe_zat]

Army of Steves

Camacho
James
Fleming
Smith
Waugh
Smith
Rixon (wk)
Harmison
Finn
Watkin
Jack

 

[smash84]

This is hardly a platoon

 

[Red]

All time XI from each nation

Newish here so not sure if it's been done before, but could be fun to debate the merits of each nation's greatest XI. I'll kick it off with an Australian XI, and English XI and a WI XI.

Jump in whenever the mood takes you.