Another draft!-Test players of the 90s and later - FINISHED!

[Gaurav_7]

Gosh, I'm so anxious for my last pick. I just hope I get that player...

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1. Alastair Cook
2. Virender Sehwag
3. Stephen Fleming
4. Kumar Sangakkara
5. Jimmy Adams
6. Prassana Jayawardene
7. Mark Boucher (wk)
8. Brett Lee
9. Danish Kaneria
10. Mashrafe Mortaza
11. Javagal Srinath

Looks alright. Not too strong and not too thin. Only four bowling options though. Sehwag is a great off spinner, I know.

 

[shravi]

My last pick is one of my favorite cricketers from the modern era. When in touch, he is one of the most attractive players to watch. He oozes class and elegance and is a wonderful fielder. I thought about pushing Kirsten down to three because he batted there from 02-03 and had great success and picking Watson. However, 10 matches at number three wasn't enough to convince me. Besides, my bowling attack is good enough that I just need Clarke to fill in some overs to keep the over rate up and ensure that my quicks aren't out of breath. He won't be bowling much. From the moment he hit that ton vs India in India, I knew this kid was going to be special, whether he had a great FC record or not. He is Australia's 9th highest run scorer from January 01, 1990 onwards. Everybody who's ahead of him has played significantly more matches than him. In 69 matches (114 innings) he has scored 4742 runs at an average of 46.49 with 14 centuries and 20 fifties. He's had a bit of a lean patch of late following some personal troubles but I have no doubt in my mind that his best is yet to come. However, he's achieved enough already to convince me. In 42 innings as a bowler he has taken 21 wickets at an average of 39 at a good economy rate of 2.81. He has a best of 6/9 and played a significant role in that oh so famous Sydney episode vs India as well.

So...

Gary Kirsten
Tamim Iqbal
Ian Bell
Brian Lara
Michael Clarke
VVS Laxman
+ Ridley Jacobs
Dale Steyn
Shane Bond
Lasith Malinga
Mushtaq Ahmed

I don't think there are many people who wouldn't pay to watch that middle order and that pace attack in action.

 

[Gaurav_7]

Thumbs up for that bowling attack. Lara is another attraction there, personally, in that batting department.

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My middle order with Lara in there plus your bowling attack. We have a winner then, Shravi.

Aditya and CI to pick before I get to my turn.

 

[Aditya]

My pick is : Jason Gillespie

My Team
1. Hashim Amla
2. Marvan Attapattu
3. Inzamam-ul-Haq
4. Shivnarine Chanderpaul
5. Sourav Ganguly
6. MS Dhoni
7. Shakib Al Hasan
8. Graeme Swann
9. Jason Gillespie
10. Chris Martin
11. Glenn Mcgrath

I was thinking whether to select a batsman or a bowler but I went for a bowler because my batting line up is already quite strong and not to mention, Gillespie wasn't too bad with the bat. After all, he has a double century to his name in test cricket. Not too bad eh!

Write up to be done soon.

 

[Gaurav_7]

Like your bowling. Batting is a weak link, I think. I mean after top 4, it looks thin. Or maybe it is a bit scattered here and there...

 

[shravi]

You could have had a much better batting line up if you chose Dravid ahead of Ganguly as you should have .

 

[Aditya]

I've looked to make my team strong, on overall basis. I made sure that I don't mess up with my team, I mean making the batting stronger and bowling weaker or vice versa. After Chanderpaul it's Ganguly, I actually rate him as a great batsman and someone who didn't do justice to his batting at the test level. Dhoni is the next batsman, he is someone who is capable of playing the big shots. If you look at my top 4, 2 of them are such batsman that take their time in settling at the pitch (Attapattu does play attacking cricket but he's a little slow at the starting of his innings and Chanderpaul ofcourse needs some time to settle at the pitch ) and the rest 2 (Amla and Inzamam) are class players. They can play according to the situation. So, the balance of the team in the top order is fine. If Attapattu and Chanderpaul play slowly and build a partnership then Ganguly and Dhoni in the middle order have the capability to play the big shots and improve the run rate. Even the lower order batsman - Shakib and Swann are attacking players so overall the batting looks fine. I'm happy with my bowling, Mcgrath, Martin, Gillespie in the pace department and in spin department, Swann and Shakib - who are very fine spin bowlers indeed. So the bowling does look good and not to forget the more than handy medium pacers from Ganguly.

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@Shravi - I mentioned the reason for not selecting Dravid a few pages back. I wanted to have a good team balance. My team bats deep, Swann at 7th down and Gillespie next in. Although I do feel that in place of Attapattu I could have selected some other opening batsman but Attapattu was a very good batsman so I think the decision is fine. I basically selected Ganguly to have an extra bowler in the side.

 

[AbhishekS]

but if you'd taken Darryl Cullinan or maybe Amla instead of Boucher, that might have helped.

