World XI

[Sham]

I was thinking of a World Test XI earlier today and then I read Samircreep's post on the Ashes Test where he said that there is no serious competition to the Aussies and it really is true because for my World XI, I had to resist the urge to fill the entire team with Aussies.

Anyway, after a lot of thought, I decided on my XI. Its a contemporary XI so everyone is still playing. The other guidelines I used are having 5 batsmen, an all-rounder, wicket keeper, two spinners (preferably one leg and one off) and two seamers. Also, I tried to put players at the position at which they play for their country to simply things a little.

First, I'll give you folks my eleven and then explain it.

1. Hayden
2. Langer
3. Dravid
4. Tendulkar
5. Lara
6. Gilchrist
7. Pollock
8. Warne
9. Gillespie
10. Muralitharan
11. McGrath

1. This was an easy one. Scoring tons of runs, currently world no.1, averages over 53 in Tests, there really wasn't any competition for Hayden's spot at the top of the line-up.

2. I considered several people to open with Hayden. Kirsten was a front-runner. Almost 6000 runs at 43 is very good. Also, I considered the up and coming openers, Sehwag, Gibbs, Trescothick and Vaughan, all have healthy averages above 40. In the end I decided to go with Hayden's good friend and the man he opens so successfully with. Langer's overall average is also just above 43, same as Kirsten's, but in the 23 innings since he started opening the innings, he has averaged 56.55. Hard to argue with that!

3. For this spot, the only other batsman I seriously considered was Ponting. Explosive player, can take a bowling attack apart, scored his 4000 runs at over 47. However, Dravid is the most solid batsman in the world and the best person to have if an early wicket goes down. Also, 5400 runs at 54.87 is phenomenal.

4. I don't think Tendulkar needs justification.

5. I would have liked to say the same for Lara but unfortunately, I had to think about it. Steve Waugh and Inzamam were my two other top choices. Both brilliant. Especially Waugh with 9753 runs at 49.50. However, he is on the decline it seems. In the end I had to go with the man with the highest Test and First Class score. He may be in and out these days but his strokeplay off both front and back foot, off and leg sides are just too good to leave him out. (7572 @ 49.49)

6. This was another easy one. Apart from being the person who usually keeps to three of my bowling choices, he has scored over 2300 runs at 58.55. The only other person that I considered was Andy Flower but Gilchrist is too good and getting better. If he wasn't a keeper, I would have seriously considered him as a specialist batsman.

7. This was hard, not because of the choices but the lack of them. Unfortunately, there are no Sobers, Hadlees and Bothams these days. I considered three all-rounders. Chris Cairns can be destructive both with bat and ball on his day but with a batting avg of 32 and bowling avg of 28, he is no more than average at both. Kallis was a serious consideration. 4185 runs at 49.82 is superb and 124 wickets at 29.13 is great for a player with that batting avg. However, I decided to go with a pace bowling all-rounder to give cover to the other two, in case one has a bad day. Pollock has 263 wickets at 20.80, thats excellent, and his batting avg of 31.57 is good enough for someone who is going to follow this top six.

8. Another easy one. There isn't another spinner like Warne, definitely no other leg spinner like him. I think he is the smartest bowler in the world and also one of the most patient. If I were choosing an all time XI, I would still have him as the leggie. Kumbe deserves mention but he is no Warne.

9. This was difficult because all the other great pace bowlers had to be considered for this position. Shoaib Akhter was my closest alternative. Quickest bowler in the world and can run through a batting line-up. 78 wickets @ 27.87 with a strike rate of 50 is very good, but also has bad days when he is all over the place. I also considered Wasim and Waqar but they are clearly past their prime. Five years ago, Wasim would be the first seamer in my team but he is not the same bowler anymore. Same goes for Donald. Also considered Gough. Many don't realize it but his strike rate of 50.4 is better than McGrath's. In the end, went with McGrath's bowling partner. Gillespie is an amazing bowler, and had it not been for injuries, we would probably be talking about him as a great by now. 129 wickets @ 26.24 is slightly better than Shoaib but what got him in is his greater consistency.

