Ravi Bopara

[RossTaylorsBox]

Picking Akram over Kohli as skip is a great troll

 

[Chubb]

Many thought Ravi would be what Moeen Ali became, the headline British Asian player. Not sure his lack of success in International cricket was because he didn’t work hard enough or anything like that, he may have just been in that space between a good first class player and an international regular. And eventually when England didn’t work out he focused on earning one day and t20 money and you can’t really blame him for that.

 

[mr_mister]

He was on track to be an ATG but ran into the mighty Ben Hilfenhaus

 

[sledger]

I always liked Ravi but he was one of the (many) players England have experimented with over the years who self-evidently was not of an international standard

 

[Bijed]

>"all-time" XI
>every single player debuted between 1985 and 2011

Tbf I can sort of imagine that if you're someone who plays a sport to a very high standard (or, in this case, if you're Ravi Bopara ), contemporary players who are genuinely ATG or near to might leave just that much more of an impression on you

 

[Prince EWS]

Tbf I can sort of imagine that if you're someone who plays a sport to a very high standard (or, in this case, if you're Ravi Bopara ), contemporary players who are genuinely ATG or near to might leave just that much more of an impression on you

Yeah I think that's fine, but you shouldn't call it an all-time XI if that's what you're doing.

 

[Bijed]

Yeah I think that's fine, but you shouldn't call it an all-time XI if that's what you're doing.

I was meaning more that he genuinely considers it at All-Time XI, it's that he's strongly and presumably unconciously biased towards players he's seen/played with and so has picked a team of 11 gun players that he's seen a lot of without realising that's what he's doing.

That said, it's still hard to square the lack of Bradman in the side, but I'm also wondering if the question was put to him as more of an "Eleven players you'd love to see play together" sort of thing.

I'm also wondering why I'm devoting so much time to this

 

[Lillian Thomson]

There's a couple on here who think anything before they were born doesn't count. Maybe Ravi is the same.

 

[Chubb]

I always liked Ravi but he was one of the (many) players England have experimented with over the years who self-evidently was not of an international standard

I don't think it was self-evident. He played some excellent innings in one day internationals early in his career. The three test tons have been written off, rightly given the context of that series, but he wasn't really exposed until the 2009 Ashes and that wasn't a great series for batting for anyone. They tried him, it went well for a while and then he got worked out and wasn't good enough, but it wasn't like he came into the side and looked like he was never going to buy a run. It happens for many, many players from all nations.