All about All-time XIs

[One World]

Noc, you beat me to it. I had this in mind to make a coach 11 but that was for the world.

OW Asia XI

1.Saeed Anwar
2.Tamim Iqbal
3. Sachin Tendulkar
4. Inzamamul Haque
5. Aravinda De Silva
6. Kumar Sangakara (wk)
7. Imran Khan (c)
8. Shakib Al Hasan
9. Wasim Akram
10. WUJPV Chaminda Vaas
11. Abdul Qadir

Unless Tendulkar goes for century or Hariharan comes for umpiring, it will be another century of centuries before this team gets beaten by any other Asian combination.

[Matribhasha]

Bekar manusher XI

[Gowza]

my all time test XI as i'm feeling it right now:

1 barry richards (didn't play much test cricket but no doubt in my mind one of the best openers ever)
2 jack hobbs (scored all around the world consistently at brisk pace)
3 don bradman (the best batsman ever)
4 greg chappell/sachin tendulkar (to close to pick atm)
5 viv richards (consistency and demolition ability)
6 garry sobers (one of the greatest sportsmen ever born)
7 adam gilchrist (the greatest wicky batsman of all time, not just for his batting but his keeping also)
8 warne/murali (obviously the 2 best spinners ever, selection depends on conditions and opponents weaknesses)
9 malcolm marshall (complete fast bowler)
10 waqar younis (blistering pace and swing)
11 donald/procter (can't decided between them atm - i like donald for his pace, bounce and aggressive style but proctor had batting up his sleeve and his bowling off the wrong foot)

[salman2510]

My All Time XI would be -

Sachin Tendulkar
Adam Gilcrist (wk)
Brain Lara
Inzamamul Haq
Jaque Kallis
Shane Watson
Imran Khan (C)
Wasim Akram
Glenn Mcgrath
Mutaiah Murlidharan
Shane Warne

[Gowza]

Originally Posted by salman2510
My All Time XI would be -

Sachin Tendulkar
Adam Gilcrist (wk)
Brain Lara
Inzamamul Haq
Jaque Kallis
Shane Watson
Imran Khan (C)
Wasim Akram
Glenn Mcgrath
Mutaiah Murlidharan
Shane Warne

is this a test or ODI XI? also if it's a test XI gilchrist opening is a a bit much no? and shane watson....the rest are all great selections.

[Gowza]

ok so my revised test XI:

1 Barry Richards
2 Jack Hobbs
3 Don Bradman
4 Chappell/Tendulkar
5 Viv Richards
6 Garry Sobers
7 Adam Gilchrist
8 Mike Procter (he also bowled a bit of offspin btw)
9 Malcolm Marshall
10 Warne/Murali
11 Waqar Younis

[riankhan]

My all time XI will be:

1 Graeme Pollock
2 Brian Lara
3 Don Bradman
4 Tendulkar
5 Viv Richards
6 Jack Kallis
7 Adam Gilchrist
8 Wasim Akram
9 Marshal
10 Warne
11 Murali

[Gowza]

allrounders XI:

1 watson
2 barlow
3 kallis
4 sobers
5 miller
6 shakib (needed a top 6 batsman and someone who is good enough to be picked purely as a spinner)
7 gilchrist
8 procter
9 imran
10 akram
11 hadlee

12th man: chris cairns

[salman2510]

Originally Posted by Gowza
is this a test or ODI XI? also if it's a test XI gilchrist opening is a a bit much no? and shane watson....the rest are all great selections.

Its an ODI team !! and i agree, for TEST Gilly would be be a bit too much !!

[Zeeshan]

The Esh

1.Mohammad Ashraful
2.Ash, DL David Ash, 1944-England
3. Ash, EP Edward Ash, 1842-1909 England
4.Ash, RC Rohan Ash, 1976- Turks and Caicos Islands
5. Ash, SAH Selby Ash, 1836-1870 England
6. Cutler, ASH Arthur Cutler, 1913-1997 New Zealand
7. Gowers, A Ash Gowers, 1994- England
8. Perera, AJW Ash Perera, 1982-
9. Mohammad Ashraful
10. Mohammad Ashraful
11.Turner, AD Ash Turner, 1975-New Zealand

[One World]

This.XI (Current Test Eleven)

