[Gowza]

all time australia xi

1 hayden
2 taylore/simpson/ponsford (can't pick between these 3)
3 bradman
4 g.chappell
5 s.waugh
6 miller
7 gilchrist
8 warne
9 o'reilly
10 lillee
11 mcgrath

thought about davidson or lindwall to be there over mcgrath as both are ok bats and davidson is also a left hander but being that it's an all time great team that has genuine batsmen down to 7 and warne at 8 who is ok i figure no need for extra batting, imo mcgrath is a far better bowling option than them. lillee gets in with his strike rate, completeness and his match winning ability.

warne gets in as he's consider by many to be the greatest spinner ever, o'reilly gets in because he was amazing and bradman says he was the best he ever saw or faced against and he bowled quite fast, similar bowler to barnes. jack iverson was a thought though.

for me hayden is a must, can't leave him out as he averages 50, great slipper to. tough to pick between taylor, simpson and ponsofrd. ponsford had a ridiculous FC record, 65 average, and a 48 test average as an opener is great. simpson had a 46 test average (closing in on 47), was a great captain, a great slipper and could bowl leg spin (actually when he was first selected is was as an allrounder). taylor considered by many the greatest aussie test captain ever, one of the best slippers ever but his batting average is slightly less at 43. btw as opener simpson averaged 55, he didn't always bat as opener.

bradman of course picks himself, chappell was one of the greatest batsmen of all time and was a total match winner with his flashy attacking shots, steve waugh was probably the best test #5 ever. all of them were aussie captains.

miller gets in as one of the best allrounders ever, a great fielder, a match winner. his bowling record speaks for itself, he was genuinely quick when he wanted to be and an average of under 22 and had a knack of getting the best batsmen out. the contraversial thing about miller is that he didn't always try that hard which makes him in one way a great pick and in another way a bad pick. when he tried he was as good as anyone with both bat and ball, a match winner in every sense and way (bowling, batting fielding, team morale booster), but there were times where he just didn't try, one of the most common examples was when he came into bat in one match and australia were completely dominating and he let himself get bowled first ball because he didn't like annihilating opposition. on the bowling side of things my dad always tells me a story where he turned up hung over and didn't feel like playing, they were bowling first and he wanted them out by lunch to get it done and dusted and he ripped through them with 7 wickets that morning. bad thing is if he decides not to try then you're stuffed, though most likely he'll only do that if the team is smashing the opposition so in that sense he'll always give it his all when it's really needed.

gilchrist like bradman is self-picked imo. people say it's an all time team you don't need a keeper for batting so pick one for their glove work. i don't care what anyone says gilchrist was a terrific keeper, on top of that he could change a test match with his bat in 20 minutes something which is a rare trait even for all time great batsmen and he does it averaging 47, i mean think about it 17 test tons, and 26 half centuries as a #7, strike rate of nearly 82. basically his batting is on par with all time great batsmen and on top of that his keeping is almost up there with all time great glovemen, he kept to warne which would have been one of the toughest tasks in cricket history. oh and something people have probably forgotten but he actually did captain australia in test cricket.