10. Muralitharan is again one of those guys you can't leave out. The challenge came in the forms of Harbhajan and Saqlain. Both are good with 139 at 26 and 183 at 28 respectively. But in the end, the man with 430 at 22 easilly gets in.

11. Along with Tendulkar, the easiest pick. Really no one to keep McGrath out. (411 wickets at 21.40)

I have had to leave out a lot of great players but this is the best I could do. I am sure most of you will disagree with me somewhere or another so please post your XIs and we can fight over it.

[fwullah]

World XI for one dayers:

1) Tendulkar
2) Chris Gayle
3) Guilchrist (wk)
4) Michael Bevan
5) Sumon - Hey, nobody else knows Habibul Bashar better than we do, so why not include him in the world XI for a while?
6) Sanath Jayasuriya - I agree Jayasuriya would be best at opening, but what about pitches on South Africa? If Gayle and Tendulkar does not work out on scoring run a ball, then Jayasuriya can come in and play his game.
7) Chris Crains
8) Abdur Razzaq
9) Shaun Pollock
10) Shane Warne
11) Glenn McGrath

World XI for Tests:*

1) Mathew Hayden
2) Jacques Kallis
3) Dravid
4) Tendulkar
5) Steve Waugh
6) Kumara Sangakarra (wk)
7) Warne **
8) Shoaib Akhtar
9) Muralitharan
10) Gillespie
11) McGrath

* Lara is the substitue - 12th man if either Dravid or Tendulkar or Steve Waugh is injured or something
** Its a long tail for the world's best Test XI, but with this bowling line up, even 50 odd runs is defedable on a sporting wicket.

[Sham]

Havent given enough thought to a one day XI but a couple of points on your Test XI.

Sangakarra instead of Gilchrist? Sangakkara is a very good batsman but thats about it. He isnt as good as Gilchrist and I dont rate him too highly as a keeper. He drops stuff. As a matter of fact, the one thing he does better than most is appeals for everything, whether it hits pad or comes off the middle of the bat.

Secondly, Kallis is not a Test opener. It might work but I wouldn't promote him to open in the world XI, not when there is a batsman averaging 56 as an opener in Langer. Also, opening is a lot about partnerships, and the Hayden-Langer partnership is working too well to break up.

I still stand by my team!

[Pundit]

OK- so against whom is this XI playing ?

The fact that so much effort is put into this team selection, means only one thing - there is a broad consensus on the BD team. Which can only mean one thing - a stable team is in the offing. All they need now is more exposure and continued application.

[Wizard]

Just for the sake of it, I'm creating 2 World - XI

World - XI ( Test )

1. Hayden
2. Flower
3. Ponting (c)
4. Tendulkar
5. Inzamam
6. Kallis
7. Gilchrist (wk)
8. Pollock
9. Warne
10. Gillespie
11. Mcgrath
12. Dravid

World - XI ( One Day )

1. Jayasuria
2. Gilchrist (wk)
3. Ponting (c)
4. Tendulkar
5. Bevan
6. Kallis
7. Crains
8. Pollock
9. Vaas
10. Muralitharan
11. Mcgrath
12. Gibbs

You have to consider current form rather than going for big names. And Why Ponting is the captain of both the teams? His maturity has increased radically since taking over from Waugh as the One Day Captain..and there is no other better player for the job.

[Sham]

Pundit, I don't know who this team is playing. I just wanted to create an ideal all-round team from the current players.

[Sham]

Digging this back out from the grave but Almer decided to run my XI on his sports page on Holiday this week.

http://www.weeklyholiday.net/sport.html

[Tehsin]

How is good old Almer ? Can he give us some specials and pics from Dhaka for theWI tour ? He'd be a hero.