Bagapath's Greatest XI

[NUFAN]

When Richard Hadlee starts the first over with Adam Gilchrist behind the stumps, this will be the field setting.

Off Side:

Viv Richards - First Slip
Brian Lara - Second Slip
Shane Warne - Third Slip
Joel Garner - Gully
Sunil Gavaskar - Cover Point
Sachin Tendulkar - Mid Off

On Side:

Malcolm Marshall - Square leg
Gordon Greenidge - Short leg
Allan Border - Mid Wicket

Awesome team Baggy! One suggestion though, no need for a mid off with that terrific bowling unit, bring in a fourth slip!

 

[harsh.ag]

Get rid of the gully, and put him in the fifth slip position!

 

[The Battlers Prince]

one of the few things with AB as the skipper is to underattack

 

[Goughy]

I would have a crack at this but I honestly have nothing to compare to the cow anecdote. Absolute gold.

 

[Furball]

Would love to know what Goughy's XI would be.

 

[kyear2]

When Richard Hadlee starts the first over with Adam Gilchrist behind the stumps, this will be the field setting.

Off Side:

Viv Richards - First Slip
Brian Lara - Second Slip
Shane Warne - Third Slip
Joel Garner - Gully
Sunil Gavaskar - Cover Point
Sachin Tendulkar - Mid Off

On Side:

Malcolm Marshall - Square leg
Gordon Greenidge - Short leg
Allan Border - Mid Wicket

Great, would flip Viv and BCL though, as Lara always fielded in 1st and Richards was at his best at 2nd when Lloyd was at first.

 

[bagapath]

Awesome team Baggy! One suggestion though, no need for a mid off with that terrific bowling unit, bring in a fourth slip!

Sunny was a good slip fielder. Can easily shuffle around the off side field to open up a gap between gully and cover to temp the batsman for a drive. Hadlee, Marshall and Garner are good enough to bowl to four slips and a gully I agree.

I would have a crack at this but I honestly have nothing to compare to the cow anecdote. Absolute gold.

Hahaha

 

[Howe_zat]

When Richard Hadlee starts the first over with Adam Gilchrist behind the stumps, this will be the field setting.

Off Side:

Viv Richards - First Slip
Brian Lara - Second Slip
Shane Warne - Third Slip
Joel Garner - Gully
Sunil Gavaskar - Cover Point
Sachin Tendulkar - Mid Off

On Side:

Malcolm Marshall - Square leg
Gordon Greenidge - Short leg
Allan Border - Mid Wicket

Deep backward square instead of a square leg. Presumably you're starting with a short leg for the odd bumper thrown down, so you ought to have a guy out there for the hook

 

[bagapath]

Marshall's a sure for. But I think he will select one between Steve Waugh and Jacques Kallis rather than Allan Border. I think Kallis would be perfect here. Good fifth bowler. As good a bat as Waugh and Border. Hope he doesn't put Botham because as he claims only the post-85 era is involved and Botham was average there. But, then so was Viv (well not average, but not the god he is claimed to be). So I don't know.

I am such a jobless guy that I have even thought through the bowling attack's workload. I have imagined how these four will divide ther spells and complete 80 overs before new ball gets taken in the last session for the opening bowlers to hurl down 5 overs each. After very elaborately breaking down their day's work it comes to this finally.

Hadlee 20 overs
Marshall 19 overs
Garner 22 overs
Warne 29 overs

Since this looks practical I don't think I will ever resort to using a fifth bowler.

Now that I have shared this with you, I don't know what I will think of in the shower.

 

[Howe_zat]

Since this looks practical I don't think I will ever resort to using a fifth bowler.

Now that I have shared this with you, I don't know what I will think of in the shower.

I think that betrays just how off the cuff Test captaincy has to be sometimes. When Viv had an attack of Marshall, Garner, Holding and Walsh (and not a **** was given about the over rate), he'd still bring himself on from time to time. I think it's fair enough to plan to use just the four bowlers but you have to be at least a little prepared to deviate.

 

[bagapath]

Fair enough. I get your point. Border and Richards and Tendulkar can certainly manage 15 harmless overs between them even if one of the main bowlers breaks down. Honestly, since these are players I want to watch I can't bring in Kallis though he can replace any of the middle order bats in terms of effectiveness.

 

[Riggins]

I think the biggest issue would be you probably wouldn't want Warne bowling ~30 on a day 1 or non really spinning track, might need 5-10 overs help from someone somewhere.

 

[Red]

Garner was always good at bowling long economic spells.

Great team and write up Bagapath. Really enjoyed it.

 

[marc71178]

I think the biggest issue would be you probably wouldn't want Warne bowling ~30 on a day 1 or non really spinning track, might need 5-10 overs help from someone somewhere.

Yes, if he bowls 29 overs on day 1 but the new ball is taken that means he's bowling unchanged from about 45 minutes into the day.

 

[Riggins]

My dad always said about being captain that if you bowl half the overs, you'll take half the wickets.

 

[bagapath]

in their long and illustrious careers, warne averaged 25 overs per innings, Hadlee - 24. Garner - 20 and Marshall - 19. That nicely adds up to 88 overs. considering their SR, that should be good enough to bowl the opposition out (for about 250 runs). If they need a breather, there are those useful part timers already mentioned above. no great team needed five full fledged bowlers to win consistently. four great bowlers are difficult to come together at the same time for selection. But when they rarely do, they are more than enough to do the job.

 

[bagapath]

Top side so far, when you've completed your list, I'm just curious whether there are any alternates who were close to, but just missed out on making the XI

an alternative team would have looked like this

Hayden
Sehwag
Ponting
Miandad
S.Waugh
Imran (C)
Botham
Dujon (wk)
Ambrose
Murali
McGrath

And it doesn't look perfect I agree

If I were to select an All Time XI then that team would have probably looked like this...

Hobbs
Hutton
Bradman (C)
Lara
Richards
Sobers
Gilchrist (WK)
Marshall
Warne
Lillee
Barnes

 

[Red]

in their long and illustrious careers, warne averaged 25 overs per innings, Hadlee - 24. Garner - 20 and Marshall - 19. That nicely adds up to 88 overs. considering their SR, that should be good enough to bowl the opposition out (for about 250 runs). If they need a breather, there are those useful part timers already mentioned above. no great team needed five full fledged bowlers to win consistently. four great bowlers are difficult come together at the same time for selection. But when they rarely do, they are more than enough to do the job.

This is true, as Australia showed with McGrath, Gillespie, Lee/Kaspa and Warne/MacGill

 

[benchmark00]

Baggy - who has the job of leading the team song?

 

[Prince EWS]

How do the players decide who has esky duty for the week?