World XI to beat India in India?

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India have been undefeated at home since 2012 and have a near invincible record, one which seems will continue atleast in the near future. They have now won 12 consecutive test series on the trot at home and won their last 4 consecutive test matches by an innings. They're not just beating teams at home, they're destroying them. All teams that visited India have been demolished ruthlessly with the exception of Australia who was the sole competitive team in the past few years. And it's not just the spinners who are doing the damage, nearly 60 of the 96 opposition wickets in the last two series fell to the fast bowlers.

So keeping in the well rounded attack in mind and the solid Indian batting at home, what's your world XI to give India a run for their money at home?
 

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My team:

Karunaratne
Azhar Ali
Kane Williamson (c)
Steve Smith
Babar Azam
BJ Watling (wk)
Pat Cummins
Yasir Shah
Nathan Lyon
Trent Boult
Mohd Abbas

There are no standout openers in the subcontinent, so picked the safest two. Kane and Smith pick themselves. Babar Azam was my wild card. He doesn't have a good record yet in the subcontinent and Root and Mushfiqur have good records, but I really think he's a player that's growing in stature and extremely talented as well. He's a bit suspect against wrist spin, but otherwise he's a fine player. Picked Watling as the keeper instead of Mushfiqur based on his current form.

Didn't pick shady Shakib as I wanted a 3+2 attack and couldn't drop either of Lyon and Yasir. Cummins obviously is the best pacer atm, Boult has a decent record in asia while Abbas has been phenomenal in the UAE and so I had to pick him.
 
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Stupid as it sounds and tinged with a lot of bias, Darren Bravo averages over 50 in every Asian nation bar the UAE where he averages 42 and has a century.

He’s got a superb away record in general and is an exceptional player of spin. I’d give him a look in somewhere
 
Without necessarily looking up averages, going off pure gut, something like...also didn't pick Shakib due to his ban.

Azhar Ali
Tom Latham
Kane Williamson
Steve Smith
Joe Root
Mushfiqur Rahim (+)
Jason Holder
Pat Cummins
Rashid Khan
Nathan Lyon
Mohammad Abbas
12th: Kagiso Rabada
 
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Without necessarily looking up averages, going off pure gut, something like...also didn't pick Shakib due to his ban.

Azhar Ali
Tom Latham
Kane Williamson
Steve Smith
Joe Root
Mushfiqur Rahim (+)
Jason Holder
Pat Cummins
Rashid Khan
Nathan Lyon
Mohammad Abbas
12th: Kagiso Rabada

Lyon is an interesting one. Actually has a reasonable record in India - averages 30, but gets absolutely pasted in the UAE against a side who traditionally don’t handle spin nearly as well as the Indians
 
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Lyon is an interesting one. Actually has a reasonable record in India - averages 30, but gets absolutely pasted in the UAE against a side who traditionally don’t handle spin nearly as well as the Indians
I think the current India lineup is quite bad against spin, especially compared to their sides historical record.
 
Lyon is an interesting one. Actually has a reasonable record in India - averages 30, but gets absolutely pasted in the UAE against a side who traditionally don’t handle spin nearly as well as the Indians
Didn't really want to pick him, but didn't realise how slim the pickings were!
 
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Without necessarily looking up averages, going off pure gut, something like...also didn't pick Shakib due to his ban.

Azhar Ali
Tom Latham
Kane Williamson
Steve Smith
Joe Root
Mushfiqur Rahim (+)
Jason Holder
Pat Cummins
Rashid Khan
Nathan Lyon
Mohammad Abbas
12th: Kagiso Rabada

Not a chance I pick Joe Root in a world eleven given the past 24 months he has had.
 

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Without necessarily looking up averages, going off pure gut, something like...also didn't pick Shakib due to his ban.

Azhar Ali
Tom Latham
Kane Williamson
Steve Smith
Joe Root
Mushfiqur Rahim (+)
Jason Holder
Pat Cummins
Rashid Khan
Nathan Lyon
Mohammad Abbas
12th: Kagiso Rabada

Kagiso hasn't really done anything in the subcontinent as far as I can remember..
 

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Lyon is an interesting one. Actually has a reasonable record in India - averages 30, but gets absolutely pasted in the UAE against a side who traditionally don’t handle spin nearly as well as the Indians

He's the 4th highest wicket taker against India of all time, he would be in the side.

Stokes is an interesting discussion, would probably come down to he or Holder.

Cummins had a decent last tour of India, but it wasn't amazing in the end. Starc's number's weren't far off and Starc has one of the best records going around in Sri Lanka.

Smith and Chandimal are the two best performing touring batsman in recent years.

I'd like to get Santner in there as a left arm offie all-rounder, on a bunsen you might just go in with Holder and 3 spinners.

Holder or Stokes was my hardest selection.


Azar Ahli
Dimuth Karunaratne
Kane Williamson
Steve Smith
Joe Root
Dinesh Chandimal
Mushfiqur Rahim +
Jason Holder
Rashid Kahn
Nathan Lyon
Mohammad Abbas

12th: Mitchell Santner, Mitchell Starc, Ben Stokes.
 
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Ishikawa

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You guys surely mean Yasir rather than Rashid? Love watching him bowl, but certainly hasn't had much fun in the longer form as yet.
 

