Playing Eleven!!!!

[Naumaan]

Now the squads have been selected, what playing 11 you would choose for your team, from the squad?

 

[Naumaan]

i will choose these for Pakistan
1. Kamran Akmal
2. Salman Butt
3. Younis Khan
4. Shoaib Malik
5. Misbah Ul Haq
6. Shahid Afridi
7. Sohail Tanveer
8. Yasir Arafat / Fawad Alam
9. Umer Gul
10. Rao Iftikhar Anjum
11. Saeed Ajmal
i guess this will offer lots of bowling options & Pakistan have no other good batsman so i chose a couple of extra bowlers LOL

 

[rivera213]

Possibly controversial in some aspects, but:

Key
Bopara
Pietersen
Napier
Morgan
Mascarenhas
Collingwood (c)
Swann
Rashid
Broad
Foster (wk)


EDIT- I'll explain my choices:

Broad & Mascaraenhas opening the bowling, Napier, Collingwood, Swann & Rashid to bowl during the middle period overs which historically favour pace being taken off the ball.

Batting down to No. 10 which we'll need.

Pretty balanced team, not the best but not the worst.

 

[King Pietersen]

Foster at 11 is incredibly harsh.

Bopara
Shah
Pietersen
Morgan
Collingwood
Napier
Mascheranas
Foster
Rashid/Anderson
Broad
Swann

 

[Prince EWS]

I'm actually getting really keen on always picking five genuine frontline bowlers in this format, providing the top 6 is reasonably capable.

Here's some stats on Twenty20 Internationals involving the "big 8" teams.

The number seven batsman...

* only has to bat 79% of the time.
* contributes 11.15 runs per game.
* has only passed 50 twice in 55 Twenty20 Internationals - once when New Zealand were reduced to 64/5 and once when New Zealand were reduced to 31/5.

Basically, it's very much a bit-part role. I actually think it's more similar to the #8/9 ODI role than anything else. This was counter-balanaced in early Twenty20 games by the fact that part-time spinners often used to be able to roll out four cheap overs without the batsmen realising but as the format has evolved, we've seen less and less and less of this. Batting teams are now really successfully targeting the part-time bowlers, particularly when they know at the start of the innings that they're going to have to bowl a certain number of overs between them.

I'm not saying there's no value in having a #7 that can bat, but I'm definitely starting to believe that the fifth bowler in Twenty20 cricket is far, far more important than the seventh batsman. As such, I'd have absolutely no qualms at all with seeing someone like Swann, Johnson, Mills or even Harbhajan come out at 7.

Hence, my Australian team from the squad available:

1. Warner
2. Haddin
3. Ponting
4. Watson
5. Symonds
6. M Hussey
7. Johnson
8. Lee
9. Hauritz
10. Bracken
11. Siddle

The counter-argument to this is the fact that Dave Hussey actually has a really good Twenty20 bowling record - he's basically become a frontline bowler for Victoria. I'm still pretty sceptical about him though so I'd feel more comfortable with the above. If Watto was available to bowl I'd bring Dussey in for Siddle or Hauritz.

 

[rivera213]

Foster at 11 is incredibly harsh.

Bopara
Shah
Pietersen
Morgan
Collingwood
Napier
Mascheranas
Foster
Rashid/Anderson
Broad
Swann

Well in T20, the line-ups change so often. You could move everyone around from Collingwood and lower tbh.

The top 6 I'd keep the same unless in need of a couple of overs slog earlier on, but the bottom 5 can be moved around.

 

[S.P. Fleming]

Ive sorta lost touch with English cricket in the last few months, does it look as though Morgan and Napier will both get a good go?

It was just a couple of months ago that Napier was carving it up for Wellington!

 

[Naumaan]

I'm actually getting really keen on always picking five genuine frontline bowlers in this format, providing the top 6 is reasonably capable.

Here's some stats on Twenty20 Internationals involving the "big 8" teams.

The number seven batsman...

* only has to bat 79% of the time.
* contributes 11.15 runs per game.
* has only passed 50 twice in 55 Twenty20 Internationals - once when New Zealand were reduced to 64/5 and once when New Zealand were reduced to 31/5.

Basically, it's very much a bit-part role. I actually think it's more similar to the #8/9 ODI role than anything else. This was counter-balanaced in early Twenty20 games by the fact that part-time spinners often used to be able to roll out four cheap overs without the batsmen realising but as the format has evolved, we've seen less and less and less of this. Batting teams are now really successfully targeting the part-time bowlers, particularly when they know at the start of the innings that they're going to have to bowl a certain number of overs between them.

I'm not saying there's no value in having a #7 that can bat, but I'm definitely starting to believe that the fifth bowler in Twenty20 cricket is far, far more important than the seventh batsman. As such, I'd have absolutely no qualms at all with seeing someone like Swann, Johnson, Mills or even Harbhajan come out at 7.

Hence, my Australian team from the squad available:

1. Warner
2. Haddin
3. Ponting
4. Watson
5. Symonds
6. M Hussey
7. Johnson
8. Lee
9. Hauritz
10. Bracken
11. Siddle

The counter-argument to this is the fact that Dave Hussey actually has a really good Twenty20 bowling record - he's basically become a frontline bowler for Victoria. I'm still pretty sceptical about him though so I'd feel more comfortable with the above. If Watto was available to bowl I'd bring Dussey in for Siddle or Hauritz.