Since the start of the draft I had targeted the opening pair of Cook and Sehwag. And my top order was all set by the South African round. With the likes of Sehwag, Cook, Fleming and Sangakkara there was no real room for Amla.

And I'll always prefer to get my batsmen bat at the positions they do in RL and not just imagine that they would do good at some other position.

 

[sifter132]

Gosh, I'm so anxious for my last pick. I just hope I get that player...

Well cricket icon should be looking for an opener, so you should be right.

Although...I thought Aditya would be looking for a batsman, but he took Gillespie. Rightly so IMHO - Gillespie is very underrated, everyone talks about McGrath & Warne. Gives him 3 real pacemen and makes the attack look much better. It may be a little biased, but he may just have the best new ball duo too because to me Gillespie + McGrath > than Pollock + Shoaib.

My last pick is one of my favorite cricketers from the modern era. When in touch, he is one of the most attractive players to watch. He oozes class and elegance and is a wonderful fielder.

Ah yes, you know how much I love MJ Clarke, but I thought you might be tempted by 1 of the 2 even classier looking middle order players Still that's definitely the most watchable team you've constructed. Even Mushie was great fun to watch. So it's really only Kirsten and Jacobs who aren't crowd pleasers.

And I'll always prefer to get my batsmen bat at the positions they do in RL and not just imagine that they would do good at some other position.

Yeah, it looks better when you can do that. With the SL round out of the way, I think I'll be able to do that. Although Murray Goodwin was not a #6...but he won't deserve to bat at #3 in my team Everyone else should be in their preferred spots, except Flintoff who'll be at 7 instead of 6.

 

[cricket_icon]

What a batting line up for shravi and im loving the pace attack.
sifter i still believe pollock and shoaib trumps them all . Ok my final pick...drum rolls please...

Shane Watson, it really couldn't be anyone else for me. A very good opener who gives me even more bowling options. Detailed write up will follow.

 

[Aditya]

Marvan Atapattu

Matches : 90
Runs : 5502
HS : 249
Ave : 39.02
100's : 16

Test debut v India at Chandigarh, Nov 23-27, 1990

You can say that Marvan Atapattu is a very underrated player. He has got "6" double centuries to his name. Only 3 more players have got more double centuries. Atapattu was a stylish player, someone who took his time early in the innings but once he got his eye in, he was a really elegant player to watch. It isn't easy to bat with someone like Jayasuriya, who on other hand is taking the bowlers apart. You do get carried away at times but Atapattu was always excellent in giving the best support to Jayasuriya. He knew that his role was to rotate the strike and let Jayasuriya do the rest. This guy was a great team player.

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Jason Gillespie

Matches : 71
Wickets : 259
Average : 26.13
BBI : 7/37
BBM : 9/80

Test debut v India at Chandigarh, Nov 23-27, 1990

Jason Gillespie gives my team yet another good pace bowler. This guy was tall, started off his carrier as a bowler who could bowl in high 140's but in the later part of his career his pace was in mid 130's, simply because of the injuries he got throughout his career but he was a bowler who never hesitated to bowl a lot of overs in hot conditions. Playing alongside a bowler like Mcgrath can be tough, he's just too good but Gillespie never compared himself to Mcgrath and that's why he tasted success. He averages 26.13 with the ball which is actually quite good, really good in fact.

 

[Gaurav_7]

Stuart MacGill​

Best strike rate for a modern spinner, worst luck ever. Cricinfo has put it rightly. MacGill played when Shane Warne was ruling the the spin department for the Aussies and they never liked playing two wrist spinners at once. A great talent though, truly. Was always overshadowed and couldn't do much about it. Though, his batting has forced me to put Makhaya at 10.

M 44, 85 Inns, 208 Wkts @ 29.02, SR 54.0, BBI 8/108

Has 9 4fers and 12 5fers.

XI

1. Saeed Anwar
2. Mark Richardson
3. Jacques Kallis
4. Mahela Jayawardene (c)
5. Mohammad Yousuf
6. Dwayne Bravo
7. Matt Prior (wk)
8. Mohammad Rafique
9. Zaheer Khan
10. Makhaya Ntini
11. Stuart MacGill

 

[Papa_Smurf]

Didn't Mark Waugh make his debut in the 90's?

*goes to check*

Yes he did. How has he been not picked yet?

 

[Aditya]

Indeed, it's a bit surprising and now I really regret my decision of picking Atapattu. I had the option of selecting openers like Watson or Mark Waugh.

@User2010 - Very nice pick there, Macgill was a very nice spinner he was very very unlucky but that doesn't mean that he was not a good spinner, he surely strengthens your bowling attack.

 

[Gaurav_7]

Didn't Mark Waugh make his debut in the 90's?

*goes to check*

Yes he did. How has he been not picked yet?

Smurf, as I said somewhere earlier, it comes down to the team composition. I couldn't fit him in my team at this stage. But, yes, Aditya has gone wrong by not picking Dravid earlier and now missing out on some good Aussie players. Some planning has to be involved, you know.