What would be the makeup of your ideal XI?

[reyrey]

I always get a bit annoyed when Hayden is described as an excessively aggressive opener. I grew up with him (as in watching him on tv) and while he would walk down the pitch and hit big balls and have an overall aggressive demeanour he left almost everything outside off-stump and young me actually found him boring at times. He barely even had a cut shot.

Langer was often outscoring him in opening partnerships in fact

Depends on what point in their careers you look at.

Hayden slowed down in the 2nd half of his Test career. Guessing it coincidences with bowlers finding more chinks in his batting. His peak strike rate in the first 51 Tests was 63.5 vs a strike rate of 56.55 in last 52 Tests.

Langer only sped up. Strike rate in first 52 Tests was 50.36 vs a strike rate of 58.17 in last 53 Tests.

 

[subshakerz]

Interesting that many picked the man of crisis at no.3.

A bit early for me. Prefer down the order.

 

[number11]

I always favour 2 openers, 3 MO bats (l/r combo if possible), 2 ARs, wkt (inevitably Gilchrist), 3 bowlers (1 a spinner).

 

[subshakerz]

If you had to pick between the below players, and assume they are all worldclass level, how many and in which position would you choose in your final XI? The only limitation is you can pick one all-rounder.

Types of players:

Types of Bats:
1) Rock solid defensive accumulator
2) Unorthodox risk-taking master blaster
3) Classic dashing strokemaker
4) Stodgy, tough man-of-crisis

Types of all-rounders:
5) Spin batting all-rounder
6) Pace batting all-rounder
7) Spin bowling all-rounder
8) Pace bowling all-rounder

Types of keepers:
9) Immaculate keeper, useful bat
10) Safe keeper, regular good bat

Types of pacers:
10) Classic new ball looping swing and bouncer bowler
11) Classic tall miserly seam bowler
12) Reverse swinger master with loose new ball swing

Types of spinners:
13) Classic wrist spinner
14) Classic finger spinner
15) Mystery spinner with hard to read action

Who would be in your final XI?

@Johan what would be your XI?