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Lyon

If you're the only team who has been competitive in the past against India, then surely your players deserve a large representation in a team to try and beat India. So while you may believe Warner is poor outside of Australia, he still played a contribution of some kind in the 2017 tour and without any other openers of note, he deserves a go. Tom Latham is the only other opener who has scored a decent amount of runs in India.

Smith is a given, however another member of the 'fab four' is not. I was tossing up between Chandimal and Williamson for the number 4 spot, but decided to go for the latter. While Williamson has had a horror run in recent times in Asia, his record overall in Asia and in general stacks up well, and when compared to someone who cannot even make his way into his own team, Williamson gets the nod. Root the only other contender but recent form is horrible. If we were picking every player in their prime Root would most certainly be selected.

Rahim recent carried Bangladesh in their recent test series in which they were smashed, while Stokes has a decent record in India and his handy with both bat and ball. As the wicketkeeping skill seems to be much more vital in Asia than abroad, why not pick one of the best in the business who also has a good record with the bat too in BJ Watling.

For the bowlers, Cummins record isn't spectacular in India, but he isn't the best bowler in the world for nothing. Trent Boult is an interesting choice, however I feel the footmarks he creates will be overly helpful for the Nathan Lyon and Steve O'Keefe, who have outstanding records in India. He also is another high quality bowler too who has a decent record in India.
 

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It's interesting, a similar world XI some 10 or 15 years ago would have had a lot of asian players in them like Sanga, Jaya, Murali, Inzi, Younis, Saqlain, etc. But now you can barely have any asian players for a team to beat India in India whereas the "western teams" have improved a lot in subcontinent conditions of late.

Shows how much asian cricket has declined recently barring India. Pakistan can probably have the lack of cricket at home as an excuse but Sri Lanka should surely be doing better. Their win in South Africa was stunning and I hope they build on that victory and go back to being the highly competitive team that they were in the 2000s.
 

The Passenger

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Trent Boult is one of my favourite cricketers going around but his record in India (and Asia) is not crash hot. I don't think he would get picked.

I haven't looked up any other player specific India/Asian records, but Williamson and Smith are locks at #3 and #4 given Kohli isn't eligible. I think Stokes has to come in at #6. Provides the third seam bowling option to allow you to pick two front line specialists spinners and not pick a specialist bowler to bat at #7.

It's hard to see any other spinners outside of Yasir Shah and Nathan Lyon occupying those two positions. The alternate between leg spin and off spin is a bit of a captain's favourite as well. The quick bowlers is a bit trickier as there isn't really any standout. Cummins and Mohammad Abbas are probably as good as two as you could go for. Jason Holder has been mentioned in here and he too wouldn't be out of place at all. Jimmy Anderson is never too far away from this sort of team, but a lot remains to be seen how he comes back from injury.

The OP's team looks like it would be pretty close to the mark. Interesting thread. Will have to come back to it.

??, ??, Williamson, Smith, ??, Stokes, ??, Cummins, Shah, Lyon, Abbas. Holder (12)
 

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We even had a super test of world XI vs Australia at the SCG in '05!




@23:30, did we actually have reviews back in the day as well?:oops:
 

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Trent Boult is one of my favourite cricketers going around but his record in India (and Asia) is not crash hot. I don't think he would get picked.

I haven't looked up any other player specific India/Asian records, but Williamson and Smith are locks at #3 and #4 given Kohli isn't eligible. I think Stokes has to come in at #6. Provides the third seam bowling option to allow you to pick two front line specialists spinners and not pick a specialist bowler to bat at #7.

It's hard to see any other spinners outside of Yasir Shah and Nathan Lyon occupying those two positions. The alternate between leg spin and off spin is a bit of a captain's favourite as well. The quick bowlers is a bit trickier as there isn't really any standout. Cummins and Mohammad Abbas are probably as good as two as you could go for. Jason Holder has been mentioned in here and he too wouldn't be out of place at all. Jimmy Anderson is never too far away from this sort of team, but a lot remains to be seen how he comes back from injury.

The OP's team looks like it would be pretty close to the mark. Interesting thread. Will have to come back to it.

??, ??, Williamson, Smith, ??, Stokes, ??, Cummins, Shah, Lyon, Abbas. Holder (12)

Like has been said, the side would of been a lot different couple of years ago.

AB De Villiers averaged around 45 in the subcontinent.

Dale Steyns record in the subcontinent is ******* crazy, he averaged around 23 combined across all of the countries. He and McGrath are basically the GOAT subcontinent quicks...

Alistair Cook had a crazy good record for an opener in India, UAE, Pakistan and Sri Lanka as well.

Then there was Sangakkara, Clarke, Swann etc.



I know it's a theoretical exercise, but it would be better to ask this question in another 12 months, as we're in a bit of a changing of the guard period with the likes of Cummins, Rabada, Archer, Babar Azam, Latham, Labuschagne, Holder etc all of whom haven't played much or any cricket there to form the opinion yet but are probably good enough...
 

ioppolo

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I loved the world XI vs Australia and Asia XI vs Africa XI matches that used to happen in those days.





The world XI side had issues iirc as there were too many egos for one XI! Inzamam and Graeme Smith had problems regarding slip fielding positions I think.
 

The Passenger

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The world XI side had issues iirc as there were too many egos for one XI! Inzamam and Graeme Smith had problems regarding slip fielding positions I think.
I think just as big a problem is most of the World XI players were in it for the social scene as much as the cricket.

The intensity was barely 10% of the Rest of the World tests in the early 70's or the World Series super tests in the late 70's.
 
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