Some Fun Cricket XIs

[Supreme General]

So it's been probably about seven years since I last did this, but I'm going to go back through and make some left-handed XIs.

The rules are:

• All bowlers must be left-handed
• No right-handed batters can bat above number 9, or above any left-handed batter (this is to make sure players like Trent Boult don't miss out)
• The wicket-keeper must bat left-handed

Let's start with England

	Test XI	ODI XI	T20I XI
1	Ben Duckett	Ben Duckett	Ben Duckett
2	Keaton Jennings	Keaton Jennings	Tom Alsop
3	Nick Gubbins	Miles Hammond	Miles Hammond
4	Jacob Bethell	Jacob Bethell	Jacob Bethell
5	Ben Stokes	James Rew	Sam Curran
6	James Rew	Sam Curran	Paul Walter
7	Sam Curran	Paul Walter	Dan Mousley
8	Tom Hartley	Luke Wood	Luke Wood
9	Jack Leach	James Coles	Jake Lintott
10	Josh Hull	Danny Briggs	Reece Topley
11	Reece Topley	Reece Topley	Tymal Mills

Spoiler: Unavailable due to retirement

Moeen Ali - all formats
Dawid Malan - all formats
Ben Stokes - ODI, T20I, I think

David Willey - all formats

Tymal Mills - Test, ODI

I think all of my teams look like they're a bowler heavy, but that's mostly because of Jacob Bethell - he has so far shown himself to be far more of a batter than a bowler, and I think that's reflected in how I've deployed him in my teams. I've also tried to give a slight bias to players already being picked by England or the Lions, which is how come Dan Mousley still makes the T20 side as a specialist number seven batter, and why Josh Hull is there at all. Reece Topley for the Test side feels a bit presumptuous, but it was between him and Luke Wood - and neither has played a Championship game this year.

I'll probably do Australia next time.

I’d probably go

Test XI
1. Ben Duckett
2. Alex Lees
3. Keaton Jennings
4. Ben Stokes
5. James Rew
6. John Simpson (WK)
7. Jacob Bethell
8. Sam Curran
9. Luke Wood
10. Jack Leach
11. Josh Hull


ODI XI

1. Ben Duckett
2. Keaton Jennings
3. Miles Hammond
4. Jacob Bethell
5. Dan Mousley
6. Tom Alsop
7. Sam Curran
8. Luke Wood
9. Danny Briggs
10. David Payne
11. Reece Topley

T20I XI

1. Ben Duckett
2. Miles Hammond
3. Tom Alsop
4. Jacob Bethell
5. Dan Mousley
6. Sam Curran
7. Paul Walter
8. George Garton
9. James Coles
10. Jake Lintott
11. Reece Topley

 

[Aislabie]

I’d probably go

Yeah I certainly don't hate your changes at all. The only ones I would slightly object to are the ones that result in James Rew's presence in the side being slightly lessened - I'd definitely keep him as the Test WK-batter and have a specialist batter over Simpson, and also stick to Rew over Alsop as the ODI keeper as Rew has played unofficial ODIs for the Lions.

Other than that, really excellent changes

 

[ddrap14]

Tom Rogers The Batsman making the ODI side off the back of one innings

It's worth noting that he should be in the coversation for the ACTUAL ODI side if we're going off his Marsh Cup performance last year:

 

[pillowprocter]

It's worth noting that he should be in the coversation for the ACTUAL ODI side if we're going off his Marsh Cup performance last year:
View attachment 300104

Form is temporary, Dan Hughes is permanent

 

[Aislabie]

I guess it's that time again where we make XIs of the year and then everyone argues about the 11th-best player in each one!

