CW Decides The XI of the Decade

[Coronis]

Big topic of recent discussion in the ATG thread so here we’ll have some consensus on who CW thinks is the greatest XI of the 2010’s.

We’ll start with opening batsmen

Pick any two of the following:

Azhar Ali | Alistair Cook | Dean Elgar | Dimuth Karunaratne | Tom Latham | Graeme Smith | Tamim Iqbal | Murali Vijay | David Warner

 

[Athlai]

Warner / Cook

Latham has a very very distant outside chance at throwing his name in if he scores a triple or something in his next few innings.

 

[jimmy101]

Cook
Azhar

 

[Prince EWS]

Cook and Azhar

 

[ataraxia]

Cook + Warner

Want Amla and Williamson to be options though.

 

[morgieb]

Cook, Warner.

Can see the argument for a specialist 3 opening instead of Warner I guess given the surplus of great middle order options, but end of the day I don't think any of them opened in anything other than an emergency. They weren't even Dravid like in that regard.

 

[Coronis]

Cook + Warner

Want Amla and Williamson to be options though.

They’re not openers, unless I’m mistaken?

 

[Prince EWS]

Cook, Warner.

Can see the argument for a specialist 3 opening instead of Warner I guess given the surplus of great middle order options, but end of the day I don't think any of them opened in anything other than an emergency. They weren't even Dravid like in that regard.

Pujara was straight up picked as an opener a couple of times. It's a long bow though.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Cook, Warner.

Azhar and Tamim for the second xi

 

[morgieb]

Stats for those interested:

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

 

[OverratedSanity]

Didnt realise azhar has only opened in 20 tests, thought it'd be close to double that.

 

[morgieb]

Didnt realise azhar has only opened in 20 tests, thought it'd be close to double that.

He's usually been their #3. Which given that they had the likes of Sohail and Alam averaging 50+ at FC level and not getting a look-in and significant troubles with their openers during the Misbah era is a waste IMO.

 

[ataraxia]

Same. Good average in those 20 though.

 

[sunilz]

Massive respect for all those posters who are picking Warner in their side and then will argue 4 to 5 pages later that why Jadeja/ Ashwin shouldn't be in the side.

 

[Prince EWS]

Didnt realise azhar has only opened in 20 tests, thought it'd be close to double that.

Yeah I'd usually avoid voting for someone who opened less than half the time unless I thought he was clearly better than the alternative opener (and Azhar v Warner is really close), but Azhar is a bit of a weird case because he'd become a regular opener in domestic cricket before his Test debut and also actually has a better record opening in Tests. He really should've been opening far more than he was, especially when you consider that batting him the middle order instead throughout his career has effectively meant they'd had to to pick spud opners like Masood, Shehzad, Jamshed, Taufeeq, Farhat, Manzoor etc ahead of much more promising middle order options like Fawad, and even Haris/Babar who are in the side now but spent periods out of it while Misbah and Younis were still playing.

Even when they were opening overseas with Hafeez and batting Azhar at 3 I always tended to think a bit of a reshuffle with Hafeez coming in against the older ball could've helped a bit.

 

[ataraxia]

Second XI hard, with Tamim, Smith, Latham, and Azhar in contention. I'd take Tamim and Azhar.

 

[jimmy101]

Admittedly I voted for Azhar simply because he isn't David Warner.

 

[Prince EWS]

Admittedly I voted for Azhar simply because he isn't David Warner.

Admittedly I voted against Warner simply because he isn't Azhar Ali.

I'd say we cancelled each other but we both voted for Azhar so it doesn't really work. Oh well, Azhar FTW.

 

[ataraxia]

Admittedly I voted for Azhar simply because he isn't David Warner.

Fair enough.

 

[Michaelf7777777]

Alistair Cook and Graeme Smith