Which country's All Time XI is the strongest?

[Chrish]

Probably this has been done before but can't find the older thread. So, thought about starting a new discussion.

Although not necessary, I am including all the major test teams for the sake of argument.

So, which team do you think is the best?

 

[Slifer]

Australia

West Indies/RSA
England
Pakistan
Australia B
India
SL/NZ
WI B
ENG B
RSA B

 

[Gob]

Depends what you pick tbh

Hayden
Morris
Bradman
Chappell
Smith
Border
Gilchrist +
Miller
Warne
Lillee
McGrath

Greenidge
Fredricks
Headley
Richards
Lara
Sobers
Dujon +
Marshall
Holding
Garner
Ambrose

Smith
Richards
Amla
Kallis
Pollock
DeVilliers +
Procter
Pollock
Tyfield
Steyn
Donald

All seriously impressive. I'd say Aust just shade it

 

[Slifer]

Depends what you pick tbh

Hayden
Morris
Bradman
Chappell
Smith
Border
Gilchrist +
Miller
Warne
Lillee
McGrath

Greenidge
Fredricks
Headley
Richards
Lara
Sobers
Dujon +
Marshall
Holding
Garner
Ambrose

Smith
Richards
Amla
Kallis
Pollock
DeVilliers +
Procter
Pollock
Tyfield
Steyn
Donald

All seriously impressive. I'd say Aust just shade it

You know having Miller in Australia's team as the third seamer as opposed to the 4th in a 5 man attack makes lot of sense. Not losing too much bowling wise (ie vs a davidson or lindwall) and you have a good batsman coming in at 8. Well done.

 

[Chrish]

Personally would remove Border and add Lindwall. I am of firm belief that you need 4 specialist bowlers and one all-rounder in case one of the bowlers breaks down.

Conversely would have either Pollock or Proctor and add a specialist batsman. Both of them aren’t really necessary.

 

[Gob]

You know having Miller in Australia's team as the third seamer as opposed to the 4th in a 5 man attack makes lot of sense. Not losing too much bowling wise (ie vs a davidson or lindwall) and you have a good batsman coming in at 8. Well done.

I'm also tempted to have Ponting opening the batting instead of Morris as well. Ponting, despite having batted behind a strong opening duo most of his career, has walked out to bat inside the first five overs a number of times so he should be able to open just fine although it would look bit out of place.

As for Miller, you'd have a hard time trying to convince him that he should be batting at 8

 

[Gob]

Personally would remove Border and add Lindwall. I am of firm belief that you need 4 specialist bowlers and one all-rounder in case one of the bowlers breaks down.

Conversely would have either Pollock or Proctor and add a specialist batsman. Both of them aren’t really necessary.

Ideally yes you'd like to have an all rounder but that great Aust side never had one but they went ok. Secret being the presence of McWarne who are extremely durable, can bowl long spells and being very economical to provide control

 

[Anil]

you should make the choices radio buttons and not check boxes...?

 

[Chrish]

Ideally yes you'd like to have an all rounder but that great Aust side never had one but they went ok. Secret being the presence of McWarne who are extremely durable, can bowl long spells and being very economical to provide control

Yeah but keep in mind they are bowling against another all time Xi.

you should make the choices radio buttons and not check boxes...?

Yeah, should have in a hindsight.

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

The all-time XI's for some teams are still in progress.

 

[Red]

Morris
Trumper
Bradman *
Smith
Miller/McCabe
Border/Harvey
Gilchrist +
Lindwall/Davidson
Warne
OReilly/Lillee
McGrath

Hutton
Hobbs
Hammond *
Compton
Barrington
Gower
Ames +
Larwood/Bedser
Trueman
Barnes
Laker/Underwood

Greenidge
Haynes
Richards
Lara
Worrell */ Headley
Sobers
Dujon +
Marshall
Garner
Ambrose
Gibbs

Richards
Smith *
Kallis
Pollock
DeVilliers +
Faulkner
Procter
Pollock
Tayfield
Steyn
Donald

Anwar
Mohammed
Younis
Yousuf
Inazamam
Miandad
Imran *
Wasim
Bari +
Waqar

Gavaskar
Sehwag/Merchant
Dravid
Tendulkar
Kohli
Hazare/Laxman
Dhoni * +
Kapil
Bedi/Jadeja/Ashwin
Srinath
Bumrah

Turner
Dempster
Williamson
Crowe
Taylor
Fleming *
McCullum +
Cairns
Hadlee
Vettori
Bond


Pakistan the one that would be under the radar good, imo

 

[Gowza]

Australia, then WI/RSA. Bradman the main reason Australia is ahead, Gilly the next reason. I’m assuming smith is left out for now until his career is done or at least closer to being done.

