The Best XI

Originally posted by Beefy Here's what I consider to the best XI of the current players. V Sehwag, G Smith, R Ponting (capt), B Lara , S Tendulkar, J Kallis, A Flintoff, A Gilchrist, S Pollock, S Warne, G McGrath What do you think?

Nice selection Beefy , but Graeme Smith has had a pretty torrid time from Hoggy and can't compare with Justin Langer or Andrew Struass - being English , I'll opt for Anderw ! . Sachin just hasn't performed in some time - the injury has plagued him and the subsequent loss of form was no surprise. On current form , my side is...

      Strauss ; Langer ; Ponting ; Dravid ; Kallis; Flintoff ; Gilchrist ; Warne ; Pollock ; Gillespie ; McGrath

       No room for Clarke or Martin , pretty hard seeing they've been brilliant recently!!

Originally posted by Beefy it was a tough choice for openers. My heart said Strauss, but Smith's experience won the day. Strauss would be my 12th man! Dravid's a good choice. No Lara in your side?

No , very tough to leave the man out though ! From an English perspective , the good news is that all those Ausssies will be on pension soon and the side will be FULL of Poms !!!

Originally posted by -JP- I was going to post a similar thing to this - good stuff Beefy. Here's mine: Strauss, Langer, Dravid, Ponting, Lara, Kallis, Gilchrist, Warne, McGrath, Pollock, Hoggard 12th Man: Sehwag/Gillespie This is the team I'd pick if they had to play a match tomorrow...

Pretty close to mine there JP !!! I goota admit , seeing Hoggy in your side warmed the ****les of my heart!!

Well, Hoggy is on fine form at the moment - and he's always been a favourite of mine so I had to include him.

i think i would put pedro collins as a bowler in it though. he is getting better and is one of the better bowlers i have seen in the vb series so far.

Good Day Team

We all seem to be on the same wave length as to the selection of the best current team - give or take a player. Well here follows my team . . .

Langer, Gilcrist, Ponting, Martyn, Dravid, Kallis, Flintoff, Warne, Lee, Gillespie & Mc Grath.

The team might find it strange that I chose Gilcrist to open the batting but in my opinion he could do the job. I would also replace Lee with Pollock in the one day side as the latter provides the team with line & length.

The Bird

All pretty good selections, some interesting exclusions though: nobody has chosen:

Kumar Sangakarra (though i don't suppose he stands much chance with Adam Gilchrist about).
Ramnaresh Sarwan...not even a mention for a player who averages almost 48 in Limited Overs cricket!
No sign of Herschelle Gibbs...okay he didn't return with a huge flurry of runs but has now got it together at last
No Yousef Youhana or Younis Khan or Shoaib Akthar or Danish Kaneria for that matter
No Harbajan or Anil Kumble who have both had good series's lately
And nobody mentioning any New Zealanders at all! (Or maybe i just haven't read all that carefully)

Okay here's my Test XI:

Justin Langer
Andrew Strauss
Ricky Ponting (captain) (only just gets in as batsman alone ahead of Tendulkar)
Damien Martyn
Brian Lara
Jaques Kallis (I know that's normally a bit lower than he bats but i think he'd do okay at 6)
Adam Gilchrist (WK) (Vice Captain) (so no Rahul Dravid but he's not as good a keeper but haha i think there's enough strength in the batting!)
Jason Gillespie
Michael Kasprowicz 9can't believe nobody included him!)
Glenn Mcgrath
Stauart Macgill (yeah yeah i know, ahead of shane Warne and all...) but Warne has been truly rubbish of late!

Here's my One Day XI:

Adam Gilchrist (WK) (Vice Captain)
Sachin Tendulkar (this was where he was at his best so if he plays makes sense for him to open and anyway Clarke's natural position is in the middle order)
Ricky Ponting (Captain) One Day form has not been as scratchy as his Test form lately
Brian Lara
Ramnaresh Sarwan (the new Michael Bevan)
Michael Clarke
Jaques Kallis (quite low down the order for him but he can bat at 7)
Daniel Vettori
Jason Gillespie
Glenn Mcgrath
Michael Kasprowicz

That kind of settles the debate over where Gilchrist should bat then...Dravid misses out and Tendulkar comes in on sheer reputation and to date statistics but when you have records like his how can you leave him out?

No Flintoff i know and as fun as it may be to watch him play his record is just not as good as some of the others, well not yet anyway if he can better it and continue in the form he was last summer then maybe but he needs to do it for a longer period of time to make up for a bad start to his career early on.

Actually if you look at current form then Macgill would easily get into a side ahead of Warne. Warne has been total rubbish lately, his form has gone out of the window, he is getting hit around the park a lot more, going for more per wicket and taking longer to get them so in essence his average, his strike rate and his economy have gone up. Stuart on the other hand took 5 wickets in an innings in the final Test against Pakistan and is now playing in the form of his life in domestic cricket and should play ahead of warne who now simply should call it a day. Vettori is indeed in my one day side on current form. As i said Flintoff is good to watch but his statistics (even just of late) have been rubbish. I know Kallis at 7 may well be too low but maybe he would be shifted up the order. As for no Cairns well i did consider him but he is reknown for his ability to play huge shots over the ropes and into the grandstand and seeing as Adam Gilchrist is already in the team...As for Sachin he did just hit a massive double hundred in his last Test series and he hasn't actually played for a while, its not as if his form has dipped.

You would have Irfan Pathan in your One Day side ahead of say i dunno...maybe Brett Lee? You'd leave Brian Lara out of your one Day XI a selfish stonewaller like Rahul Dravid? You know you'd make one hell of a selector...

Well i don't know about Pollock better than McGrath but anyway you see what i mean about Indians loving to boast and gloat and hype up the abilities of their own players. I mean would you really have a stonewaller like Dravid in your One Day side??

Not sure any Indians would be in a World one day XI right now, and as for us 'sneaking past' the Aussies in the summer, Inducker, well I think you might have more than just 'a little' to say  should the unthinkable happen.

Originally posted by JALRC Inducker you say that Aussies are the ones who go about beating their chest and boasting but when you're as good as they are right now and produce the sort of results they do then you can afford to be arrogant and boisterous. As for England and Australia this summer well let's just say that if England do happen to avoid a series defeat (in fact if they even manage to avoid defeat in a single Test without weather intervention) i'll do what you promised to if Ireland could beat Australia in the women's game and take a pregnancy test!

My experience of Australians lead me to believe they bragged about their criminal records too JAL - it just the nature of the beast (and beasts they most certainly are ! !!

   I promise you that Australiawill not win 5-0 this Summer - they've never done it before , and this geriatric mob certainly won't change that record !

Just incidently i forgot to correct you Inducker. The 1920/21 series between Australia and England ended 5&0 to Australia so Australia have indeed whitewashed England in a 5 Test series before.

Yeah okay enough of the smart alec jokes!

Yeah its okay you can vent out your frustration of not being able to watch any live cricket for god knows how long while South Africa were in isolation and having to settle for bit part rebel tours that nobody cares about on me if you like. Its okay it would have scarred anybody's mental state the way it has scarred you.