What is your ranking of all Country's ATG XIs?

[bagapath]

Lillee McGrath Lindwall Miller = Steyn Donald Pollock Kallis = Marshall Ambrose Garner Sobers = Trueman Anderson Barnes Botham = Imran Akram Waqar Shoaib

Warne > Laker > Tayfield > Gibbs > Qadir

in my books
Australia > SA > Wi > Eng > Pak

dont know if i am subconsciously giving more weightage to the relative bowling strengths with the spinner playing the decisive role

 

[TheJediBrah]

Lillee McGrath Lindwall Miller = Steyn Donald Pollock Kallis = Marshall Ambrose Garner Sobers = Trueman Anderson Barnes Botham = Imran Akram Waqar Shoaib

I don't think these are of similar strength at all

Kallis isn't even close to most of these as a bowler

 

[shortpitched713]

Steyn-Donald-Pollock is gas though. Honestly I can't even necessarily pick the WI attack over it. Which is why I think WI in an ATG setting should play to their strength, just put Holding in there as well and blast some ****s with a pace quartet.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Steyn-Donald-Pollock is gas though. Honestly I can't even necessarily pick the WI attack over it. Which is why I think WI in an ATG setting should play to their strength, just put Holding in there as well and blast some ****s with a pace quartet.

They're all gas haha but the others have 4 whereas that SA only has 3

Surely the WI attack should be 4 quicks + sobers

 

[TheJediBrah]

Anyway I would have thought Kallis would be the 5th bowler in an SA XI, not the 4th

 

[subshakerz]

Lillee McGrath Lindwall Miller = Steyn Donald Pollock Kallis = Marshall Ambrose Garner Sobers = Trueman Anderson Barnes Botham = Imran Akram Waqar Shoaib

Warne > Laker > Tayfield > Gibbs > Qadir

in ny books
Australia > SA > Wi > Eng > Pak

dont know if i am subconsciously giving mote wrightage to the relative bowling strengths with the spinner playing the decisive role

Australia has the best with a 4-man pace attack, all worldclass bowlers, plus the best spinner.

Pakistan are next but I would put Saqlain as spinner instead of Qadir. They have a deadly 4-man pace attack which gives them an edge. In fact, I can imagine Imran as captain using Shoaib and Waqar in short bursts which would be very deadly.

WI is next. Sobers is a weak link but Marshall & Ambrose are top drawer and the difference between Gibbs and Tayfield doesnt make up the difference in pacers.

SA surprisingly are fourth as Kallis is a weak link.

England has the weakest pace attack because it is hard to judge Barnes and Anderson & Botham are below ATG quality.

 

[subshakerz]

Steyn-Donald-Pollock is gas though. Honestly I can't even necessarily pick the WI attack over it. Which is why I think WI in an ATG setting should play to their strength, just put Holding in there as well and blast some ****s with a pace quartet.

Marshall and Ambrose are amped up versions of Steyn and Pollock while Garner is roughly the same level as Donald.

 

[subshakerz]

I think the power of a 4-man high quality pace attack to relentlessly destroy any opposition shouldnt be underestimated. 80% of the time you dont need a spinner frankly.

Pakistan and Australia are the only teams that can accommodate 4 worldclass pacers in their regular lineups without sacrificing a spinner.

Lillee/McGrath/Lindwall/Miller and Imran/Wasim/Waqar/Shoaib.

Kallis and Botham aren't quite up there.

 

[ataraxia]

Botham and arguably Miller shouldn't really be in their countries' AT sides anyway I think

 

[subshakerz]

Botham and arguably Miller shouldn't really be in their countries' AT sides anyway I think

Well, Australia have Bradman and Gilly so they can afford a Miller in their top six.

Botham not so sure but I dont think he weakens their batting significantly with Hutton, Hobbs and Hammond already there.

 

[ataraxia]

excluding those pre-Barnes, I have:

Hobbs Sutcliffe Hutton Hammond Compton Barrington/Root Knott Verity/Rhodes Trueman Barnes Anderson

Simpson Lawry Bradman Smith Ponting Border Gilchrist Davidson Lindwall O'Reilly/Warne/Grum McGrath

both sides have enough bowling to suffice, I think

 

[Prince EWS]

Rather than go through the exercise of selecting an all-time ATG for each country, what would be your ranking of team's ATG XIs based on all-round strength? Of course, it depends on where they play, so someplace neutral like WI with a bit to offer for everyone.


Mine would be:
1)Australia - The Bradman factor plus the most balanced bowling attack
2) West Indies - Likely the strongest batting lineup after Australia and best pace attack overall
3) England - Hard to call, but depends on how to rank Barnes but very strong batting unit
4) South Africa - So many all-rounders and batting very deep
5) Pakistan - The pace attacks gives them the edge over other SC teams
6) India - A lot of batting strength but not a lot in the bowling dept to win matches except in SC
7) NZ - Hadlee and Bond will be a tough combo
8) SL - Great batting but a lot depends on Murali to deliver

Agree with this order tbh.

 

[subshakerz]

excluding those pre-Barnes, I have:

Hobbs Sutcliffe Hutton Hammond Compton Barrington/Root Knott Verity/Rhodes Trueman Barnes Anderson

Simpson Lawry Bradman Smith Ponting Border Gilchrist Davidson Lindwall O'Reilly/Warne/Grum McGrath

both sides have enough bowling to suffice, I think

No Lillee?

 

[ankitj]

SA lacks a truly alpha batsman. There's Graeme Pollock but he comes with an obvious caveat. An all time XI needs at least one bloke who unquestionably radiates big dick stamp your authority energy. That's the entire West Indian middle order. Australia has Bradman and Gilchrist who exceed any other team between them.

Barry Richards is that guy

 

[bagapath]

Anyway I would have thought Kallis would be the 5th bowler in an SA XI, not the 4th

kallis sobers miller botham are all fifth bowling options, even if they bowl second change at times.

just bunched them with pacers to single out the spinners from the attack.

 

[subshakerz]

Barry Richards is that guy

Same issue as Graeme Pollock.

 

[Burgey]

kallis sobers miller botham are all fifth bowling options, even if they bowl second change at times.

just bunched them with pacers to single out the spinners from the attack.

Sobers particularly handy as he's the 5th, 6th and 7th bowling option all in one.

 

[ankitj]

Same issue as Graeme Pollock.

He was talking about radiating big dick. That has nothing do with number of tests one has played

 

[ankitj]

Also Kallis is in same league as Headley easily. Pollock in Lara league possibly (Bradman rated Pollock and Sobers as best left handed batsmen of all time and he had seen Lara play). At the very least Headley has the same problem that Pollock has of not playing enough tests.

 

[Burgey]

excluding those pre-Barnes, I have:

Hobbs Sutcliffe Hutton Hammond Compton Barrington/Root Knott Verity/Rhodes Trueman Barnes Anderson

Simpson Lawry Bradman Smith Ponting Border Gilchrist Davidson Lindwall O'Reilly/Warne/Grum McGrath

both sides have enough bowling to suffice, I think

Would probably have Lillee over one of Lindwall or Davo, and imo Warne is a lock if there's only one spinner. Great seeing Bill Lawry getting some love here. Bloke is a genuinely underrated player.