The ATG World XI's game

[Dan]

Shane Watson
George Giffen

We need two bowlers here, and Giffen is head-and-shoulders above Vettori IMO. Gomez's Test batting wasn't quite up to scratch, so Watson is probably a better bet.

 

[Jacknife]

Ian Bell

Fanie de Villiers,

 

[NUFAN]

Even though Malik received the most votes out of the middle order bats, I wouldn't play him at 3.

AWTJacknife.

Ian Bell
Fanie de Villiers

 

[Jager]

Switched him and Trotty.

 

[Michaelf7777777]

Shane Watson

George Giffen

 

[watson]

Watson

Vettori

 

[watson]

Shane Watson
George Giffen

We need two bowlers here, and Giffen is head-and-shoulders above Vettori IMO. Gomez's Test batting wasn't quite up to scratch, so Watson is probably a better bet.

Thanks for mentioning George Giffen. Hadn't heard of him before, but seems like an interesting cricketer with very good numbers.

 

[amanuensis]

Watson's only real test batting credentials are as an opener & even they are very flawed (utterly dire conversion), so I don't see how he can be included. I'd go for Bell, but I'm not sure about my other choice. Strudwick was a great keeper, but pretty dire with the bat, so you'd want a bowler with some ability in that area. Giffen ticks that box, but does that not leave the attack a touch unbalanced? Broad & Harmison are both tall seamers, so surely you'd want a swinger?

 

[amanuensis]

Actually de Villiers might be the better option, but I'm not sure about that tail - Broad would have to come in at seven & live up to his potential with the bat.

 

[watson]

Watson's only real test batting credentials are as an opener & even they are very flawed (utterly dire conversion), so I don't see how he can be included. I'd go for Bell, but I'm not sure about my other choice. Strudwick was a great keeper, but pretty dire with the bat, so you'd want a bowler with some ability in that area. Giffen ticks that box, but does that not leave the attack a touch unbalanced? Broad & Harmison are both tall seamers, so surely you'd want a swinger?

Admittedly Watson has had only one series against India where he batted at No.6 with a top score of 78. However, he only bats at No.1 for Australia because we have a current shortage of class openers. Cowans, honestly.

In my opinion Watson is a natural No.6 because of his reasonably talented bowling (SR = 59 balls!). At No.6 he would be allowed to bowl more without having to face the rigors of then opening. That's how it should be. He would flourish and become a great middle-order batsman.

If only Australia had another Bill Lawry/Matt Hayden about the scene.

 

[amanuensis]

Admittedly Watson has had only one series against India where he batted at No.6 with a top score of 78. However, he only bats at No.1 for Australia because we have a current shortage of class openers. Cowans, honestly.

In my opinion Watson is a natural No.6 because of his reasonably talented bowling (SR = 59 balls!). At No.6 he would be allowed to bowl more without having to face the rigors of then opening. That's how it should be. He would flourish and become a great middle-order batsman.

If only Australia had another Bill Lawry/Matt Hayden about the scene.

That's pure conjecture & therefore pretty meaningless - with the likes of Harmison, McGill & Strudwick at the bottom of the order, this team need lots of runs from the guys in the middle. And I wouldn't pick 2 spinners in general, just to get Vettori's runs into the equation.

 

[watson]

Since I've gone for Vettori as my No.7 allrounder the team needs a third seemer. Conjecture or not Watson is therefore a logical choice.

As I've said before, batsman can move down the order no problem (even Hutton admitted that he wouldn't have minded batting at No.5 behind Maurice Leyland in his 1977 interview), it's moving up the order to Nos 1-2-3 that is the problem.

 

[NUFAN]

I'm going to stick with Fanie de Villiers but Paul Reiffel would have been a decent shout. Broad and Reiffel at 7 and 8 is not terrible and they could have formed a decent attack.

Thinking about it a little more, I obviously rate Harmison not as highly as others - I would have picked around a dozen bowlers not named yet ahead of him.

 

[Jager]

Ashes 06/07 still fresh in your mind?

 

[NUFAN]

Yes!

I know he was world number 1 and did bowl brilliantly a few times (Lords 05 and 7/12 top of the list) but his legacy for me is his bowling in Australia with that first up wide top of the list.

