Best Test XI

[The Speaker]

Alright, hopefully you've all been following the Test cricket draft (http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/test-cricket-draft.975064/). If not, basically a bunch of us did a draft of Test players to create the best team we could (with at least one player from each of the eight major Test nations). Here's your opportunity to help us decide which team is best.

The teams​

​

Se7en XI - thorne89​

Herbert Sutcliffe​

Hanif Mohammad (+)​

Graeme Pollock​

Martin Crowe​

Steve Waugh (c)​

Aravinda De Silva​

Garfield Sobers​

Kapil Dev​

Sydney Barnes​

Bishen Bedi​

Courtney Walsh​

Jonty Rhodes (12th)​

​

The Empire XI - Glinn Mgraw​

Len Hutton (c)​

Bill Ponsford​

Wally Hammond​

Inzamam-ul-Haq​

Clyde Walcott​

Kumar Sangakkara (+)​

Keith Miller​

Shaun Pollock​

Richard Hadlee​

Bill O'Reilly​

Bhagwath Chandrasekhar​

Alan Davidson (12th)​

​

Noobz0r​

Sunil Gavaskar​

Stephen Fleming (c)​

George Headley​

Mohammad Yousuf​

Jacques Kallis​

Sanath Jayasuriya​

Adam Gilchrist (+)​

Ray Lindwall​

Joel Garner​

Frank Tyson​

Jim Laker​

Andy Bichel (12th)​

​

The Gak Indies and Friends - Gak Attack​

Jack Hobbs​

Eddie Paynter​

Viv Richards (c)​

Javed Miandad​

Shivnarine Chanderpaul​

MS Dhoni (+)​

John R Reid​

Richie Benaud​

Malcolm Marshall​

Chaminda Vaas​

Dale Steyn​

Michael Clarke (12th)​

​

The Greatest Victorians Never to be Victorians - DrVanNostrand​

Bill Lawry​

Gordon Greenidge​

Greg Chappell​

Mohammad Azharuddin​

Ken Barrington​

Andy Flower (+)​

Thilan Samaraweera​

Chris Cairns​

Wasim Akram​

Shane Warne (c)​

Allan Donald​

Curtly Ambrose (12th)​

​

The Modern XI - Torz​

Virender Sehwag​

Saeed Anwar​

Ricky Ponting (c)​

Sachin Tendulkar​

Brian Lara​

Tillakaratne Dilshan​

AB De Villiers (+)​

Anil Kumble​

Fred Trueman​

Shane Bond​

Dennis Lillee​

Jeff Thomson (12th)​

​

MG MG​

Matthew Hayden​

Brendan McCullum​

Allan Border (c)​

VVS Laxman​

Ian Botham​

Andrew Flintoff​

Jeffrey Dujon (+)​

Brett Lee​

Shoaib Akhtar​

Muttiah Muralitharan​

Makhaya Ntini​

David Gower (12th)​

​

Stevemac's Savages - stevemac​

Barry Richards​

Geoff Boycott​

Rahul Dravid​

Mahela Jayawardene​

Everton Weekes​

Douglas Jardine (c)​

Mark Boucher (+)​

Daniel Vettori​

Michael Holding​

Waqar Younis​

Glenn McGrath​

Hugh Trumble (12th)​

​

The Unselected XI - Howard Littlejohn​

Hashan Tillakaratne​

Bill Woodfull​

Sourav Ganguly​

Colin Cowdrey​

Frank Worrell (c)​

Andrew Jones​

Imran Khan​

Alan Knott (+)​

Alec Bedser​

Clarrie Grimmett​

Wes Hall​

Colin Croft (12th)​

​

Go for it. (And, if you don't mind, post your reasons as well...) ​

Team analysis​

thorne89 - http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/test-cricket-draft.975064/page-19#post-26300807​

Glinn Mgraw - http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/test-cricket-draft.975064/page-19#post-26302383​

Noobz0r -​

Gak Attack - http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/test-cricket-draft.975064/page-18#post-26296848​

DrVanNostrand - http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/test-cricket-draft.975064/page-18#post-26288480​

Torz - http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/test-cricket-draft.975064/page-18#post-26297492​

MG MG -​

stevemac - http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/test-cricket-draft.975064/page-17#post-26285851​

Howard Littlejohn - http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/test-cricket-draft.975064/page-21#post-26304110​

 

[Gak Attack]

No vote for your own team rule assholes.

 

[Torz]

No vote for your own team rule assholes.

Can the OP see who's voted for who?

E: Actually nevermind, I see you can do it with the poll. Derp.

 

[Ducky Tie]

Torz gets my vote. That batting order . Good luck getting them out for under 600.

Congrats to all involved.

 

[Kyptastic]

Torz's batting looks good with the triple threat of Ponting/Tendulkar/Lara, but I voted for Glinn McGraw. Can't see another team with better bowling depth (Miller, Pollock and Hadlee with Hammond backing up and O'Reilly and Chandrasekhar to provide wildly different spin options. The batting has some of the most dominant scorers in history and they've got centurions all the way down to 9.

Also, no Neil Harvey? Arguably one of Australia's top 5 ever batsmen, maybe even second best.

 

[Carbine Chaos]

I honestly can't split them. Will cast a vote when I finally can.

FWIW, I think Torz's batting is a little overrated. DrVan's bowling attack would have been dominant had he not had to have Ambrose 12th man and include Cairns as his New Zealander.

I still vote my team the most underrated; I doubt as many votes as I feel it deserves will be received.

 

[The Speaker]

I still vote my team the most underrated; I doubt as many votes as I feel it deserves will be received.

I think Noobz0r will be pushing for that title as well.

 

[Bradesmaen]

Seriously mad to put Ambrose (one of the greatest fast bowlers of all time) as 12th man. Lost my vote sir.