Agreed with your Australian eleven, except i guess David Hussy may play in place of Ricky Ponting

 

[Naumaan]

Whereas i really would love to kick Salman Butt, Ahmed Shehzad, Younis khan & Rao out of the Pakistani playing XI
but 've no choice lol

 

[rivera213]

Ive sorta lost touch with English cricket in the last few months, does it look as though Morgan and Napier will both get a good go?

It was just a couple of months ago that Napier was carving it up for Wellington!

Napier hasn't had that good a start to the seaons so probably not for him- though I'd have him ahead of Luke Wright who is the emperor's new clothes of English cricket.

Morgan will probably be in the XI.

 

[Beamer]

My Windies Starting XI (which is usually wrong as I posess something our team management/selectors do not..... common sense).

Chris Gayle (c)
Andre Fletcher
Ramnaresh Sarwan
Shivnarine Chanderpaul
Dwayne Bravo
Denesh Ramdin (wk, vc)
Kieron Pollard
Darren Sammy - though after his performance today he may be replaced by Bernard Jr
Jerome Taylor
Sulieman Benn
Fidel Edwards

 

[ret]

Ind XI

- Gambhir
- Sehwag
- Raina
- Rohit
- YP
- Yuvi
- Dhoni
- IP / Praveen
- Bhajji / Ojha
- Zak / Ishant
- RP

YP, UV, Rohit, Raina and Sehwag are pretty useful as a combination as the 5th bowler and can even bowl 6-8 overs amongst them, if one or two of them are having a good day with the ball

Have kept YP at 5 because he looks to get going from ball 1 .... if he clicks then India will get a big total, and if he fails then India still has UV and Dhoni to come

 

[pietersenrocks]

Possibly controversial in some aspects, but:

Key
Bopara
Pietersen
Napier
Morgan
Mascarenhas
Collingwood (c)
Swann
Rashid
Broad
Foster (wk)


EDIT- I'll explain my choices:

Broad & Mascaraenhas opening the bowling, Napier, Collingwood, Swann & Rashid to bowl during the middle period overs which historically favour pace being taken off the ball.

Batting down to No. 10 which we'll need.

Pretty balanced team, not the best but not the worst.

I don't think there is a need to have batting down to No.10

Anderson/Sidebottom needs to play, and why would you drop Shah?

 

[rivera213]

I don't think there is a need to have batting down to No.10

There is with us. Lol

Anderson/Sidebottom needs to play, and why would you drop Shah?

I don't think there is need for an average fast-medium swing bowler (with the white ball I mean, since both swing the red ball very well) in T20. Neither have shown to be good in T20 (Anderson especially who has 12wkts @ 28.41, 8.11eco and 21sr in 11 matches).

Medium, Medium-Fast and Spin bowlers are the ideal type of bowlers in this format (generally if they don't take wickets, they don't get pasted) and I have 5 bowlers who fit into those categories in my XI plus the pace of Broad (and from the speed gun today on Fidel Edwards who bowled as fast as he normally does, Broad CAN bowl 90mph+ and up to 93mph).

I'd drop Shah because he hasn't impressed me that much with his batting and is a complete liability between the wickets. He could very easily run someone out to lose the game for us and he doesn't have Inzamam level of batting skill to make up for it.

 

[Cruxdude]

Whereas i really would love to kick Salman Butt, Ahmed Shehzad, Younis khan & Rao out of the Pakistani playing XI
but 've no choice lol

I am really surprised at Rao playing so many matches for Pakistan. He is the exact anti-thesis for what a pakistani fast bowler should look like. Also I thought Fawad Alam was a player good enough to get into the team. Don't understand why he is not playing.

 

[pietersenrocks]

I am really surprised at Rao playing so many matches for Pakistan. He is the exact anti-thesis for what a pakistani fast bowler should look like. Also I thought Fawad Alam was a player good enough to get into the team. Don't understand why he is not playing.

He sure is a better fielder than many others. The specialist spinner they played against India in the warm-up doesn't look any better.

 

[Naumaan]

I am really surprised at Rao playing so many matches for Pakistan. He is the exact anti-thesis for what a pakistani fast bowler should look like. Also I thought Fawad Alam was a player good enough to get into the team. Don't understand why he is not playing.

FAWAD ALAM is good enough?????????
did you see domestic cricket????????
there are many better players than him, but not picked
i don't want to comment on why was he picked
but poor selection
he was supposed to be picked in the side on the basis of he scored a 50 against SKT stallions at twenty20 domestic final 2 years ago, & the worst thign was he played so slowly that his team lost easily lol
but real reason i won't say here

 

[Naumaan]

I am really surprised at Rao playing so many matches for Pakistan. He is the exact anti-thesis for what a pakistani fast bowler should look like. Also I thought Fawad Alam was a player good enough to get into the team. Don't understand why he is not playing.

RAO doesn't look like other Pakistani fast bowlers, yes true but they have no other choice
they didn't have much of home cricket to test guys like MUHAMMAD TALHA & MUHAMMAD AMIR
both seriously quick

 

[Naumaan]

He sure is a better fielder than many others. The specialist spinner they played against India in the warm-up doesn't look any better.

you mean SAEED AJMAL????????

 

[pietersenrocks]

you mean SAEED AJMAL????????

Yeah, whose action is Saqlain look-a-like.

I don't think he'll have much impact in the tournament.

BTW: I was talking abt Fawad Alam's fielding.