 

[amanuensis]

I'm going to stick with Fanie de Villiers but Paul Reiffel would have been a decent shout. Broad and Reiffel at 7 and 8 is not terrible and they could have formed a decent attack.

Thinking about it a little more, I obviously rate Harmison not as highly as others - I would have picked around a dozen bowlers not named yet ahead of him.

Actually Reiffel would be a decent call too & I agree with you on Harmison. His presence also exacerbates the weakness of the tail.

 

[Jager]

Bell- 3
Watson- 3

Giffen- 3
De Villiers- 2
Vettori- 1

Watson the obvious choice IMO, gives us five bowlers who certainly create an interesting blend of variations with the ball.

World X XI
1. Archie McLaren
2. Herschelle Gibbs
3. Jonathan Trott
4. Murray Goodwin
5. Saleem Malik
6. Shane Watson
7. George Giffen
8. Stuart Broad
9. Steve Harmison
10. Stuart MacGill
11. Herbert Strudwick

 

[Jager]

One of our most interesting teams so far, a fine side IMO. Obviously not that much of a high ranking side in terms of the others we've created, but still a great blend of players. Strudwick at 11 really shook our selections up and made us consider both aspects of the remaining players.

 

[Jager]

Same format for the World Y XI, our second last team! Nearly there, keep up the selecting.

We've committed a horrible sin, too - leaving out Bert Sutcliffe from the shortlists.

1. Select two openers
2. Select three middle order batsmen
3. Select a wicketkeeper
4. Select a spinner
5. Select opening pace bowlers

OPENERS
Marvan Atapattu, Charles Bannerman, Herbie Collins, Jimmy Cook, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Gautam Gambhir, Tamim Iqbal, Simon Katich, Majid Khan, Colin McDonald, Alan Melville, Mudassar Nazar, Mark Richardson, Pankaj Roy, Navjot Sidhu, Keith Stackpole, Jeff Stollmeyer, Kepler Wessels, John Wright

MIDDLE ORDER
Ijaz Ahmed, Azhar Ali, Ian Bell, Greg Blewett, Brian Booth, Mike Brearley, Herbie Collins, Hansie Cronje, Charlie Davis, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Jack Fingleton, Larry Gomes, Gerry Gomez, Asanka Gurusinha, Joe Hardstaff, Carl Hooper, Nasser Hussain, David Houghton, Ken Mackay, Vijay Manjrekar, Arjuna Ranatunga, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Arthur Shrewsbury,Raman Subba-Row, Ross Taylor, Hashan Tillakaratne, Misbah Ul Haq, Polly Umrigar
WICKETKEEPER
Jock Cameron, George Duckworth, Barry Jarman, Brad Haddin, Jackie Hendriks, David Houghton, Ridley Jacobs, Prasanna Jayawardene, Syed Kirmani, Gil Langley, Brendon McCullum, Kiran More, Deryck Murray, Jim Parks, Adam Parore, Ian Smith, Brian Taber, Tatenda Taibu, Bob Taylor, Hashan Tillekaratne, Dave Richardson

SPIN
Mushtaq Ahmed, Charlie Blythe, George Giffen, Regana Herath, Bert Ironmonger, Jack Iverson, Ian Johnson, Lindsay Kline, Colin Miller, Bobby Peel, Iqbal Qasim, Sonny Ramadhin, Pervez Sajjad, Reggie Schwarz, Harbajhan Singh, Alf Valentine, Daniel Vettori, Bert Vogler

PACE
Kenny Benjamin, Andy Caddick, Lance Cairns, Stuart Clark, Graham Dilley, Merv Dillon, Fanie de Villiers, Ken Farnes, JJ Ferris, Roy Gilchrist, Charlie Griffith, Umar Gul, Neil Hawke, Ken Higgs, George Hirst, Rodney Hogg, Vanburn Holder, Mitchell Johnson, Zaheer Khan, Lasith Malinga, Chris Martin, Manny Martindale, Morne Morkel, Danny Morrison, Dick Motz, Laurie Nash, Sarfraz Nawaz, Chris Old, Vernon Philander, Paul Reiffel, Brett Schultz, Peter Siddle, Max Walker

 

[Michaelf7777777]

Bert Sutcliffe, Herbie Collins

Polly Umrigar, Martin Donnelly, Ross Taylor

Ian Smith

Bert Vogler

Dick Motz, Fannie De Villiers