One player you wish he had played for your team?

[karan_fromthestands]

Andrew Hall, South Africa didn't need him and the Indian team would have used him as a premier all-rounder in test cricket. His batting was useful and his bowling was tidy AF, could have been a good support for our spinners and would have added some stability to our pace bowling unit which was on and off.

 

[honestbharani]

I didn't play Test cricket in 2004

maybe coz you were too hammered.

 

[The Sean]

Up until McWarne's retirement....I'm honestly not sure of how you would significantly improve it. So maybe just get the best available cricketer, I guess

Kallis surely.

Yeah, has to be - replace Damien Martyn, for example (sorry Marto), with Kallis and I reckon that team goes from being arguably the greatest ever to unquestionably so.

Before the inevitable response comes in, yes you could do a similar thing for the West Indies teams of the 1980s by adding one of the legendary all-round quartet of that generation to their team.

 

[The Sean]

Even with Clarke and Hussey?

One kind Australia doesn't produce enough is all-rounders. Try Ben Stokes, will fit right in

It's a curiosity that for as long as most of us can remember, Australia has struggled to produce genuinely top class all-rounders (Shane Watson is probably as close as we've come since the 1960s), and yet for the first 80 or so years of Test cricket one of Australia's great strengths was their production line such that they can and did on occasion even field multiple outstanding all-rounders in the same team.

 

[The Sean]

Yeah, has to be - replace Damien Martyn, for example (sorry Marto), with Kallis and I reckon that team goes from being arguably the greatest ever to unquestionably so.

Before the inevitable response comes in, yes you could do a similar thing for the West Indies teams of the 1980s by adding one of the legendary all-round quartet of that generation to their team.

The other obvious pick for that early 2000s Australian team is Harbhajan. Not because he would have improved the team itself, but because then at least the Australian batsmen wouldn't have had to face him and Punter might have made some ****ing runs in India.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Andrew Hall, South Africa didn't need him and the Indian team would have used him as a premier all-rounder in test cricket. His batting was useful and his bowling was tidy AF, could have been a good support for our spinners and would have added some stability to our pace bowling unit which was on and off.

wow with all the South African all-rounders to choose from you go for Andrew Hall

seriously though I watched that whole days play when he opened against India and made 78* in the day, guy had guts

 

[karan_fromthestands]

wow with all the South African all-rounders to choose from you go for Andrew Hall

seriously though I watched that whole days play when he opened against India and made 78* in the day, guy had guts

I'd pick Hall for the period when SRT, Dravid, Laxman, Sehwag,etc. were doing exceptionally well as a batting unit.

We had guys who could lead the attack - Zak, Srinath, even Ishant for a brief period
and spinners who could turn the game on its head - Kumble and Bhajji

Just needed a tight bowling all-rounder for SENA to glue everything together and share some responsibility when one of our main bowlers wouldn't click.

 

[Starfighter]

I can't say I've ever, ever seen someone say they wanted Andrew Hall in their team before.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Just needed a tight bowling all-rounder for SENA to glue everything together and share some responsibility when one of our main bowlers wouldn't click.

And the best you could think of was Andrew Hall? What about, I don't know, Shaun Pollock?

 

[karan_fromthestands]

And the best you could think of was Andrew Hall? What about, I don't know, Shaun Pollock?

It's just a criteria I follow, to only pick players that are useless to their home teams in such discussions. For e.g. Romesh Powar would have easily played 60-70 tests if he was playing for SA, while he was not of much use for us.

Btw, I've seen him bowl live in a net session, I've never seen anyone give so much flight to the ball, it hung in the air forever before dipping sharply in the end. He bowled in the same fashion in T20s too.

 

[Migara]

If we have to chart out the classic gaps and weaknesses for each team the past two decades:

Pakistan: Good opener, strong captain

India: Used to be a matchwinning pace bowler, but they have that covered recently. I think a pace bowling all-rounder who is clutch lower in the order really would balance out the side.

Aus: Allrounder (lets see how good Green turns out to be)

Sri Lanka: World class pacer

Eng/NZ/SA: Worldclass spinner

WI: World class pacer, consistent top order batsman

At this point of time, we would settle for Murali or Herath

 

[honestbharani]

we would settle for Murali

Understatement, much?