1. Chetasswar Pujara
2. Hashim Amla
3. Shivnarine Chanderpaul
4. KC Sangakkara
5. Alistair Cook (c)
6. Mahendra Sing Dhoni (w)
7. Faff Du Plesis
8. Ravichandran Ashwin
9. Shakib Al Hasan
10. Steyn
11. Philander

[Gowza]

Originally Posted by One World
This.XI (Current Test Eleven)

1. Chetasswar Pujara
2. Hashim Amla
3. Shivnarine Chanderpaul
4. KC Sangakkara
5. Alistair Cook (c)
6. Mahendra Sing Dhoni (w)
7. Faff Du Plesis
8. Ravichandran Ashwin
9. Shakib Al Hasan
10. Steyn
11. Philander

No Clarke? Also a but risky putting pujara and Amla to open, they're #3s in tests.

[One World]

Originally Posted by Gowza
No Clarke? Also a but risky putting pujara and Amla to open, they're #3s in tests.

Great point man, funny that I had Clarke in mind when I was thinking of the post and completely missed him while posting.

[Gowza]

Originally Posted by Gowza
allrounders XI:

1 watson
2 barlow
3 kallis
4 sobers
5 miller
6 shakib (needed a top 6 batsman and someone who is good enough to be picked purely as a spinner)
7 gilchrist
8 procter
9 imran
10 akram
11 hadlee

12th man: chris cairns

now i'd probably remove cairns from the 12th man spot and have jack gregory, actually gregory could possibly take the spot of wasim or hadlee as he'd strengthen the batting and since you would already have imran, miller, procter and one of wasim/hadlee as the pacers gregory shouldn't take much away from the pace unit.

[Gowza]

Originally Posted by Gowza
now i'd probably remove cairns from the 12th man spot and have jack gregory, actually gregory could possibly take the spot of wasim or hadlee as he'd strengthen the batting and since you would already have imran, miller, procter and one of wasim/hadlee as the pacers gregory shouldn't take much away from the pace unit.

another edit. greig takes the #8 spot and procter takes wasim's spot. and goddard contends for an opener spot. so:

1 goddard/watson
2 barlow
3 kallis
4 sobers
5 miller
6 shakib
7 gilchrist
8 greig
9 imran
10 procter
11 hadlee

could possibly take shaun pollock ahead of hadlee but hadlee has the better strike rate and better average as a bowler, he has the same number of test tons as pollock with many less matches, a higher highest score in tests and FC cricket and he scored more than double the amount of tons in FC cricket than pollock (14 to 6) and more half tons (59 to 35). granted hadlee played many more matches but he just has a slightly better resume plus he's a better overall bowler and being that they'll be batting at #11 i think the batting is pretty much similar if not hadlee possibly slightly better and hadlee is also a slightly better bowler.

[Gowza]

if you had marshall, warne, procter and sobers already in your team who bowled, would you take imran or waqar to compliment them? don't say wasim, i'm well aware of his abilities, but he underachieved, his stats don't stack up quite as well. procter bowls with sheer pacer, and is aggressive and ruthless, marshall is quick but also swings it and is considered the most complete fast bowler of all time, i thought someone to reverse it would be a good addition to the attack. imran has a plus with his batting but since it's an all time team the batting side of it isn't necessary though would be a great bonus but the main thing is who would be the best bowler to go with procter, marshall, warne and sobers.

i like waqar for his pace, low strike rate, reversing ability and that he took a lot of wickets bowled and lbw. i like imran for his consistency across the world and reversing ability. both were quite destructive. imran was probably the more complete bowler but i can't get waqar's inswingers out of my mind which would destroy the tail enders. saw waqar quite a bit, didn't get to see much of imran.

