Would Botham make it to your England ATG XI?

[subshakerz]

How?

Richards | Smith | Kallis | Pollock | Nourse | de Villiers | wk of choice | Procter | Tayfield | Donald | Steyn

That team is challenging the WI and Aus.

They lack the top level batting and bowling firepower. Their attack is all pacers who tend to attack and leak, batting isn't top tier level like Aus and WI and England.

 

[Northerner]

Pollock imo, is significantly better than Broad, Snow, Larwood, Willis and Anderson.

Apart from Larwood and Tyson i have seen them all, My dad watched Larwood and told me just how good and how quick he was. Polly does not come close to him, the same with Tyson as for the others, Willis was most certainly better, ask the Aussie batsmen who they would rather not face i put Polly on a par with Broad and Anderson not better, no worse, also imo Snow, Bedser and Gough are in the equation too,

 

[Sliferxxxx]

Apart from Larwood and Tyson i have seen them all, My dad watched Larwood and told me just how good and how quick he was. Polly does not come close to him, the same with Tyson as for the others, Willis was most certainly better, ask the Aussie batsmen who they would rather not face i put Polly on a par with Broad and Anderson not better, no worse, also imo Snow, Bedser and Gough are in the equation too,

Broad, Gough and Anderson in the same category as Pollock? In what world? And Tyson simply played far too few tests. Your dad can say whatever he wants but still be wrong. Quickness has absolutely no relevance to greatness (cough cough Brett Lee). I hope you're trolling....

 

[Coronis]

Apart from Larwood and Tyson i have seen them all, My dad watched Larwood and told me just how good and how quick he was. Polly does not come close to him, the same with Tyson as for the others, Willis was most certainly better, ask the Aussie batsmen who they would rather not face i put Polly on a par with Broad and Anderson not better, no worse, also imo Snow, Bedser and Gough are in the equation too,

You do realise we’re talking about Shaun and not Peter right?

 

[Sliferxxxx]

You do realise we’re talking about Shaun and not Peter right?

He better be trolling because none of Gough, Broad, Willis etc are on the same level as Shaun Pollock.

 

[kyear2]

They lack the top level batting and bowling firepower. Their attack is all pacers who tend to attack and leak, batting isn't top tier level like Aus and WI and England.

Now I know you're trolling.

Top-level batting, are you serious?

Richards, Pollock and Kallis are legit ATG batsmen, deVillers a legit great and Nourse and Smith easily world class.

Bowling wise, I just saw lists that rated Tayfield as the 4th best spinner. Steyn is a top 4 bowler of all time and Donald is at least the equal to guys like Imran and Lillee. Procter had as much ability as anyone and brings versatility.

Easily bests England imo.

I have a list of 40 ATGs, so all pretty elite. The representatives for each team and some arguable inclusions in parentheses.

Aus.
Bradman | Smith | Chappell | Border | Gilchrist | Warne | Lillee | McGrath (Davidson)

W.I.
Headley | Richards | Lara | Sobers | Marshall | Ambrose | Holding (Greenidge | Walcott)

S.A.
Richards | Kallis | Pollock | Procter | Steyn | Donald (Smith | Tayfield)

Eng.
Hobbs | Hutton | Hammond | Knott (Trueman | Root)

Pak.
Imran | Wasim (Miandad | Waqar)

Ind.
Gavaskar | Tendulkar | Dravid | Bumrah (Ashwin)


There's a lot of quality in those first 3 teams

 

[sayon basak]

Broad, Gough and Anderson in the same category as Pollock? In what world?

Anderson is.

 

[sayon basak]

Now I know you're trolling.

Top-level batting, are you serious?

Maybe he was talking about the firepower of the top level batting, Not the batting itself.

 

[Coronis]

Now I know you're trolling.

Top-level batting, are you serious?

Richards, Pollock and Kallis are legit ATG batsmen, deVillers a legit great and Nourse and Smith easily world class.

Bowling wise, I just saw lists that rated Tayfield as the 4th best spinner. Steyn is a top 4 bowler of all time and Donald is at least the equal to guys like Imran and Lillee. Procter had as much ability as anyone and brings versatility.

Easily bests England imo.

I have a list of 40 ATGs, so all pretty elite. The representatives for each team and some arguable inclusions in parentheses.

