The ATG Teams General arguing/discussing thread

[honestbharani]

Jobless Sunday afternoon

Lies

 

[AndrewB]

Jobless Sunday afternoon

A XI made up of players who played the same number of tests within their units with minimum of 20 tests

Openers
Virender Sehwag (104)
Mark Taylor (104) - (C)
Middle Order
Sir Don Bradman (52)
Dean Jones (52)
Ian Trott (52)
All-rounder and WK
Imran Khan (88)
Syed Kirmani (88) - (WK)
Fast Bowlers
Joel Garner (58)
Darren Gough (58)
Spinners
Abdul Qadir (67)
Bishan Bedi (67)

If Barnes/O'Reilly is barred as the pair of spinners, I'd probably go for Ashwin/Underwood, though I guess you might be excluding players for whom the numbers are likely to change.

I think I've looked before at the best XI who *all* played the same number of Tests: currently the most experienced XI you could pick would be a 79-Test XI, but unfortunately you have no options and have Hutton to open with one of Gatting, Graveney, Harvey, Hussey, Kanhai and Lamb; the other 5 making an overlong middle-order, Prior keeping wicket, and Flintoff/Stokes/Gibbs as your bowlers.

The next option is a 58-Test XI, which is more balanced:
G Gambhir, W Rhodes, ND McKenzie, JR Reid, Asif Iqbal, AW Greig, HAPW Jayawardene, N Wagner, D Gough, J Garner, BS Chandrasekhar. Syd Gregory as 12th man who has to step in if/when Wagner plays any more Tests.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

4 Tests has become the new mark of greatness so someone who likes to do such things should come up with an XI.

 

[AndrewB]

Ignoring current players:
BA Richards
KJ Arnott
JWH Makepeace
BL Irvine
L Ronchi
Abdul Kadir
BA Barnett+
GF Bissett
R Pollard
W Brearley
T Greenhough

You can probably improve this team but I don't think you're going to get a great XI.

 

[HookShot]

4 Tests has become the new mark of greatness so someone who likes to do such things should come up with an XI.

This South African team has only a handful of Tests between them and would beat most Test XIs from any era. And that’s without throwing in Mike Proctor who played 7 Tests.

01. Barry Richards
02. Jimmy Cook
03. Peter Kirsten
04. Ken McEwan
05. Clive Rice
06. Kevin McKenzie
07. Lee Irvine
08. Alan Kouri
09. Garth Le Roux
10. Rupert Hanley
11. Vincent van der Bill

 

[TheJediBrah]

This South African team has only a handful of Tests between them and would beat most Test XIs from any era. And that’s without throwing in Mike Proctor who played 7 Tests.

01. Barry Richards
02. Jimmy Cook
03. Peter Kirsten
04. Ken McEwan
05. Clive Rice
06. Kevin McKenzie
07. Lee Irvine
08. Alan Kouri
09. Garth Le Roux
10. Rupert Hanley
11. Vincent van der Bill

Don't know about most, wouldn't beat any of the really good ones. There have been a lot of crap teams though so maybe it would beat more than it wouldn't

 

[trundler]

I have a hard time believing South Africa collected an army of world beaters at precisely the same time they were barred from international cricket. It is very likely some of those blokes would've been found out at the highest level and even more likely that their peaks never would've coincided to form an ATG team. I believe Van Der Bijl was largely finished by the time Cook broke through, for example. It's a bit like saying Ponting/Clarke/Hussey/Smith is the greatest middle order ever fielded except those guys actually proved themselves at the highest level. Bit of nostalgia, bit of hindsight and a fuzzy chronology there.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Ponting/Clarke/Hussey/Smith is the greatest middle order ever fielded except those guys actually proved themselves at the highest level. Bit of nostalgia, bit of hindsight and a fuzzy chronology there.

