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Building a 'Peak XI'

S

subshakerz

Hall of Fame Member
Let's check Smith's peak:

2014 vs SA: Great series, great attack, no issues.
2014 vs Pak in UAE: Good solid series
2014/15 vs India: Monster series against ordinary attack
2015 vs WI: Monster series against ordinary attack
2015 vs Eng: Very good away Ashes
2015/16 vs NZ: Good series at home, decent attack
2016 vs WI: Monster series against ordinary attack
2016 vs NZ: Great series decent attack away
2016 vs SL: Good series away
2016 vs SA: Good series against great attack at home
2016 vs Pak: Monster series against ordinary attack
2017 vs India: ATG series, great spin attack
2017 vs Bangladesh: Poor series but who cares
2017 vs Eng: Monster series, goodish attack at home
2018 vs SA: Poor series against great attack
2019 vs Eng: ATG series against goodish attack away

So Smith is much more of a mixed bag. Some highs, some lows, but mostly a lot of good series in between and plenty of monsters against poor bowling too.
 
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Slifer

Slifer

International Captain
subshakerz said:
Just to make it clearer, this is breakdown of Viv's peak:

76 series vs Aus: Lloyd as a masterstroke decides to take a struggling Viv mid-series and open with him to give him some confidence, and he ends the series with a 90 and hundred against Lillee and Thommo, starting his golden run.

76 against England: ATG series, can argue some flat pitches here but a good attack English attack.

76 vs Pak: Poor series albeit against a mid Pak attack with a raw Imran.

76 vs India at home: Great series against the best spinners of the era, albeit at home.

Break for WSC where he scores very well.

78 vs Aus at home: Only a couple of uneventful cameo innings against a Packer depleted Aus attack.

79/80 vs Aus: ATG series against Lillee et al

80 vs Eng: Great away series against top England attack with peak Botham.

80/81 vs Pak: Near ATG away series against peak Imran and Qadir

81 vs Eng: Another great home series against the same quality Eng bowling attack.

So from the above, there wasn't any lining his pockets with poor attacks, pretty much all of his major runscoring were against quality bowling.

Compared this to Smith and the difference is obvious.
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Outstanding!!!
 
capt_Luffy

capt_Luffy

Cricketer Of The Year
PlayerComparisons said:
peak Viv > peak Ponting > peak Smith imo

You could rank them in any order though
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Name me the best series of Ponting in his peak, akin to Smith (2017 India and 2019 England) and Viv (1976 England, 1979 Australia and 1980 Pakistan). What Ponting was was very consistently dominant in his peak, but then again he averaged 3 runs in 2001 India series, at the very middle of his peak.
 
OverratedSanity

OverratedSanity

Request Your Custom Title Now!
subshakerz said:
Let's check Smith's peak:

2014 vs SA: Great series, great attack, no issues.
2014 vs Pak in UAE: Good solid series
2014/15 vs India: Monster series against ordinary attack
2015 vs WI: Monster series against ordinary attack
2015 vs Eng: Very good away Ashes
2015/16 vs NZ: Good series at home, decent attack
2016 vs WI: Monster series against ordinary attack
2016 vs NZ: Great series decent attack away
2016 vs SL: Good series away
2016 vs SA: Good series against great attack at home
2016 vs Pak: Monster series against ordinary attack
2017 vs India: ATG series, great spin attack
2017 vs Bangladesh: Poor series but who cares
2017 vs Eng: Monster series, goodish attack at home
2018 vs SA: Poor series against great attack
2019 vs Eng: ATG series against goodish attack away

So Smith is much more of a mixed bag. Some highs, some lows, but mostly a lot of good series in between and plenty of monsters against poor bowling too.
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I don't see this as much of a mixed bag at all tbh. Very comparable to Viv's peak.
 
S

subshakerz

Hall of Fame Member
I think I have revised my Peak XI:

Hayden 01-04
Sutcliffe 24-31
Viv 76 -81
Smith 14-19
Waugh 93 - 97
Botham 77 - 81 / Sobers 61 to 68
Gilchrist - 99 to 04
Imran 80 - 88
Waqar 90 - 94
Marshall 83 - 88
Murali 2001- 2006

Sutcliffe averaged 70 in his early career and I cant find an opener to match that output except Hayden, who had 19 tons in 42 tests in his peak, I think they both deserves to be ahead of Gooch.

Steve Smith averaged the closest I think to Bradman in his peak, 77, needs to be there.

I almost dropped Sobers for Botham, who was the closest to a pure AR imaginable. This made way for Waqar who was a force of nature in his peak.

