The only assertions that have been silly in this thread have been yours. And what the hell is this era adjusted? Do you mean your Aussie bias adjusted as I am sure that is just a number you are picking off from nowhere. MSD > Bevan as an ODI batsman. Gilly does not make it to an ATG ODI XI and Bevan is very close to missing out because of the balance any opener + Dhoni can bring to the table. Also, are we to just forget that while Gilly was an excellent keeper, Dhoni has him beat as an ODI keeper, especially given there will be about 10-15 overs of spin from the ATG ODI XI bowling line up?
Dhoni is definitely not better than Bevan as an ODI batsman. Bevan accomplished as much as Dhoni statistically in a far more difficult batting era against far superior bowling attacks.
Dhoni was not any better than Gilchrist as ODI keeper. Are you forgetting he kept to quality spinners for literally his entire time as keeper? Dhoni is more unproven keeping to quicks than Gilly is keeping to spinners.
The thing is, you need to fit a keeper into an ATG side. Your choices are basically Gilchrist or Dhoni, though in recent times you might consider Buttler as an outside chance.
Playing Gilchrist gives you an aggressive opener who is going to either win you a game, set up the game or get out of the way for the middle order. Gilchrist was the best aggressive opener of his era - the era where the formula for winning was to have both an aggressive opener and a high averaging anchor (Tendulkar was the exception to the rule since he combined both).
Playing Dhoni gives you a great middle order safety net who could chase virtually any total down.
Pitching Buttler gives you the fastest scorer in history who is less reliable than Dhoni and a worse keeper than the other two.
Who you pick depends as much on what you need as anything else. An argument can be made for any of the three.
If you pick Dhoni, you can pick Jayasuriya to partner him which gives you a serious bowling option or you can pick a specialist batsman.
The argument here is that you would pick Rohit. But I don't think he'd fit the balance of the side at all. He would chew up way too many balls that the superior batsmen could use. I would argue that you're better off picking Roy who can bat more aggressively.
In fact, given the lack of bowling options amongst the best middle order batsmen, I'd argue you're best of with an all rounder - Jayasuriya or at a pinch Watson. But not Rohit.
