Cricinfo Best Test 11 from last 25 years

[smash84]

Did Inzy take twos?

Turning without looking was what he was a master at

 

[Pap Finn Keighl]

pioneers odi xi
jayasuria
tendulkar
viv
aravinda
abdv +
bevan
klusener
akram
saqlain
garner
mcgrath

k a p i l d e v

 

[Pap Finn Keighl]

McGrath can be Man of Destiny sometimes.

With Bat? Nah.
With Ball, they are pretty much equal

 

[Pap Finn Keighl]

Sourav Ganguly is over rated as an ODI Opener. Jayasurya, Anwar, Mark Waugh.. Etc were capable of winning matches. Ganguly never scored runs in required rate when chasing. Always scored runs very slowly. His 183 was fast, but it was against a toothless Srilanka in a small ground.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Jayasuriya used to frustrate me as a batsman. Saw him out on almost no runs trying to hit a six too many times. I like the idea of an aggressive opening bat, but he seemed to think of himself as a pinch hitter- moving from a Sachin type of role to an Afridi one. He was wasted in the idea of pinch hitter- I think the idea had some merit considering the dynamics of the game at time, but he had too much going for him to play the role. He had the attributes that make for a great pinch hitter (his ability to punish width was extremely useful given bowlers tendency at the time to provide it), but he was also a proper bat. His style and ability were very similar to Gilchrist. I think if he'd easied into his innings just a bit more he would have ended up with stats like Gilchrist as well.

When he came right he could be a game winner, but far more often than not he would end up leaving his team on the backfoot having lost a wicket for almost no runs.

He was trailblazing, but I think his trailblazing batting was a tactical error and Lanka would have been better off if he had dialled it back a notch.

Jayasuriya would be great for an All Time "when they come off they are unbeatable but often do **** all" XI

Jayasuriya
Afridi
Nic Maddinson
Yuvraj
Ashraful
+Ronchi
Andy Blignaut
John Davison
Yusuf Pathan
Shoaib Akhtar
Shaun Tait

Probably a bit harsh on Shoaib. Wasn't as loose as Tait.

 

[Migara]

you are national bias personified

Stop looking at the mirror and talking.

 

[cnerd123]

Stop looking at the mirror and talking.

IE, "your posts are national bias personified"

 

[Migara]

Jayasuriya would be great for an All Time "when they come off they are unbeatable but often do **** all" XI

Jayasuriya
Afridi
Nic Maddinson
Yuvraj
Ashraful
+Ronchi
Andy Blignaut
John Davison
Yusuf Pathan
Shoaib Akhtar
Shaun Tait

Probably a bit harsh on Shoaib. Wasn't as loose as Tait.

Replace Jayasuriya with Sehwag and you have it. Glenn Maxwell also should have a place as well as O'Donnel is it (the guy who had the record for fastest half century?)

 

[Migara]

The biggest joke I heard since returning to this forum was that Ganguly, Nick Knight and Trescothick are better ODI openers (never mind players) than Jayasuriya.

 

[Bolo]

Jayasuriya would be great for an All Time "when they come off they are unbeatable but often do **** all" XI

Jayasuriya
Afridi
Nic Maddinson
Yuvraj
Ashraful
+Ronchi
Andy Blignaut
John Davison
Yusuf Pathan
Shoaib Akhtar
Shaun Tait

Probably a bit harsh on Shoaib. Wasn't as loose as Tait.

Nice team. Bit harsh on Jayasuriya and Afridi in one way because they were pretty consistent with the ball, but the batting makes sense.

Some other nominees:
Mendis
Corey Anderson
Steyn
Brendan Taylor

 

[TheJediBrah]

Can't believe i forgot Maxwell, must be my natinal bias. He tends to just be **** always lately though rather than win occasional games.

 

[CricAddict]

Also, I think Gilchrist should definitely make the Pioneer XI. Revolutionized the role of wicketkeeper's batting in both ODIs and tests. I will put Gilchrist in place of Aravinda in trundler's XI.

 

[cnerd123]

Kaluwithrana was a wicketkeeper who opened the batting with the intent of getting his team off to a quick start - Sri Lanka did this on a tour of Australia in 1995/96 and was successful. Adam Gilchrist started opening the batting in ODIs in 1998.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Gilchrist was good though

 

[Bolo]

Kalu continued the tradition of the pinch hitter. He just happened to be a wk doing so. Wk pinch hitter is not a category that ever came to exist.

Gilchrist pioneered the tradition of the wk bat.

 

[CricAddict]

Kalu continued the tradition of the pinch hitter. He just happened to be a wk doing so. Wk pinch hitter is not a category that ever came to exist.

Gilchrist pioneered the tradition of the wk bat.

I remember India favoured pinch hitting quite a bit in the 90s with Javagal Srinath and Agarkar coming in frequently at 3. Who pioneered pinch hitting and who is the most successful pinch hitter in ODI history?

 

[CricAddict]

In T20s, I will say Narine.

 

[smash84]

I remember India favoured pinch hitting quite a bit in the 90s with Javagal Srinath and Agarkar coming in frequently at 3. Who pioneered pinch hitting and who is the most successful pinch hitter in ODI history?

I think it was Mark Greatbatch in the 1992 world cup who really introduced the pinch hitting concept

 

[Bolo]

I remember India favoured pinch hitting quite a bit in the 90s with Javagal Srinath and Agarkar coming in frequently at 3. Who pioneered pinch hitting and who is the most successful pinch hitter in ODI history?

I think a lot of people consider greatbatch in 92 as the pioneer.

Most successful? Probably nobody long term, unless you want to think of Jaya/Gilchrist/Sehwag as pinch hitters. Good aggressive bats works at the top. Proper pinch-hitters in ODIs, not so much- they don't really score faster because the game has evolved.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Greatbatch was a genuine batsman though. It's more interesting when a tail-ender gets thrown up the order randomly. Wish it happened more often, but IIRC someone did an analysis that came to the conclusion that in general it led to a net loss for the batting side.

The scorchers did it with Andrew Tye weirdly in a low-scoring BBL game recently and he made 30 or 40-odd.