Shane Watson, Murali Vijay, and Mohammed Hafeez are all a bit unlucky. Also if Azhar Ali hadn't moved to no 3 he would have made a team as an opener instead, and I see Michael Vaughan debuted in 1999 or else he would have been in a team too as an opener or 3.I made 8 World XIs above:
8*2=16 openers
14/16 openers here are left handed, with the only 2 right handed ones being V Sehwag and R Sharma (both Indian too).
Absolutely fascinating! Some logic behind this, or pure coincidence?
I think left right opening combos were coveted for a while. So young lefties may have been encouraged to open or moved to opener. Unsure if this is still the case. Or this could have no bearing on it.I made 8 World XIs above:
8*2=16 openers
14/16 openers here are left handed, with the only 2 right handed ones being V Sehwag and R Sharma (both Indian too).
Absolutely fascinating! Some logic behind this, or pure coincidence?
Using 33 different players:This can be a thread that can be revisited over the years. What does your XI look like right now? Feel free to post XIs for each format.
Starc over guys like Philander?am going for those who debuted or or after 2001 January 01st
First XI
Virender Sehwag
Graeme Smith *
Joe Root
Steve Smith
ABDV
Rishab Pant +
Ravinder Jadeja
Ravi Ashwin
Pat Cummins
Dale Steyn
Jasprit Bumrah
Second XI
Alastair Cook
David Warner
Kane Williamson
Virat Kohli
Michael Clarke
Ben Stokes *
BJ Watling +
Graeme Swann
Mitchell Starc
Kagiso Rabada
James Anderson
Third XIStarc over guys like Philander?
Hazlewood over Bond and Shami?Test
Cook
Smith
Sanga
Smith
Pant
Abd
Ashwin
Wagner
Cummins
Steyn
Bumrah
ODIs
Rohit
Roy
Kohli
Abd
Shakib
Dhoni
Hussey
Kuldeep
Hazlewood
Starc
Bumrah
Sharma over Khawaja is an… interesting take.Third XI
Rohit Sharma
Simon Katich
Hashim Amla
Babar Azam
Michael Hussey
Shakib Al Hasan
MS Dhoni * +
Vernon Philander
Ryan Harris
Nathan Lyon
Neil Wagner
His performance is better than Bumrah against top 5 teams in away condition and he is also ahead of Bumrah in ICC tournaments and ICC knockouts against top 5 teams (ind , aus ,pak ,sa , NZ , Eng).Hazlewood over Bond and Shami?