WI obviously with a plethora of pacers choices in an ATG team, I’d be going with a 4 prong pacer attack, they also have a lot of quality batsman.

RSA are more of a mystery, some may say unproven, which at test level at least for some of the RSA players is true but if you combine the proven players with the less or unproven players then they’ve got a quality team. Richards, procter, rice, VVDB, Steyn, Donald, tayfield, de villiers (Rabada in the future I’m sure) etc.

 

[mr_mister]

Bradman a massive tiebreaker. Without him statistically heaps of teams would be really similar

 

[silentstriker]

IMO Australia for sure. WI second. Although the WI pace attack at its height was the best, if you take all time pace attack of Australia, it’s just as good. Better spinner. And of course Bradman being the tiebreaker.

McGrath, Lillee, Lindwall and Miller is an unbelievably good pace attack, and you have Shane Warne. Gilchrist and Miller being great bats. I can’t think of a real weakness.

I think WI comfortably beat out RSA though, for second place.

 

[Burgey]

I often left Miller out and played Davo at eight as I’m a fan of the left arm variety, but the idea of Nugget at eight is horrendously unappealing to the opposition.

Trumper/ Simpson
Morris/ Lawry (terribly under rated)
Bradman
Ponting
Smith
Border*
Gilchrist+
Miller/ Davo
Warne
Lillee/ Lindwall
McGrath

12th: O’Reilly in case you want two spinners. If so you drop a middle order player and Miller or Gilly can bat six in a five man attack

Genuinely spoilt for choice

 

[Coronis]

Australia.

 

[ataraxia]

Morris
Trumper
Bradman *
Smith
Miller/McCabe
Border/Harvey
Gilchrist +
Lindwall/Davidson
Warne
OReilly/Lillee
McGrath

Hutton
Hobbs
Hammond *
Compton
Barrington
Gower
Ames +
Larwood/Bedser
Trueman
Barnes
Laker/Underwood

Greenidge
Haynes
Richards
Lara
Worrell */ Headley
Sobers
Dujon +
Marshall
Garner
Ambrose
Gibbs

Richards
Smith *
Kallis
Pollock
DeVilliers +
Faulkner
Procter
Pollock
Tayfield
Steyn
Donald

Anwar
Mohammed
Younis
Yousuf
Inazamam
Miandad
Imran *
Wasim
Bari +
Waqar

Gavaskar
Sehwag/Merchant
Dravid
Tendulkar
Kohli
Hazare/Laxman
Dhoni * +
Kapil
Bedi/Jadeja/Ashwin
Srinath
Bumrah

Turner
Dempster
Williamson
Crowe
Taylor
Fleming *
McCullum +
Cairns
Hadlee
Vettori
Bond


Pakistan the one that would be under the radar good, imo

Pak wouldn't be too good with 10 players IMO.

 

[mr_mister]

When Pak had that literal 3-4-5 in the mid 2000s were they unbeatable?

 

[Slifer]

I also believe that some ATG teams match up better with others (obviously) and will do better in certain countries than others. No other atg team is winning in Australia or India but imo WI will probably do better in Australia than most other teams. No team is winning in India but I'd rank the team results in India as: Australia/WI, RSA the rest. No team outside of Australia is winning in the WI. Only WI, Oz and maybe RSA can win in England. Pakistan are a wild card as to who can win there, any of the top 4 could probably win there but any of the top 4 can also lose in Pakistan. There's more but that's my .02 for now....

 

[ataraxia]

You know having Miller in Australia's team as the third seamer as opposed to the 4th in a 5 man attack makes lot of sense. Not losing too much bowling wise (ie vs a davidson or lindwall) and you have a good batsman coming in at 8. Well done.

No love for me doing the same a few days ago.