[Gowza]

My revised 1st and 2nd XI All Time

1st XI:

1 Jack Hobbs
2 Barry Richards
3 Don Bradman
4 Graeme Pollock
5 Viv Richards
6 Garry Sobers
7 Adam Gilchrist
8 Mike Procter
9 Imran Khan
10 Malcolm Marshall
11 Shane Warne

if you've ever researched jack hobbs you'll know why he's the #1 pick opener for me, some consider him the best after bradman, though it's very subjective and there are a few contenders he's the only opener with significant test experience to be given this honour, a pretty great close in fielder to. barry richards is the other opener who might be grouped in with those that are considered to be best after bradman though he gets discounted quite often as he didn't play many tests, unfortunate as it is i still rate him as one of the 2 best openers of all time. also was a great slipper.

bradman, no need to say anything really, averages nearly 100, from what was recorded his strike rate was around in the mid 70s in tests. pollock, another one that by some is considered the best after bradman, like barry richards didn't get to play much because of circumstance but boy was he a sight, amazing brilliant batsman and for me the best #4 of all time, another one who was a good fielder even in the slips. viv richards, so dominant, has an aurora about him, could take on the very best bowlers and succeed, also considered by some the next best after bradman and yes like the others above him a great fielder especially in the slips. garry sobers, he's in my team purely for his batting but adds with his fielding and 3 different types of bowling plus the left arm. garry is amazing, and what he adds to a team is amazing, one of the best batsmen of all time, one of the best fielders of all time, a really good left arm swing bowler, also bowled SLA and chinaman, you don't get many left arm chinaman bowlers and this adds to my all time XI attack.

gilchrist, incredible batsman, but also an incredible keeper. personally i rate him above healy as a keeper and healy is rated one of the best of all time so for me that puts his keeping ability right there up in the top echelon of all time keepers, purely on the keeping level. add to that his batting ability.

mike procter, very classy looking with the bat and very powerful, scored tons of FC runs, 48 tons, also scored 6 consecutive tons as well which not many have ever done. again he didn't get to play much but i still rate him as the best. bowling wise got a truckload of wickets at a strike rate in the mid 40s in FC cricket, was even better in the few tests he played. as a bowler he was fiery, tremendous pace, great bouncer and a wicket taker. he also bowled some decent offspin and could take wickets with it.

imran is there for his ATG bowling and really solid batting. the fact that i put procter above imran in the batting order isn't discounting imran but just saying how great of a cricketer mike procter truly was. imran's batting was very good and batting at #8, well he'd have to be the best #8 of all time...bowling wise he performed consistently across the globe, bowled conventional swing, reverse swing, good bouncer and at certain points in his career was very rapid (said to be the 3rd fastest at one time behind thomson and holding and they were both 160km/h bowlers). he also tore through quality batting attacks almost single-handed.

malcolm marshall, complete bowler, swung it both ways at express pace, a very dangerous bouncer, strike rate in the mid 40s, performed like imran across the globe. on top of that he could bat quite well with an FC batting average of 24 including 7 tons.

shane warne, considered by many the greatest spinner ever, a great strike rate for a spinner, great variations with his googly, top spinner, flipper, zooter, wrong'un, bouncer (yes he had a bouncer, no it wasn't by accident, though it was very rarely used). also a decent batsman with a couple of FC centuries and 26 FC half centuries, top test score of 99. he was a great slipper as well.

so overall the batting consists of very consistent but aggressive, attacking batsmen who dominated the best attacks across the world. bowling wise there is good variation with conventional swing, good bouncers, express pace, reverse swing, the leg spinner plus the left arm pace of sobers his SLAs and chinaman bowling combined with procters offies means this bowling attack has pretty much every style of bowling and variation that there is to offer.

2nd XI:

1 Len Hutton
2 Sunil Gavaskar
3 George Headley
4 Greg Chappell
5 Sachin Tendulkar
6 Wally Hammond
7 Les Ames
8 Wasim Akram
9 Joel Garner
10 Waqar Younis
11 Muttiah Muralitharan

an explanation to the 2nd XI. i think the batsmen speak for themselves, ames the keeper was picked ahead of guys like flower and knott because he was a high quality keeper but also a decent batsman averaging 40 in tests with 8 centuries (and more than 100 tons in FC cricket average of 43). flower isn't a good keeper and knott although a decent bat wasn't as good as ames, ames was a top quality keeper and one of the best keeper bats of all time (and in his time the best there ever had been).

the bowlers i picked on both quality and variation that's why i have wasim akram who could bowl express pace swing it both ways conventionally, reverse it and also seam it (sometimes doing all that in the same ball). waqar is there for his incredible strike rate, blistering pace and his style of bowling, he attacked the stumps more than other batsmen and it shows as he has a lot more bowled and LBW than fast bowlers usually get. garner is in there because of his nippy pace, incredible height and ability to get the ball on an awkward length with sharp bounce making it almost impossible to score off him, also had a great yorker (just as waqar did). murali there as he can spin it both ways and a great strike rate for a spinner.

