Who's the best U-25 Test Player?

[aussie tragic]

Allright CW, who is the best under-25 Test player in the world today?

Here are a few Test players currently under 25…..

Australia – Nil
England - Stuart Broad (22), Alistair Cook (23), Ravi Bopara (23)
India – Piyush Chawla (19), Ishant Sharma (19), RP Singh (22), Irfan Pathan (23), Vikram Singh (23)
New Zealand – Tim Southee (19), Daniel Flynn (23), Ross Taylor (24)
Pakistan – Salman Butt (23), Umar Gul (24)
South Africa – Morne Morkel (23), AB De Villiers (24)
Sri Lanka – Ajantha Mendis (23), Farveez Maharoof (23), Lasith Malinga (24)
West Indies – Xavier Marshall (22), Dwayne Bravo (24), Darren Sammy (24), Amit Jaggernauth (24)

 

[Perm]

Tough call between Cook and de Villiers really, but I'll go for AB. Ross Taylor coming in third probably.

 

[zaremba]

Southee has enormous potential.
The young Indians are also very promising. It's odd to see how young RP Singh and Irfan Pathan are.

 

[Richard]

Salmon Butt

Aaaarghhh, noooooo, Salman Butt. He's not a fish.

Anyway...

Stuart Broad (22)

Shouldn't even have played a Test yet.

Alistair Cook (23)

Fine batsman but technical faults aplenty.

Ravi Bopara (23)

Shouldn't have played a Test yet.

Piyush Chawla (19)

Shouldn't have played a Test yet and is hardly a regular anyway.

Ishant Sharma (19)

Decent prospect but far from the finished article yet.

RP Singh (22)

Poor.

Irfan Pathan (23)

Very poor.

Vikram Singh (23)

Abysmal, and fortunately not a current player.

Tim Southee (19)

Excellent prospect and not bad right now, but still debateable TSTL that he should be playing.

Daniel Flynn (23)

Not that good so far.

Ross Taylor (24)

Looking pretty good.

Salman Butt (23)

Not sure he's actually that age, but he might be 25 or younger. Not sure about him as a Test batsman TBH and never have been.

Umar Gul (24)

Again, not sure he's actually that age, and wouldn't be surprised if he was older than 25.

Morne Morkel (23)

Decent prospect, but like Maaaaaalinga perhaps overhyped so far.

AB De Villiers (24)

Looking very good as a middle-order batsman, oddly, and after a long time.

Ajantha Mendis (23)

Looks an unbelievable prospect, but only playing his 2nd Test as of this post.

Farveez Maharoof (23)

Poor.

Lasith Malinga (24)

Decent but not perhaps as good as he's been claimed to be.

Xavier Marshall (22)

Should never have played a Test, possibly ever, possibly yet.

Dwayne Bravo (24)

Good all-rounder.

Darren Sammy (24)

Poor man's Bravo but still someone I'd have as an automatic pick for West Indies.

Amit Jaggernauth (24)

Played 1 Test so far and looked poor, not convinced he counts as current.

All in all, I reckon I'd go for Bravo, de Villiers or Cook. With Taylor close behind them.

 

[aussie tragic]

Actually, its a bit worrying that Australia is the only country that doesn't have an under-25 Test player...in fact Cameron White is the only under-25 ODI Player....

....time to promote Phil Hughes I think

 

[aussie tragic]

Aaaarghhh, noooooo, Salman Butt. He's not a fish.

Don't know what you're going on about...my post says Salman....



...well it does now anyway

 

[Richard]

Actually, its a bit worrying that Australia is the only country that doesn't have an under-25 Test player...

Why?

 

[Manee]

Abysmal, and fortunately not a current player.

India should look to incorperate VRV Singh into games on very flat pitches in the medium term future, his FC strike rate of 40.1 (36.4 minus Tests) is pretty amazing considering how flat and slow some pitches in India can get. He is expensive, but his 18 wickets in 2 games in the Duleep Trophy show that he is an extremely useful wicket taker.

 

[aussie tragic]

Why?

Well I thought it was obvious; most of the all-time greats came in to the Test team before they were 25, so where is the next great batsman like Ponting, S.Waugh, Border, G.Chappell, Walters, Harvey, etc...or bowlers like Lee, Gillespie, McGrath, Warne, McDermott, Lillee, Thomson...etc...

 

[Richard]

Sides have been damn good without any rank greats in their team though.

And you're not going to turn a Phil Hughes or a Peter Siddle into a great just by picking him young.

In any case, Michael Clarke certainly has a chance of being rankable, if not alongside the Chappells and Borders, then damn close. You can't expect to be having a great under 25 years of age in your side every second of every Test.

 

[aussie tragic]

In any case, Michael Clarke certainly has a chance of being rankable, if not alongside the Chappells and Borders, then damn close. You can't expect to be having a great under 25 years of age in your side every second of every Test.

True, and I guess Ponting, Clarke and Lee from the current team may all eventully fit the profile of an all-time great who played before 25....I just don't think there's too many under 25's in FC cricket are knocking the door down (maybe Phil Hughes and Luke Pomersbach)

 

[Richard]

Don't see Lee ever fitting the all-time-great mould TBH. 2\3-year-great at best.

 

[aussie tragic]

Lee will become the 4th highest Aussie wkt taker when he takes 3 more wkts...yes he needs to get his average down, however he will be remembered as a great...just like Thomo who also had a high average...

 

[Richard]

Thommo certainly isn't a great - he had a couple of outstanding years ('74/75 and '75/76, plus a bit in '76/77 before that injury, then he came back and did OK in England in '77) then a few more where he was no more than a decent bowler. Post-Packer to The Ashes '82/83, he played just 17 Tests, doing pretty poorly before a decent should-have-been-swansong in '82/83.

Right now Lee hasn't even come close to being the bowler Thommo was, though he might yet do this in the next few years.

But I don't see him being all that good beyond the age of 34 or so.

 

[KiWiNiNjA]

Jeez, some of the guys are crazy young.

 

[Richard]

20-21 didn't seem that young 6 years ago.

 

[Uppercut]

Hard to compare young batsmen to young bowlers, i'll go for Morkel as a bowler on the grounds that Morkel's pace and bounce will always trouble batsmen whereas Mendis's mystery spin *might* not. The best batsmen there are AB and Cook.

 

[The Masterplan]

Amit Jaggernauth (24)

Is that some sort of joke?

 

[Manee]

Is that some sort of joke?

What?

 

[zaremba]

Hard to compare young batsmen to young bowlers, i'll go for Morkel as a bowler on the grounds that Morkel's pace and bounce will always trouble batsmen whereas Mendis's mystery spin *might* not. The best batsmen there are AB and Cook.

AWTA. The most exciting, currently, of the lot? Mendis by a mile.