Aus.
Bradman | Smith | Chappell | Border | Gilchrist | Warne | Lillee | McGrath (Davidson)

W.I.
Headley | Richards | Lara | Sobers | Marshall | Ambrose | Holding (Greenidge | Walcott)

S.A.
Richards | Kallis | Pollock | Procter | Steyn | Donald (Smith | Tayfield)

Eng.
Hobbs | Hutton | Hammond | Knott (Trueman | Root)

Pak.
Imran | Wasim (Miandad | Waqar)

Ind.
Gavaskar | Tendulkar | Dravid | Bumrah (Ashwin)


There's a lot of quality in those first 3 teams

Not going to bother commenting on the obvious things but having Davidson as a borderline and not Lindwall strikes me as very off.

 

[Sliferxxxx]

Now I know you're trolling.

Top-level batting, are you serious?

Richards, Pollock and Kallis are legit ATG batsmen, deVillers a legit great and Nourse and Smith easily world class.

Bowling wise, I just saw lists that rated Tayfield as the 4th best spinner. Steyn is a top 4 bowler of all time and Donald is at least the equal to guys like Imran and Lillee. Procter had as much ability as anyone and brings versatility.

Easily bests England imo.

I have a list of 40 ATGs, so all pretty elite. The representatives for each team and some arguable inclusions in parentheses.

Aus.
Bradman | Smith | Chappell | Border | Gilchrist | Warne | Lillee | McGrath (Davidson)

W.I.
Headley | Richards | Lara | Sobers | Marshall | Ambrose | Holding (Greenidge | Walcott)

S.A.
Richards | Kallis | Pollock | Procter | Steyn | Donald (Smith | Tayfield)

Eng.
Hobbs | Hutton | Hammond | Knott (Trueman | Root)

Pak.
Imran | Wasim (Miandad | Waqar)

Ind.
Gavaskar | Tendulkar | Dravid | Bumrah (Ashwin)


There's a lot of quality in those first 3 teams

Mine is much stricter:

Aus:

Bradman, Chappell, Smith, Gilchrist, McGrath, Lillee, Warne, O'Reilly. On the fence: Waugh, Lindwall, Miller, Davidson, Grimmett, Ponting

Eng:

Hobbs, Hammond, Sutcliffe, Hutton, Barrington, Barnes, Trueman, Knott. On the fence: Laker, Verity, Root, Compton

WI

Headley, Sobers, Viv, Lara, Marshall, Ambrose. On the fence: Garner, Gibbs, Holding, Weekes, Walcott

RSA

Kallis, Pollock, Steyn, Pollock S Donald. On the fence: Tayfield, Faulkner, Adcock, Nourse, Rabada

NZ

Hadlee. Williamson on the fence

Pak

Wasim, Imran. On the fence: Waqar, Javed, Younis Khan

India

Sachin, Sunny. On the fence Ashwin, Bumrah, Dravid.

SL

Murali. Sanga on the fence

So I have 33 or so I consider bonafide atgs with the rest there or thereabout depending on my mood. Someone like Bumrah just needs a few more tests. I'm sure I'm forgetting a player or two fwiw.

 

[subshakerz]

Now I know you're trolling.

Top-level batting, are you serious?

Richards, Pollock and Kallis are legit ATG batsmen, deVillers a legit great and Nourse and Smith easily world class.

Bowling wise, I just saw lists that rated Tayfield as the 4th best spinner. Steyn is a top 4 bowler of all time and Donald is at least the equal to guys like Imran and Lillee. Procter had as much ability as anyone and brings versatility.

Easily bests England imo.

I have a list of 40 ATGs, so all pretty elite. The representatives for each team and some arguable inclusions in parentheses.

Aus.
Bradman | Smith | Chappell | Border | Gilchrist | Warne | Lillee | McGrath (Davidson)

W.I.
Headley | Richards | Lara | Sobers | Marshall | Ambrose | Holding (Greenidge | Walcott)

S.A.
Richards | Kallis | Pollock | Procter | Steyn | Donald (Smith | Tayfield)

Eng.
Hobbs | Hutton | Hammond | Knott (Trueman | Root)

Pak.
Imran | Wasim (Miandad | Waqar)

Ind.
Gavaskar | Tendulkar | Dravid | Bumrah (Ashwin)


There's a lot of quality in those first 3 teams

England simply have a higher quality top 5/6 than SA. 4 of them are in the top dozen bats as per CW.

SA with Steyn and Donald have more firepower but also are more capable of being collared.