[Roey Haque]

Originally Posted by Gowza
My revised 1st and 2nd XI All Time

1st XI:

1 Jack Hobbs
2 Barry Richards
3 Don Bradman
4 Graeme Pollock
5 Viv Richards
6 Garry Sobers
7 Adam Gilchrist
8 Mike Procter
9 Imran Khan
10 Malcolm Marshall
11 Shane Warne

if you've ever researched jack hobbs you'll know why he's the #1 pick opener for me, some consider him the best after bradman, though it's very subjective and there are a few contenders he's the only opener with significant test experience to be given this honour, a pretty great close in fielder to. barry richards is the other opener who might be grouped in with those that are considered to be best after bradman though he gets discounted quite often as he didn't play many tests, unfortunate as it is i still rate him as one of the 2 best openers of all time. also was a great slipper.

bradman, no need to say anything really, averages nearly 100, from what was recorded his strike rate was around in the mid 70s in tests. pollock, another one that by some is considered the best after bradman, like barry richards didn't get to play much because of circumstance but boy was he a sight, amazing brilliant batsman and for me the best #4 of all time, another one who was a good fielder even in the slips. viv richards, so dominant, has an aurora about him, could take on the very best bowlers and succeed, also considered by some the next best after bradman and yes like the others above him a great fielder especially in the slips. garry sobers, he's in my team purely for his batting but adds with his fielding and 3 different types of bowling plus the left arm. garry is amazing, and what he adds to a team is amazing, one of the best batsmen of all time, one of the best fielders of all time, a really good left arm swing bowler, also bowled SLA and chinaman, you don't get many left arm chinaman bowlers and this adds to my all time XI attack.

gilchrist, incredible batsman, but also an incredible keeper. personally i rate him above healy as a keeper and healy is rated one of the best of all time so for me that puts his keeping ability right there up in the top echelon of all time keepers, purely on the keeping level. add to that his batting ability.

mike procter, very classy looking with the bat and very powerful, scored tons of FC runs, 48 tons, also scored 6 consecutive tons as well which not many have ever done. again he didn't get to play much but i still rate him as the best. bowling wise got a truckload of wickets at a strike rate in the mid 40s in FC cricket, was even better in the few tests he played. as a bowler he was fiery, tremendous pace, great bouncer and a wicket taker. he also bowled some decent offspin and could take wickets with it.

imran is there for his ATG bowling and really solid batting. the fact that i put procter above imran in the batting order isn't discounting imran but just saying how great of a cricketer mike procter truly was. imran's batting was very good and batting at #8, well he'd have to be the best #8 of all time...bowling wise he performed consistently across the globe, bowled conventional swing, reverse swing, good bouncer and at certain points in his career was very rapid (said to be the 3rd fastest at one time behind thomson and holding and they were both 160km/h bowlers). he also tore through quality batting attacks almost single-handed.

malcolm marshall, complete bowler, swung it both ways at express pace, a very dangerous bouncer, strike rate in the mid 40s, performed like imran across the globe. on top of that he could bat quite well with an FC batting average of 24 including 7 tons.

shane warne, considered by many the greatest spinner ever, a great strike rate for a spinner, great variations with his googly, top spinner, flipper, zooter, wrong'un, bouncer (yes he had a bouncer, no it wasn't by accident, though it was very rarely used). also a decent batsman with a couple of FC centuries and 26 FC half centuries, top test score of 99. he was a great slipper as well.

so overall the batting consists of very consistent but aggressive, attacking batsmen who dominated the best attacks across the world. bowling wise there is good variation with conventional swing, good bouncers, express pace, reverse swing, the leg spinner plus the left arm pace of sobers his SLAs and chinaman bowling combined with procters offies means this bowling attack has pretty much every style of bowling and variation that there is to offer.

