Cricinfo Best Test 11 from last 25 years

[TheJediBrah]

Jayasuriya is terribly underrated as a limited overs player. He is more than just an opener; he provides an excellent sixth bowling option.
I'd have him over many of the people in the above list.

None of them have 323 ODI wickets tho. I don't think they even have that many if combined

Jayasuriya's career:

in Africa: 56 innings, 1581 runs, average 29.27, SR 87.54, 2 hundreds and 9 fifties
in Americas: 16 innings, 606 runs, average 40.40, SR 103.58, 2 hundreds and 2 fifties
in Asia: 268 innings, 8448 runs, average 33.25, SR 90.42, 15 hundreds and 49 fifties
in Europe: 23 innings, 849 runs, average 36.91, SR 101.92, 0 hundreds and 1 fifties
in Oceania: 70 innings, 1946 runs, average 28.20, SR 90.17, 8 hundreds and 8 fifties

I know dudes, I'm saying as a batsman:

Jayasuriya is overrated af IMO. Solid all-rounder in Asian conditions, but I scoff at him making an ATG team, or even a World XI team of his time as a specialist batsman.

List of ODI opening batsme better than Jayasuriya in his time: Saeed Anwar, Mark Waugh, Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden, Sehwag, Tendulkar, Ganguly, Trescothick, Nick Knight, Gibbs

 

[Migara]

Jayasuriya is overrated af IMO. Solid all-rounder in Asian conditions, but I scoff at him making an ATG team, or even a World XI team of his time as a specialist batsman.

List of ODI opening batsme better than Jayasuriya in his time: Saeed Anwar, Mark Waugh, Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden, Sehwag, Tendulkar, Ganguly, Trescothick, Nick Knight, Gibbs

It is meh that Dilshan goes unnoticed. Averages 46 @ 89. Better than Anwar, Waugh, Hayden, Ganguly, Trescothick, Night (meh!), and Gibbs. Better player of pace than Sehwag.

Jayasuriya's importance comes as an all rounder. Spinner, a death bowler, best fieldsman in that list except Dilshan and Gibbs, and pretty good captain. Jayasuriya is a far better player than Hayden, Anwar, Ganguly, Gibbs, Night (meh!), Trescothick (meh!) and even Shewag, who was a poor fieldsman. His comparables are Gilly and Waugh who are all rounders.

 

[TheJediBrah]

It is meh that Dilshan goes unnoticed. Averages 46 @ 89. Better than Anwar, Waugh, Hayden, Ganguly, Trescothick, Night (meh!), and Gibbs. Better player of pace than Sehwag.

Jayasuriya's importance comes as an all rounder. Spinner, a death bowler, best fieldsman in that list except Dilshan and Gibbs, and pretty good captain. Jayasuriya is a far better player than Hayden, Anwar, Ganguly, Gibbs, Night (meh!), Trescothick (meh!) and even Shewag, who was a poor fieldsman. His comparables are Gilly and Waugh who are all rounders.

Again, I'm talking about purely as a batsman. Of course he's more valuable as an all-rounder. You're still massively overrating him (better fielder than Waugh? lol) but that's understandable.

Yeah I forgot Dilshan. Good player.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Jayasuriya was revolutionary in his approach. For me that counts for more than just pure statistical effectiveness when I'm looking to rank ATG players in a format which has changed so much. That's why I'd take him as a pure opener ahead of Waugh, Anwar, Sehwag etc.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Jayasuriya was revolutionary in his approach. For me that counts for more than just pure statistical effectiveness when I'm looking to rank ATG players in a format which has changed so much. That's why I'd take him as a pure opener ahead of Waugh, Anwar, Sehwag etc.

I'd rather take the better player tbh. Respect your opinion though.

 

[TheJediBrah]

I probably underrate Jaysuriya a bit because I only saw him at the end of his career and make a lot of very low scores, and at a time where most were scoring just as quickly as him anyway (and was absolutely useless in the field). Missed the stage of his career where he was a trail-blazer so to speak, as far as aggressive opening goes.

 

[Daemon]

He does win the award for the shiniest and roundest head in cricket though. Rivals that of Karl Pilkington.

 

[vcs]

Jayasuriya was revolutionary in his approach. For me that counts for more than just pure statistical effectiveness when I'm looking to rank ATG players in a format which has changed so much. That's why I'd take him as a pure opener ahead of Waugh, Anwar, Sehwag etc.

Yep, I'd have him well ahead of Dilshan too, even though Dilshan does have very good statistics and is underrated in general.

 

[Migara]

Again, I'm talking about purely as a batsman. Of course he's more valuable as an all-rounder. You're still massively overrating him (better fielder than Waugh? lol) but that's understandable.

Yeah I forgot Dilshan. Good player.

Probably equal to Waugh. Waugh was better as a closer fielder, but Jayasuriya was a all round fieldsman, from shortleg to fine leg any where. In tests I would take Waugh's slip catching, but in ODIs I cannot select between them.

Again, Jayasuriya is what he is. Just taking batting in to account to suit your argument is not logical. BAtting is the case then Dishan shits over everyone bar Tendulkar and will be his opening partner. So you cannot have it both ways.