Sobers's bowling peak didn't coincide exactly with his batting dominance though he has a strong case too. I could drop Waugh for him, but man Waugh averaged freaking 74 while facing peak Wasim, Waqar, Ambrose, Donald, Pollock, Walsh in back to back series. That's insane and if not for his batting position I would have put him ahead of Viv as the best batting peak.
 
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capt_Luffy

capt_Luffy

Cricketer Of The Year
HouHsiaoHsien said:
Smith’s peak is one of the very best and amazing sure, and he obv deserves his place in this side. But Viv didn’t have any of the minnow bashing Smith did vs WI, Pak. So I rate Viv’s peak slightly ahead
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Imo, if we are including WSC, Viv is ahead. But without that, in his 5 year peak, he truly performed only in 76, 79 and 80. His output is quite low in 77 and 78, in the 7 matches he played in.
 
capt_Luffy

capt_Luffy

Cricketer Of The Year
subshakerz said:
I think I have revised my Peak XI:

Hayden 01-04
Sutcliffe 24-31
Viv 76 -81
Smith 14-19
Waugh 93 - 97
Botham 77 - 81 / Sobers 61 to 68
Gilchrist - 99 to 04
Imran 80 - 88
Waqar 90 - 94
Marshall 83 - 88
Murali 2001- 2006

Sutcliffe averaged 70 in his early career and I cant find an opener to match that output except Hayden, who had 19 tons in 42 tests in his peak, I think they both deserves to be ahead of Gooch.

Steve Smith averaged the closest I think to Bradman in his peak, 77, needs to be there.

I almost dropped Sobers for Botham, who was the closest to a pure AR imaginable. This made way for Waqar who was a force of nature in his peak.

Sobers's bowling peak didn't coincide exactly with his batting dominance though he has a strong case too. I could drop Waugh for him, but man Waugh averaged freaking 74 while facing peak Wasim, Waqar, Ambrose, Donald, Pollock, Walsh in back to back series. That's insane and if not for his batting position I would have put him ahead of Viv as the best batting peak.
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Are we really not including Don's peak?? Dude averaged close to a hundred in his peak......
 
H

HouHsiaoHsien

International Debutant
capt_Luffy said:
Imo, if we are including WSC, Viv is ahead. But without that, in his 5 year peak, he truly performed only in 76, 79 and 80. His output is quite low in 77 and 78, in the 7 matches he played in.
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he missed that period cause of WSC only, where he dominated strong attacks on poor surfaces, where the play was very professional. Soon logically you would know he was at his peak in 77 and 78, and the output thing doesn’t matter that much. But anyways you could include WSC, as the standard of cricket was higher than outside
 
Coronis

Coronis

International Coach
subshakerz said:
I think I have revised my Peak XI:

Hayden 01-04
Sutcliffe 24-31
Viv 76 -81
Smith 14-19
Waugh 93 - 97
Botham 77 - 81 / Sobers 61 to 68
Gilchrist - 99 to 04
Imran 80 - 88
Waqar 90 - 94
Marshall 83 - 88
Murali 2001- 2006

Sutcliffe averaged 70 in his early career and I cant find an opener to match that output except Hayden, who had 19 tons in 42 tests in his peak, I think they both deserves to be ahead of Gooch.

Steve Smith averaged the closest I think to Bradman in his peak, 77, needs to be there.

I almost dropped Sobers for Botham, who was the closest to a pure AR imaginable. This made way for Waqar who was a force of nature in his peak.

Sobers's bowling peak didn't coincide exactly with his batting dominance though he has a strong case too. I could drop Waugh for him, but man Waugh averaged freaking 74 while facing peak Wasim, Waqar, Ambrose, Donald, Pollock, Walsh in back to back series. That's insane and if not for his batting position I would have put him ahead of Viv as the best batting peak.
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Yeeee boi.

Lets include Barrington too tho.

stats.espncricinfo.com

Batting records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPNcricinfo.com

stats.espncricinfo.com stats.espncricinfo.com
 
P

PlayerComparisons

International Vice-Captain
capt_Luffy said:
Name me the best series of Ponting in his peak, akin to Smith (2017 India and 2019 England) and Viv (1976 England, 1979 Australia and 1980 Pakistan). What Ponting was was very consistently dominant in his peak, but then again he averaged 3 runs in 2001 India series, at the very middle of his peak.
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Yeah Ponting not having a series like that is a fair point. Apart from that though I think his peak was just as good as Smith’s.
 
capt_Luffy

capt_Luffy

Cricketer Of The Year
PlayerComparisons said:
Yeah Ponting not having a series like that is a fair point. Apart from that though I think his peak was just as good as Smith’s.
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Ponting mostly had big series vs mediocre bowlings and batting friendly pitches..... Imo, not just scoring big runs but tough runs are more important. Also failed hugely in his toughest tour in India at the middle of his peak, averaging 3.
 
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