2nd XI:

1 Len Hutton
2 Sunil Gavaskar
3 George Headley
4 Greg Chappell
5 Sachin Tendulkar
6 Wally Hammond
7 Les Ames
8 Wasim Akram
9 Joel Garner
10 Waqar Younis
11 Muttiah Muralitharan

an explanation to the 2nd XI. i think the batsmen speak for themselves, ames the keeper was picked ahead of guys like flower and knott because he was a high quality keeper but also a decent batsman averaging 40 in tests with 8 centuries (and more than 100 tons in FC cricket average of 43). flower isn't a good keeper and knott although a decent bat wasn't as good as ames, ames was a top quality keeper and one of the best keeper bats of all time (and in his time the best there ever had been).

the bowlers i picked on both quality and variation that's why i have wasim akram who could bowl express pace swing it both ways conventionally, reverse it and also seam it (sometimes doing all that in the same ball). waqar is there for his incredible strike rate, blistering pace and his style of bowling, he attacked the stumps more than other batsmen and it shows as he has a lot more bowled and LBW than fast bowlers usually get. garner is in there because of his nippy pace, incredible height and ability to get the ball on an awkward length with sharp bounce making it almost impossible to score off him, also had a great yorker (just as waqar did). murali there as he can spin it both ways and a great strike rate for a spinner.

Love reading all these "all time XI" lists. Especially when they are backed up by justifications for the selections as in your posts. You should make a 3rd team.

[Gowza]

Originally Posted by Roey Haque
Love reading all these "all time XI" lists. Especially when they are backed up by justifications for the selections as in your posts. You should make a 3rd team.

Thanks. i actually shortened the explanations a bit as to not make the post too long but turned out very long anyway. as for a 3rd XI, i've never really thought about it but will give it ago.

3rd XI:

1 Matthew Hayden
2 Herbert Sutcliffe
3 Jacques Kallis
4 Brian Lara
5 Allan Border
6 AB De Villiers
7 Richard Hadlee
8 Alan Knott
9 SF Barnes
10 Allan Donald
11 Bill O'Reilly

the openers: sutcliffe was an easy choice, for some he is in their 1st XI. averaged 60, partnered jack hobbs so as you can imagine they had an incredible partnership so since sutcliffe averages 60 and was apart of probably the best opening batting partnership ever he gets into my 3rd XI. hayden edged out sehwag, reason for that was sehwag's poor record in england, NZ and south africa, not that hayden had amazing records their but he did have a solid to great record everywhere whereas sehwag has a much better record in Asia and not very good in some of the other conditions.

#3: kallis, edged out dravid, ponting and sangakkara. dravid has the slower strike rate is was edged it for kallis of dravid, and that kallis scored in a slightly more balanced way across all conditions than dravid did. kallis nudged ahead of ponting due to ponting's record in india, he had more than enough matches and couldn't conquer it near well enough so that's a big hole in his record. sangakkara has a solid record everywhere but kallis's record in his home country south africa where the ball does a lot more for pacers is what edged kallis in this one.

middle order: lara grabs the #4 spot, dominated attacks, struggled against quality pace (look at his record against guys like akram, waqar, mcgrath, donald/pollock, ambrose/walsh etc) but one of the greatest against spin and medium fast bowlers. plus has the record highest test score. allan border pretty much conquered everywhere with great consistency, lowest average is 38 in south africa but 38 is still good and he did only play 3 matches there. everywhere else he managed to average at least 45+. de villiers, shocking it maybe but he's there. his worst average is 33 in Bangladesh but he only played 2 matches for that, everywhere else it's 43+ so he gets in for his flare and consistency across all conditions.

#7: the allrounder hadlee gets in. this fight was between haddles, shakib and miller. i ended up picking hadlee because his bowling was ahead of both shakib and miller. shakib and miller were better bats but if you look at hadlee's FC record he averaged over 30 with the bat and scored 14 tons and that's very good for a #7, i think as an overall package he offers a bit more. shakib was very close here, since he spins it SLA and it would have added some great variation to the attack but i couldn't resist the pacey corridor 5fer man hadlee. perhaps if i revise this team shakib may make it over hadlee depending on the day.

keeper #8: knott, makes it due to his superb keeping and solid batting, he's in a lot of peoples 1st XI so that says a lot about how good of a keeper he was.

specialist bowlers: barnes could do anything with the ball, seam, swing, spin, pace, slower etc his great record combined with his ability to do so much with the ball and that people say he was perhaps the greatest bowler of all time is why he makes my 3rd XI. Donald is in there for his terrific record, pace and his aggressiveness, he didn't mind hitting a batsman, he gave them a bit of fear, great bounce and seam at high pace. o'reilly, similar to barnes but barnes did it quicker, o'reilly bowled the googly though which barnes never did. o'reilly is one of the greatest spinners ever, in my book the 3rd best, he nearly piped murali to make the 2nd XI but murali's numbers, uniqueness and being an offie made me decide against it.