 

[Migara]

I probably underrate Jaysuriya a bit because I only saw him at the end of his career and make a lot of very low scores, and at a time where most were scoring just as quickly as him anyway (and was absolutely useless in the field). Missed the stage of his career where he was a trail-blazer so to speak, as far as aggressive opening goes.

This may be a reason. Everyone knows about his blitzkriegs with the bat, but don't think many have followed his bowling heroics. The number of four / five wicket hauls gives an idea how effective fifth bowler he was.

And of course other than for Sri Lankans, many have missed his fielding heroics. There is a catch that he takes in the 92WC at covers, and that is the only one that is on tape for the moment. He did take some ridiculous catches, and with Mahanama, Upul Chandana, Dharmasena and Murali formed core fielding group of SL of mid to late 90s.

 

[trundler]

Pioneers ODI XI
Jayasuria
Tendulkar
Viv
Aravinda
ABDV +
Bevan
Klusener
Akram
Saqlain
Garner
McGrath

 

[trundler]

Weak tail possibly but there's no one there I'd want to replace.

 

[cnerd123]

Dean Jones could fit in the Pioneers XI, and technically Mark Greatbach and Kris Srikkanth were the earliest pinch hitting openers.

Also maybe a shot out to Dipak Patel for opening the bowling as a spinner, and Chris Harris for making dibbly dobblies ***y. Or just Martin Crowe in general for bringing in some of these innovations himself.

Oh and Afridi. Playing T10 cricket in the ODI era. Legend.

 

[trundler]

Dean Jones could fit in the Pioneers XI, and technically Mark Greatbach and Kris Srikkanth were the earliest pinch hitting openers.

Also maybe a shot out to Dipak Patel for opening the bowling as a spinner, and Chris Harris for making dibbly dobblies ***y. Or just Martin Crowe in general for bringing in some of these innovations himself.

Oh and Afridi. Playing T10 cricket in the ODI era. Legend.

All great shout-outs but I feel Jaya made it ***y and was the first one to do it well.
No comment on Afridi though. Should probably replace Klusener.

 

[vcs]

Pioneers ODI XI
Jayasuria
Tendulkar
Viv
Arabinda
ABDV +
Bevan
Klusener
Akram
Saqlain
Garner
McGrath

Jonty Rhodes would have made it for sure in a Pioneers XI if ABdeV had not been basically an ATG batsman with Rhodes's fielding ability.

 

[trundler]

Here are my reasons:
Jaya was the first great hard-hitting explosive opener to capitalise on the powerplays. Tendulkar was the first to combine scoring consistently high with scoring quickly. Viv was the first great ODI bat and remains the greatest to this day. Provided the blueprint for LOI batting in the format's formative (ha!) years. Aravinda was one of the first high-class aggressive middle-order bats. He was striking at 80+ whilst everyone else was content with striking at 70~. ABDV obviously gets in because of his 360 stroke range and improvisation. The ultimate modern batsman. Bevan was the original finisher and chaser. Klusener was the first lower-order hard-hitting death overs batsman and also an excellent bowler to go with it. Akram was a pioneer in the sense of how much variety he had. First guy to master all the changes of pace, movement and all that to bamboozle the batsmen in ODIs. Saqlain was the first great ODI spinner. Also introduced the doosra. Garner was the first great ODI fast bowler. Almost impossible to hit around. McGrath gets in because he was the first to get the batsman's wicket by out-smarting him. He was ahead of his time in how he set up batsmen to induce an error, and by targeting their weaknesses rather persistently.

 

[Daemon]

Would put Andrew Tye in there as well, first man to have all 22 variations hit out of the ground

 

[Burgey]

I observe here that Sanath is rated highly by a lot of Indians including me and quite underrated by the others. We still have memories of him thrashing us every match. But did he perform poorly outside?

Just like Viv and Gilchrist, Sanath was a pioneer too. For that alone, I will give him a slot.

Would certainly make an AT SCG XI. Bloke scored tons for fun against Australia at that venue.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Probably equal to Waugh. Waugh was better as a closer fielder, but Jayasuriya was a all round fieldsman, from shortleg to fine leg any where. In tests I would take Waugh's slip catching, but in ODIs I cannot select between them.

Again, Jayasuriya is what he is. Just taking batting in to account to suit your argument is not logical. BAtting is the case then Dishan shits over everyone bar Tendulkar and will be his opening partner. So you cannot have it both ways.

I don't want to sound like Miyagi, but if you read before posting you'd see that it wasn't my choice, and it wasn't to "suit an argument". I was responding directly to what was being discussed. See the posts before mine:

I don't think Sanath makes this team as a pure bat, and with 2* 5th bowlers I don't think he's needed as an allrounder. I'd probably play Mark Waugh.

Ambrose ahead of either Waqar or Donald for mine, but it's marginal.

Not much difference in quality between this side and the 1st team. Better balance here, but the top bats there are a notch above.

love mark waugh. but would still rate saeed anwar ahead of him.

anyways, sanath was probably the most explosive ODI opener ever; good enough to make this team as a batsman alone;
and most certainly will be used as the sixth bowler to ease the burden on klusener.

 

[Engle]

As pioneers go, Zaheer Abbas certainly played a key role. Making his ODI debut in 1974 (10 years before Aravinda), he averaged 47.6, with a SR of 84.8
But more important than numbers, was his scintillating stylish strokeplay - a joy to behold.