stephen
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
That's a very fine team.With Ireland and Afghanistan in with test status, that makes 12 test playing nations. What's the best ATG test XII you can make if you have to use one player from each nation?
It's probably easier to pick the best players from the weaker nations first. That means Shakib goes in from Bangladesh. From Afghanistan we take the batsman Rahmat Shah, and from Scotland, Kyle Coetzer.
Moving through, the next obvious pick is Hadlee from NZ. While Crowe and Williamson and some other older day batsmen might stake a claim, Hadlee is as good a quick as ever had been, and he adds all-round depth to the XII.
Obviously from Australia we will take Bradman, which is a real no brainer. Seems obvious to take one of the great English openers as that's what they produce best. Len Hutton is my choice but it could be Hobbs.
Imran or Wasim from Pakistan seem logical, either would be fine. In this scenario, I'll have Imran.
So far:
Hutton
Koetzer
Bradman
-
-
-
Imran
Shakib
Hadlee
-
-
Garry Sobers seems the next logical choice. So he slots in to the line up as a batting AR. In order to complete the bowling attack, I'll take Steyn from SA, giving us:
Hutton
Koetzer
Bradman
-
Sobers
-
-
Imran
Shakib
Hadlee
Steyn
At this point it seems logical to pick Andy Flower from Zim at #5 and to keep, and Sachin from India to complete the batting line up, while picking Murali (SL) as the first choice spinner to complete the bowling attack:
Hutton
Koetzer
Bradman
Tendulkar
Flower +
Sobers
Imran
Shakib
Hadlee
Steyn
Murali
12th - Shah
It's a shade weaker on the batting than some all time sides but the bowling is top notch.