[Gowza]

Originally Posted by Roey Haque
Love reading all these "all time XI" lists. Especially when they are backed up by justifications for the selections as in your posts. You should make a 3rd team.

i also enjoy the all time xi lists, even better with explanations/discussion.

[Roey Haque]

Cool. Not having Kallis and Lara in the first two teams was an eye opener. Because when making such lists, shouldn't current players automatically carry more weight due to playing against more teams and undoubtedly a more varied and skilled bowling attack backed up by things such as better nutrition and fitness? But awesome collection of 33 players you got now.

17 more needed and you can have your 50 greatest players of all time. And perhaps ESPN or tencricket could one day gather 4 legends and have a draft pick type of show, choosing from the 50 options, to see what different teams are formed. The same way they did in the NBA. Would be a fantastic show.

I'm already recommending Amla for one of those 17 remaining spots. That ODI average(57) is insane by today's standards!

[Gowza]

Originally Posted by Roey Haque
Cool. Not having Kallis and Lara in the first two teams was an eye opener. Because when making such lists, shouldn't current players automatically carry more weight due to playing against more teams and undoubtedly a more varied and skilled bowling attack backed up by things such as better nutrition and fitness? But awesome collection of 33 players you got now.

17 more needed and you can have your 50 greatest players of all time. And perhaps ESPN or tencricket could one day gather 4 legends and have a draft pick type of show, choosing from the 50 options, to see what different teams are formed. The same way they did in the NBA. Would be a fantastic show.

I'm already recommending Amla for one of those 17 remaining spots. That ODI average(57) is insane by today's standards!

50 greatest players is a whole different thing, talking across all formats. amla is a great player i agree. as far as current players carrying more weight, definitely playing in more conditions against more opposition gives us a great insight into their ability but there are many things to weigh up such as quality of opposition, pitches in different countries at the time, eye-witness accounts etc.

[Roey Haque]

Originally Posted by Gowza
50 greatest players is a whole different thing, talking across all formats.

I wouldn't say it's too different. I mean selecting those 50 by composing best XIs is a fine way to give all roles respect. Wicketkeeper,batsmen,bowlers and all rounders. Because the draft show that I proposed, you would need a fair share of players in each role, to give each selector a chance to come up with a balanced team.

I'm loving all the legends btw. Cricket is my 4th favorite sport after Basketball,soccer and boxing, so your team selections and explantions are a motivation to look up all the legends you have picked and research more about them. I'm just in awe of Malcolm Marshall right now.

[Gowza]

Originally Posted by Roey Haque
I wouldn't say it's too different. I mean selecting those 50 by composing best XIs is a fine way to give all roles respect. Wicketkeeper,batsmen,bowlers and all rounders. Because the draft show that I proposed, you would need a fair share of players in each role, to give each selector a chance to come up with a balanced team.

I'm loving all the legends btw. Cricket is my 4th favorite sport after Basketball,soccer and boxing, so your team selections and explantions are a motivation to look up all the legends you have picked and research more about them. I'm just in awe of Malcolm Marshall right now.

you have a good point as far as balancing the different roles and being represented, but i don't think many keepers would make a top 50, for me possibly only gilchrist. malcolm marshall was amazing. wasim akram was possibly the most complete fast bowler ever, but unfortunately his strike rate isn't amazing and he took a lot of tail end wickets.

[sum_1]

My all time XI

1. Jack Hobbs
2. Don Bradman
3. Rahul Dravid/Sachin Tendukar
4. Jacques Kallis/Shaun Pollock
5. Viv Richards
6. Gary Sobers
7. Adam Gilchrist/Ian Healy
8. Jim Laker/Erapalli Prassanna
9. Abdul Quadir/Bill O'Reilly
10. Malcolm Marshall/Dennis Lillee
11. Sydney Barnes