Cricketweb decides- England's all time ODI XI

[Howe_zat]

Collingwood is a great shout given the rest of the side that's been picked. Could also go for KP or Morgan given that Root can also fill in as 6th bowler. Collingwood and Morgan are both world tournament winning captains, and we don't really have a captain yet so I'd plump for one of them.

Talking up Fairbrother is so strange. Had a brief run as a top 10 ranked ODI bat and that's it. One hundred and 16 fifties is a decent record, sure, but it's much more Ravi Bopara than MS Dhoni. I tried to look up how much of an international force he was in his peak years (90-95) and it turns out he isn't in the top 50 ODI run scorers for that time. Probably the third or fourth best player in the team during that period after Hick and Lamb, possibly Robin Smith.

 

[mr_mister]

He was kind of an innovater in his approach to innings right? A bevan/dhoni type finisher before they existed? Like a 5-6 who could stall a collapse than up the ante when needed

His one ton was a pretty impressive example of guiding a team to victory, against a pretty solid Windies line up. Was probably considerd an ATG ODI innings at the time when peeling off a run a ball ton in a chase wasn't done every other match

http://www.howstat.com/cricket/Statistics/Matches/MatchScorecard_ODI.asp?MatchCode=0739

The innings is on YouTube and is a treat to watch. The commentators thought a superstar had arrived that day. Played Ambrose, Walsh and Marshall with ease.

His innings in the '92 final could have been one of the best ever if he wasn't dismissed. And then he got a couple more 60s against the world champions Pakistan later that year

in the '99 tri series he played several clutch knocks against the 2 finalists from the previous WC. He averaged 60+ over the 10 match tournament

His overall average is close to 40 back when that was great and he was usually always vsing ATG bowlers. The one ton thing, well tons were hard to come by for number 5s back then.


I do take your point though, 75 games is such a tiny career for an ODI player really. I probably do overrate him a tad, Hick probably was better, but I think Fairbrother was a bit of a pioneer as an ODI specialist batsman

 

[vcs]

He also played very well when England toured India in '93 and drew the ODI series 3-3, most of my memories of him are from that tour.

 

[vcs]

England didn't prioritize ODI cricket much in the '90s from what I can recall. Hick, Smith and Fairbrother would have been more highly regarded if they'd been born in Asia and played in countless Singer/Coca Cola/Pepsi Tri-series.

 

[Tom Flint]

I can't get my head around some of these names being bandied about while there is no spot for kp lol

 

[OverratedSanity]

I seem to remember Wasim speaking very highly of fairbrother's odi batting several times.

 

[mr_mister]

Oh and Howe, though he wasn't in the top 50 run scorers for the 90-95 period, I wouldn't be surprised if he was in the top 10 for both batting average and strike rate. He didn't get to play enough cricket for whatever reason for aggregate based records (runs, 100+ scores)

 

[Flem274*]

paul collingwood is a ****ing great name to put in the mix.

i think my english side would look a lot different to this one tho

 

[AndrewB]

Collingwood is a great shout given the rest of the side that's been picked. Could also go for KP or Morgan given that Root can also fill in as 6th bowler. Collingwood and Morgan are both world tournament winning captains, and we don't really have a captain yet so I'd plump for one of them.

Talking up Fairbrother is so strange. Had a brief run as a top 10 ranked ODI bat and that's it. One hundred and 16 fifties is a decent record, sure, but it's much more Ravi Bopara than MS Dhoni. I tried to look up how much of an international force he was in his peak years (90-95) and it turns out he isn't in the top 50 ODI run scorers for that time. Probably the third or fourth best player in the team during that period after Hick and Lamb, possibly Robin Smith.

In the 5 years 1991-95, their figures were

Hick 1571 @ 39.27, SR 74.98
Smith 1431 @ 43.36, SR 70.07
Fairbrother 1109 @ 44.36, SR 78.54
Lamb 516 @ 30.35, SR 82.56 (he didn't play after 1992).

Not saying he's any kind of ATG, but I can't see any reason to rank him behind Hick, Lamb or Smith in that era.

 

[Red]

Stokes thru fairly comfortably to complete what is actually a pretty exciting combo. Guessing the biggest name left out is KP, but that's the nature of all time selections.

Strong representation from the recent WC win with both openers, Root, Stokes and Buttler getting in. Nice nod to earlier days with Gough, Lamb, Gough and Willis. England have never been a great ODI combo but I think this team would gel well together.


CW's ATG England ODI XI

Jason Roy
Jonny Bairstow
Joe Root
Allan Lamb
Andrew Flintoff
Ben Stokes
Jos Buttler +
Ian Botham
Graeme Swann
Darren Gough
Bob Willis

 

[Red]

Just for the kicks post up your full second XI assuming you can't use the first XI here.

I'll start another one of these for Aust tomorrow. Thanks for participating.

 

[NUFAN]

England A XI
01 Nick Knight
02 Marcus Trescothick
03 David Gower
04 Kevin Pietersen
05 Eoin Morgan
06 Paul Collingwood
07 Craig Kieswetter
08 Chris Woakes
09 Adil Rashid
10 Liam Plunkett
11 James Anderson

England B XI
01 Dennis Amiss
02 Alec Stewart
03 Jonathan Trott
04 Robin Smith
05 Greaeme Hick
06 Neil Fairbrother
07 Moeen Ali
08 Phil De Freitas
09 Jofra Archer
10 Steve Finn
11 Derek Underwood

 

[Starfighter]

I picked Steve Finn to be the next big thing in 2012. Ouch.

 

[Howe_zat]

He was a very good ODI bowler for a bit, and had that memorable comeback in 2015. Think he has been harshly judged.

Definitely finished as an international prospect now though.

 

[AndrewB]

Gower is a curious case: I think it's generally known that he had a high peak (ranked 2nd in the world in 1983) in the middle of a decent but not amazing career (strike rate 75, average 30), but I hadn't realised until checking now just how sharp the peak was.

Before 1983, his average was 29, SR 71.
In 1983, his average was 63, SR 86 (and he was the first batsman to score 1000 ODI runs in a calendar year).
After 1983, his average was 21, SR 70.

But if you look at his figures against New Zealand, the peak is even more remarkable:
In 1983, he had 10 innings against NZ (2 not outs) and scored 694 runs (3x100, 3x50) at an average of 86.75, and a strike rate of 91.55.
In all other years combined, he had 14 innings against NZ and scored 180 runs (1x50) at an average of 12.85, and a strike rate of 55.21.

What's even odder is that England lost 7 of the 10 games against NZ in 1983 (and won 8 of the 14 in the other years). In those 7 matches Gower's strike rate was slightly down (86.88), but his average was 99.40!

 

[AndrewB]

Surely Gooch should be in the B XI, if not the A XI.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

Although I think KP is a king size prat he should surely be the first middle order on the list.