Heh this is a geat example. For those not aware, the one time these 4 actually played together in a series they were terrible. Ponting and Clarke averaged like 20 for the series and Smith was **** probably averaged less. Hussey was good though.

 

[Gob]

Heh this is a geat example. For those not aware, the one time these 4 actually played together in a series they were terrible. Ponting and Clarke averaged like 20 for the series and Smith was **** probably averaged less. Hussey was good though.

Actually the whole team was

Watson
Hughes
Ponting
Clarke
Hussey
Smith
Haddin
Johnson
Harris
Siddle
Hilfenhause

Future generations will look back and scratch their heads as of how they got massacred by England

 

[Xix2565]

Peaks vs troughs.

 

[Nintendo]

Actually the whole team was

Watson
Hughes
Ponting
Clarke
Hussey
Smith
Haddin
Johnson
Harris
Siddle
Hilfenhause

Future generations will look back and scratch their heads as of how they got massacred by England

TBF that england unit had some great players in it and beat india in india in the same window of time.

 

[srbhkshk]

TBF that england unit had some great players in it and beat india in india in the same window of time.

well India were going through some sort of a similar version of that very thing at that time. We got destroyed with a batting order of Sehwag - Gambhir - Dravid - Tendulkar - Laxman - Dhoni - Random Guy

 

[trundler]

well India were going through some sort of a similar version of that very thing at that time. We got destroyed with a batting order of Sehwag - Gambhir - Dravid - Tendulkar - Laxman - Dhoni - Random Guy

A bowling version of this would be Wasim, Waqar, Shoaib, Saqlain.

 

[Coronis]

Context is a very important thing.

 

[honestbharani]

well India were going through some sort of a similar version of that very thing at that time. We got destroyed with a batting order of Sehwag - Gambhir - Dravid - Tendulkar - Laxman - Dhoni - Random Guy

*cries in random guy was Ashwin. *

Actually Dravid and Laxman were not there...

It was

Gambhir
Sehwag
Pujara
Sachin
Virat
Raina (?)
MSD
Ashwin
Zaheer
Ishant
Ojha

 

[AndrewB]

The West Indies in 1957 had Worrell, Weekes, Walcott, Sobers and Kanhai. Their scores in the series were 474, 72-7, 127, 261, 372, 367, 142, 132, 89, 86. Even in the 367, they were 89-5 and were rescued by Smith, Atkinson and Goddard.

 

[bhejafry]

A gun middle order .... as is:

Richards
Kohli
Tendulkar
Lara

Don't think Kohli falls in the same league as Richards (Viv or Barry?), Tendulkar and Lara...

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Actually the whole team was

Watson
Hughes
Ponting
Clarke
Hussey
Smith
Haddin
Johnson
Harris
Siddle
Hilfenhause

Future generations will look back and scratch their heads as of how they got massacred by England

Blame Watto

 

[TheJediBrah]

Actually the whole team was

Watson
Hughes
Ponting
Clarke
Hussey
Smith
Haddin
Johnson
Harris
Siddle
Hilfenhause

Future generations will look back and scratch their heads as of how they got massacred by England

Did Hughes play a game? Thought it was Katich for most of the series

 

[Flem274*]

I have a hard time believing South Africa collected an army of world beaters at precisely the same time they were barred from international cricket. It is very likely some of those blokes would've been found out at the highest level and even more likely that their peaks never would've coincided to form an ATG team. I believe Van Der Bijl was largely finished by the time Cook broke through, for example. It's a bit like saying Ponting/Clarke/Hussey/Smith is the greatest middle order ever fielded except those guys actually proved themselves at the highest level. Bit of nostalgia, bit of hindsight and a fuzzy chronology there.

agreed. along with this, teams outside the cauldron of international cricket tend to be worse. in domestic cricket there is always someone to exploit.

we see it all the time in t20. star studded franchises still can't bring the intensity of international sides and i remember back in the day they had to rig the champions league with ipl spam (player theft wasn't enough apparently).