 

[Carbine Chaos]

Seriously mad to put Ambrose (one of the greatest fast bowlers of all time) as 12th man. Lost my vote sir.

He had to have a Kiwi in his first XI. There were nationality stipulations.

 

[The Speaker]

He had to have a Kiwi in his first XI. There were nationality stipulations.

Perhaps he should've picked a different Kiwi.

In fact, I can think of one that would've fit perfectly - an opener who no-one selected:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/38622.html

 

[Bradesmaen]

He had to have a Kiwi in his first XI. There were nationality stipulations.

And he couldn't have taken out Bill Lawry and go with 5 bowlers? With a bowling lineup including Ambrose you don't need more than 3 batsman.

 

[Carbine Chaos]

And he couldn't have taken out Bill Lawry and go with 5 bowlers? With a bowling lineup including Ambrose you don't need more than 3 batsman.

Fair call! Was his decision I suppose.

 

[Gak Attack]

I had to go DrVan's. Just an overall solid team, it bats down to 10 really with Warnie, plus a solid new ball pair. Flower was a great pick, while I think most of us considered him we didn't have the balls to pick him as early as DrVan as at least personally I was more worried about securing my required nations.

 

[The Speaker]

I think I'll go with Noobz0r.

Just a really well-rounded team. All four bowlers are excellent and would work well as a unit. Kallis and Jayasuriya provide handy back-up. The top seven make for a very strong batting line-up too, plenty of left and right handers, right amount of stroke-players and accumulators. The only qualm I would have is that they aren't the most reliable batting team, but at least you could rely on them to get the other team out, unlike, for example, Torz's team, whose bowling looks underpowered. Sure, Lillee and Trueman are fantastic, Bond would more than likely hold his own too, but Kumble would be little more than a leaker of runs (very slowly, mind you), and Dilshan and Sehwag aren't the greatest back-up.

Second best team behind my own.

 

[Gak Attack]

FWIW, I think Torz's batting is a little overrated. DrVan's bowling attack would have been dominant had he not had to have Ambrose 12th man and include Cairns as his New Zealander.

I'm with you but given the modern players I can understand it being so. I look at how much players dominate their particular era and while they're all fantastic batsman there was also a lot of other players around the time with similar numbers. As I said in the draft I think the more recent players(especially batsman) will be perceived better and was a mistake I made picking some of the older guys early on.

 

[Carbine Chaos]

I'm with you but given the modern players I can understand it being so. I look at how much players dominate their particular era and while they're all fantastic batsman there was also a lot of other players around the time with similar numbers. As I said in the draft I think the more recent players(especially batsman) will be perceived better and was a mistake I made picking some of the older guys early on.

I picked my team with the anticipation the selectors would have the ability to look past the recent names.

If anything, more recent batsmen should hurt him given the substandard bowling attacks they've faced in the past decade and the flat decks they've been dealt.

 

[DrVanNostrand]

And he couldn't have taken out Bill Lawry and go with 5 bowlers? With a bowling lineup including Ambrose you don't need more than 3 batsman.

Missed opportunity, I agree. I didn't actually have two specialist openers until my 12th pick so I paniced. I don't think any of my other batsman opened in their entire careers. Then it would have been Chappell to go (due to restrictions) and he is probably my best batsman.

Cairns would probably break down at the first training and Curtly would be ready to go. Either way, it's a bowling attack that knows how to party. And that, gentlemen, is why we play the game.

 

[DrVanNostrand]

Tossing up between Mcgraw, noobz and stevemac. Steve has my favourite player ever so he may get the nod. Noobz's players will benefit from the most inspirational of leaders.

Some teams let down by ordinary keepers of varying degrees (ABDV, Dhoni, Hanif, Sanga). Torz should have made Kumble captain. MG with a pretty ordinary, and highly suspect, attack.

 

[Bradesmaen]

Missed opportunity, I agree. I didn't actually have two specialist openers until my 12th pick so I paniced. I don't think any of my other batsman opened in their entire careers. Then it would have been Chappell to go (due to restrictions) and he is probably my best batsman.

Cairns would probably break down at the first training and Curtly would be ready to go. Either way, it's a bowling attack that knows how to party. And that, gentlemen, is why we play the game.

Could have gone with Glenn Turner as an opener and then slotted Ambrose in and had a free pick of player for 12th man.

 

[DrVanNostrand]

Could have gone with Glenn Turner as an opener and then slotted Ambrose in and had a free pick of player for 12th man.

If I had to bring in a kiwi as opener, it would have been the great man, Riggor Richardson.

Good spot with Turner, certainly missed that.

 

[Torz]

Lot of hostility towards my team. You're all jelly.

 

[DrVanNostrand]

...although Gak is the only one that can claim to bat all the way to 11, and with Richards at the helm...

 

[Torz]

I'm with you but given the modern players I can understand it being so. I look at how much players dominate their particular era and while they're all fantastic batsman there was also a lot of other players around the time with similar numbers. As I said in the draft I think the more recent players(especially batsman) will be perceived better and was a mistake I made picking some of the older guys early on.

Similar numbers perhaps, but impact? That trio have been the dominant batsmen for the past decade and beyond. The best of the 'era' if you will.

FWIW, I think Torz's batting is a little overrated

I'd love to hear why.

 

[stevemac]

Glinn Mgraw

Analysis - http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/test-cricket-draft.975064/page-17#post-26285851

 

[stevemac]

Glinn Mcgraw because it's just a very balanced side. It's almost as if it has 9 genuime batsmen and 5 genuine bowlers. He has also selected very well when it seemed that there weren't many players left. Did very well by picking Hadlee and Sangakkara early and was perhaps a bit lucky that players like Miller and Ponsford were left untouched for so long. Has the best 12th man.