The ATG Teams General arguing/discussing thread

[vitalogy83]

Just a little question for those who enjoy ATG teams and compiling them.

At what point of his career would you consider Steve Smith for an Australian ATG XI, and possibly even a world ATG XI?

What more (if any) would he have to do in your eyes to achieve those things?

If he retired tomorrow I'd say he'd be a big shout for an Aus ATG XI. Hard to say regarding a World ATG XI. But he'd certainly be in the discussions though. And will be competing with Lara, Sachin, Sanga, Younis etc bracket for a top order spot.

It's just a little hard at the moment because he's got a long way to go in his career - and while it looks for all intents and purposes that he will end up being a total BAWS by the time he does retire - it could, of course, all go belly up in the next 10 years for him.

I guess it is just a little hard to put him in these discussions until we have seen maybe 80-90% of his career. We've probably only seen half of it now tbh. He has at least another 8 years left in him.

 

[Coronis]

Has to reach 29 centuries.

 

[The Battlers Prince]

So, in about 2 years

 

[Gob]

Yeah couple of years would do

 

[bagapath]

The only lock in an Aussie ATG XI middle order is Bradman.

The other two or three middle order bats (depending on whether you take Miller as an all-rounder or not) would be chosen from

Greg Chappell
Allan Border
Ricky Ponting
Neil Harvey
Steve Waugh
Steve Smith

It is a pretty intimidating group. In all honesty, any three of them - or any two of them plus miller - would be good enough to make up an ATG World XI with the Don batting at 3.

I would probably go for Bradman, G.Chappell, Border and Miller so that I can play both O'Reilley and Warne to follow Lillee and McGrath.

 

[Gob]

You can say that again

 

[Zinzan]

The only lock in an Aussie ATG XI middle order is Bradman.

The other two or three middle order bats (depending on whether you take Miller as an all-rounder or not) would be chosen from

Greg Chappell
Allan Border
Ricky Ponting
Neil Harvey
Steve Waugh
Steve Smith

There's only 3 genuine contenders if you're filling 2 spots from that lot, Chappell, Ponting and Border.... Nobody's selecting the likes of Waugh over Ponting as an example, surely.

 

[Shady Slim]

i really don't think you can take smith just yet

 

[Shady Slim]

general rule for modern players for mine is to either wait for their careers to begin winding up or twilight before picking them

 

[Zinzan]

i really don't think you can take smith just yet

Exacty, Smith may very much end up competing with Chappell and Ponting and is even an outside chance of surpassing them, but not now...

 

[harsh.ag]

Go Fast, Go Big XI

Barry Richards
Viv Richards
Don Bradman (c)
Brian Lara
Garry Sobers
Adam Gilchrist (wk)
Imran Khan
Richard Hadlee
Malcolm Marshall
Shane Warne
Muttiah Muralitharan

All quick scoring batsmen. The middle order is famed for going big. Just need one of them to work. Two world class spinners ensure the quicks can bowl in short bursts. Also magnifies the probability of a fifth day victory in all conditions. Long tail helps with the five bowlers situation. Gilly helps too.

 

[Red]

There's only 3 genuine contenders if you're filling 2 spots from that lot, Chappell, Ponting and Border.... Nobody's selecting the likes of Waugh over Ponting as an example, surely.

I really do think it's been forgotten just how good SWaugh was, sadly.

 

[Red]

The only lock in an Aussie ATG XI middle order is Bradman.

The other two or three middle order bats (depending on whether you take Miller as an all-rounder or not) would be chosen from

Greg Chappell
Allan Border
Ricky Ponting
Neil Harvey
Steve Waugh
Steve Smith

It is a pretty intimidating group. In all honesty, any three of them - or any two of them plus miller - would be good enough to make up an ATG World XI with the Don batting at 3.

I would probably go for Bradman, G.Chappell, Border and Miller so that I can play both O'Reilley and Warne to follow Lillee and McGrath.

Pretty much agree except i'd usually have Harvey instead of AB. But there's really nothing in it.

Bradman
G.Chappell
Miller
Harvey
Gilchrist

The beauty of that line up is, as you say, you can play O'Reilly and Warne and still have 3 quicks.

 

[Zinzan]

I really do think it's been forgotten just how good SWaugh was, sadly.

I certainly haven't forgotten, especially his exploits away vs. a very strong Windies... but the same can be said for Neil Harvey, but I still have those other 3 slightly above... let's not forget Border's legendary efforts in the Windies in the mid 80s, against arguably an even better attack than Waugh faced.

 

[SeamUp]

Wrong threadz

 

[Burgey]

Exacty, Smith may very much end up competing with Chappell and Ponting and is even an outside chance of surpassing them, but not now...

Good to see you rightly failed to countenance the idea that TPC or indeed anyone might usurp TOTAB.

 

[Burgey]

Pretty much agree except i'd usually have Harvey instead of AB. But there's really nothing in it.

Bradman
G.Chappell
Miller
Harvey
Gilchrist

The beauty of that line up is, as you say, you can play O'Reilly and Warne and still have 3 quicks.

Booooo. Resign! Resign!

 

[Red]

Booooo. Resign! Resign!

Ha. Sorry pal.

I honestly loved TOTAB. As a kid of the 80s I knew how epic he was.

It was Haigh's book "The Summer Game" who made me love Neil Harvey a hell of a lot though. The guy was a true batting genuis.

 

[Gob]

Apparently Neil Harvey was a big fan of Neil Harvey as well.

 

[Zinzan]

Good to see you rightly failed to countenance the idea that TPC or indeed anyone might usurp TOTAB.

Funny I was looking back at a few old 80s series the other day and Border was probably better than I give him credit for, especially some of those performances in the Windies when he was virtually a one-man batting team for Australia, and even Hadlee's 15 wicket Test I'd forgotten Border quietly scored 150odd not out on the 2nd innings. He definitely faced some attacks in that period.

All said, I still have him a smidgen behind Ponting and Chappell, but ahead of SWaugh.