Red_Ink_Squid
Global Moderator
You've not done Lawry yet.
Agree Hayden has a case. Could rank him/Lawry/Simpson/Trumper as openers in pretty much any order justifiably. Khawaja maybe approaching that group but not sure he's quite there yet.
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All-time Australia XIs - A re-run
- Thread starter CricAddict
- Start date
Agree Hayden has a case. Could rank him/Lawry/Simpson/Trumper as openers in pretty much any order justifiably. Khawaja maybe approaching that group but not sure he's quite there yet.
Brook's side
International Regular
Move Damian Martyn and Dean Jones up and you can cut it down from 15 teams to 4 without it being a major loss.
trundler
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Hayden was never described as a corpse with pads on and the general point about the 60s lacking quality pace bowlers apply to him too. I don't want to get into the business of butchering numbers but the main criticism of Hayden is that he didn't face many great bowlers but it's not as it Simpson and Lawry covered themselves in glory against the one great pacer they faced (Trueman).You've not done Lawry yet.
Agree Hayden has a case. Could rank him/Lawry/Simpson/Trumper as openers in pretty much any order justifiably. Khawaja maybe approaching that group but not sure he's quite there yet.
Hayden may smell but the others reek. He's the most accomplished and dominant of an equally flawed lot. Though a third of Simpson's career being ignored does mystify me the most.
kyear2
International Coach
Agreed on Haydos, no argument there.
But Simpson was a more than solid opening batsman, arguable the greatest slip fielder ever and more than useful back up.leg spinner. With no clear no 2, he's the best all round option. No?
capt_Luffy
Cricketer Of The Year
There's a clear no 1 though, Victor Trumper. As a pure opener Simpson actually have strong case ahead of Hayden; and considering team balance, it gets trickier. Simpson was an ATG slip catcher and useful bowler while Hayden batted left handed.
BazBall21
International Captain
Lawry dominated Trueman on his first tour. FST got his own back in the home leg though.
Teuton
International Captain
This for me
Coronis
International Coach
I did make this point re: Khawaja relatively recently - I prefer not to finalise a ranking on a player until they’re done playing, but he’s definitely in the discussion and I might end up voting him in the second time.
Ideally for an Aussie team Smith suddenly goes on a tear at opener and you can have
Smith
Hayden
Bradman
Chappell
Ponting
Border
Ideally for an Aussie team Smith suddenly goes on a tear at opener and you can have
Smith
Hayden
Bradman
Chappell
Ponting
Border
kyear2
International Coach
So yes, good combination. Hayden and Simpson.
As I said, I don't consider players before the Great War.
I have a bit of an issue with this approach of picking different parts of the side separately. I think the order of the parts selected could affect the players selected... I'd first like to agree on a shape of each side before selecting players.
Is Miller going to be selected? Does he bat in the top 6 if he is?
If so, that means you could prefer Miller + 2 quicks + O'Reilly + Warne to a side with 4 genuine seam bowlers + one spinner. If that were the balance of the side, I'd pick one of Lindwall or Davidson ahead of one of McGrath and Lillee, as the balance of the side needs a number 8.
Whereas it might be people want 6 batsman and four bowlers, and Miller is vying for the number 8 position.
If that were the agreed on shape, then batsmen like Simpson and Waugh might be more popular as they can bowl a bit...
Having said that :
Simpson
Trumper
Bradman
Lindwall
McGrath
Is Miller going to be selected? Does he bat in the top 6 if he is?
If so, that means you could prefer Miller + 2 quicks + O'Reilly + Warne to a side with 4 genuine seam bowlers + one spinner. If that were the balance of the side, I'd pick one of Lindwall or Davidson ahead of one of McGrath and Lillee, as the balance of the side needs a number 8.
Whereas it might be people want 6 batsman and four bowlers, and Miller is vying for the number 8 position.
If that were the agreed on shape, then batsmen like Simpson and Waugh might be more popular as they can bowl a bit...
Having said that :
Simpson
Trumper
Bradman
Lindwall
McGrath
Fuller Pilch
Hall of Fame Member
I think the "2 best opening batsmen" as specified in the OP have been Hayden and Morris, but the two I'd pick in an ATG side are Trumper (overall greatness) and Simpson (gives leadership, slip fielding, and a decent 2nd spinner if only 1 specialist spinner is picked).
Bradman
McGrath
Lillee
Bradman
McGrath
Lillee
capt_Luffy
Cricketer Of The Year
And Lawry?? I thought you loved Lawry....
CricAddict
Cricketer Of The Year
Everyone will have their own preference of having 4 or 5 bowlers, #batdeep, #bowldeep and other variations for their side, so I am leaving it to each individual voter to decide that. At a high level, the make-up request from me will be for 2 openers, 4 MOB, 1 WK, 3 pacers and a spinner to complete the XI. You can either decide to choose one or more of the above as AR or a pure batsman/bowler and vote accordingly.
BazBall21
International Captain
**** it. Hard to look past Hayden's output but I'm gonna double down on Bill. Had a great England tour v Trueman/Statham and was very consistent outside SAF away.
CricAddict
Cricketer Of The Year
It is really heartening to see the response to the exercise. We had 18 voters for the first round and a total of 14 players got voted for the 5 positions the tally of which is as below.
The all-time greats Don Bradman and Glenn Mcgrath sweep the polls while Lillee and Simpson also get into the first side by a good margin. The big surprise is that Simpson was not voted in the first XI 6 years back while he was almost unanimous winner for the opener's position this time.
The all-time greats Don Bradman and Glenn Mcgrath sweep the polls while Lillee and Simpson also get into the first side by a good margin. The big surprise is that Simpson was not voted in the first XI 6 years back while he was almost unanimous winner for the opener's position this time.
| Total votes | 90 | |
| Total voters | 18 | |
| OP | Trumper | 5 |
| OP | Simpson | 14 |
| OP | Lawry | 4 |
| OP | Hayden | 8 |
| OP | **** it, Border | 1 |
| OP | Watson | 1 |
| OP | Katich | 1 |
| OP | Khawaja | 1 |
| OP | Morris | 1 |
| No 3 | Bradman | 18 |
| FB | McGrath | 18 |
| FB | Lillee | 12 |
| FB | Lindwall | 5 |
| FB | Davidson | 1 |
CricAddict
Cricketer Of The Year
Australia XI so far. I am adding signs at the end to indicate those who got promoted or demoted from the 2018 teams.
| Australia XI: |
1. RB Simpson |
| 2. ML Hayden |
| 3. DG Bradman * |
| 4. |
| 5. |
| 6. |
| 7. |
| 8. |
| 9. |
| 10. DK Lillee |
| 11. GD McGrath |
CricAddict
Cricketer Of The Year
Now please select..
1. the best spin bowling option
2. Numbers 4 and 5 in the batting order
1. the best spin bowling option
2. Numbers 4 and 5 in the batting order