Would take the same XI, with Taylor replacing Simmo. I'm not quite as old as Burgey.Simpson
Hayden
Ponting
Chappell, G
Border
Waugh, S/ Walters
Gilchrist
Warne
Thomson/ Gillespie
Lillee
McGrath
Fmd, I'll take that for an XI.
Interesting choice. Mark Richardson?New Zealand
1.Adam Parore+
2.Brendon McCullum
3.Stephen Fleming*
4. Martin Crowe
5.Ross Taylor
6.Nathan Astle
7.Chris Cairns
8.Jacob Oram
9.Daniel Vettori
10.Shane Bond
11.Danny Morrison
England
Gooch
Cook
Thorpe
Pietersen
Gower
Stewart
Botham
Flintoff
Swann
Anderson
Willis
All fair points, but none of Underwood, Knott or Boycott were considerations for me because I'm too young to remember seeing them in Test cricket. Only just, mind.Interesting to return to this thread after England's last 2-3 years.
Swann vs Underwood is such an interesting call. Obviously the former brings more to the side in terms of batting and fielding, but Underwood is almost an article of faith to my generation. Underwood did what he did without DRS of course, whereas Swann doesn't have the massive benefit of uncovered pitches. I really couldn't call it either way.
I'm still not completely convinced by Cook. Take out his 766 in Australia, and he's OK rather than a world beater. Maybe it's easier for me to say that as I'm old enough to include Boycott. Mind you, I thought you nere too.
Number 3's a problem, isn't it. I put Vaughan there when we did this back in 2007. I suspect that in a couple of years we'll all be picking Trott and there won't be any discussion. Obviously Thorpe never batted at 3, although I'd have him in the side lower down the order. Which probably means that Gower & KP are fighting over one place in my side.
Was Stewart's batting as a keeper good enough to justify selection? I reckon not, although I was tempted to play him solely as an opening batsman. If we're picking Botham at his absolute peak, then he'd move up to 6 and Knott comes in at 7. Or even Prior, if people are too young to remember Knott.
Agreed about Willis and Anderson. Snow was slightly past his best when I saw him. Maybe Flintoff, if we're basing selections on players' absolute peak for a smallish number of years. Obviously his batting is a huge bonus at 8.
Parore is my first choice wicket keeper. Not much a fan of Mark Richardson.Interesting choice. Mark Richardson?
Rigor is the best New Zealand opener since John Wright tbh, and a superior batsman to Parore.Parore is my first choice wicket keeper. Not much a fan of Mark Richardson.
I'm going to guess that rvd never saw Gooch. Ditto Flem. Maybe KingKallis too, or perhaps he only saw a year or so of Gooch and thought it wasn't enough to include him. That's it, isn't it?I'm surprised to see people picking Cook over Gooch, considering that Gooch had his best years in the early 90s when more people would have seen him.
Yeah, strongly agree.Rigor is the best New Zealand opener since John Wright tbh, and a superior batsman to Parore.
Not sure how a test opener who averaged mid-forties loses out to a keeper batting seven spots too high.
Interesting choice - one magnificent knock aside, I see him as a bit of an underachiever at Test level.Bryan Young
PakistanPakistan:
Saeed Anwar
Azhar Ali
Younis Khan
Inzamam ul Haq
Mohammad Yousuf
Misbah ul Haq (c)
Moin Khan (wk)
Wasim Akram
Saqlain Mushtaq
Waqar Younis
Shoaib Akhtar/Mohammad Asif (really tough to decide)