Men's XI

Spoiler: Aislabie's 2024 Test XI

1. Yashasvi Jaiswal
2. Aiden Markram
3. Kane Williamson
4. Joe Root
5. Harry Brook
6. Kamindu Mendis
7. Alex Carey
8. Keshav Maharaj
9. Matt Henry
10. Jasprit Bumrah
11. Josh Hazlewood
12th man. Mitch Santner

Near misses: Ben Duckett, Kyle Verreynne, Pat Cummins, Marco Jansen

Spoiler: Aislabie's 2024 ODI XI

1. Rahmanullah Gurbaz
2. Pathum Nissanka
3. Harry Brook
4. Tristan Stubbs
5. Heinrich Klaasen
6. Sherfane Rutherford
7. Azmatullah Omarzai
8. Wanindu Hasaranga
9. Shaheen Shah Afridi
10. Xavier Bartlett
11. Haris Rauf
12th man. Allah Ghazanfar

Near misses: Saim Ayub, Kusal Mendis, Brandon McMullen, Mehidy Hasan, Rashid Khan

There really was a crippling lack of quality ODI cricket played in 2024, wtf?

Spoiler: Aislabie's 2024 Twenty20 XI

1. Travis Head
2. Ryan Rickelton
3. Tilak Varma
4. Nicholas Pooran
5. Heinrich Klaasen
6. Andre Russell
7. Wanindu Hasaranga
8. Rashid Khan
9. Jasprit Bumrah
10. Fazalhaq Farooqi
11. Matheesha Pathirana
12th man. Sean Abbott

Near misses: Phil Salt, Abhishek Sharma, James Vince, Donovan Ferreira, Moeen Ali, Big Stoin, SCurran, Imad Wasim, Dushan Hemantha, Ehsan Khan, Tim Southee

Nicholas Pooran's 76 T20 matches this year suggest an answer to the question of where quality ODI cricket has gone.

Might edit in an all-format and all-disappointments XI later on before I get cracking on women's XIs.

 

[ddrap14]

Hell yeah Big X

Hazlewood really surprised me - I can only remember him being injured this year

 

[pillowprocter]

everyone argues about the 11th-best player in each one!

out of interest, who was the 11th best/last pick in each of your XIs?

 

[Aislabie]

out of interest, who was the 11th best/last pick in each of your XIs?

Markram, Bartlett and Pathirana

 

[andyblignaut]

2. Andy Flower - With a lack of convincing alternatives, Flower takes the gloves despite not being particularly noted for his work with them. However, what he is is Zimbabwe's best ever batsman by a long way.

Sorry for diggin up something so old, but this had to be spoken about ! Not sure where you got this opinion from but in a non rude way that couldn’t be any further from the truth. Andy was a brilliant gloveman and he’s arguably up there as the second best bat / keeper behind gilly of the last 30 odd years, he was also one of the best cricketers of his generation. He gave the gloves up much like sangakarra to concentrate on his batting and to give opportunities to young players like Tatenda taibu ! If Andy had played for Aus England India or South Africa ect he would be spoken about in the same sentences as gilly and sangakarra. His batting alone was just as good as anyone’s as well! Sorry I’m very protective of my zim boys, don’t get to experience the proudness I once had over the greats of our country.

 

[ddrap14]

Not sure where you got this opinion from

Looking at it back - I have a completely false memory of Grant Flower being the good WK and Andy being a part-time one rather than the other way around. Probably bc both retired before I was even born

 

[ddrap14]

IPL 2024 XI, except every team must be represented once (there are only 10 teams, so Sunil Narine as the tournament MVP doesn't count)

1. Sunil Narine
2. Virat Kohli (RCB)
3. B Sai Sudharsan (GT)
4. Ruturaj Gaikwad (CSK)
5. Riyan Parag (RR)
6. Nicholas Pooran (LSG)
7. Andre Russell (KKR)
8. Harshal Patel (PBKS)
9. Kuldeep Yadav (DC)
10. T Natarajan (SRH)
11. Jasprit Bumrah (MI)

 

[ddrap14]

So after some discussion and argument with Aislabie:

All Uncapped T20I XI
1. Mitch Owen
2. Lhuan-dre Pretorius
3. Tom Kohler-Cadmore
4. Michael Pepper
5. Ollie Davies
6. Bevon-John Jacobs
7. Shams Mulani (the spin/AR stocks are dire, don't judge me pls)
8. Tom Rogers
9. Beyers Swanepoel
10. Henry Thornton
11. Mayank Yadav
(others considered - Lloyd Pope, Nathan Sowter, Duan Jansen, Vaibhav Arora, Mark Steketee, Ashutosh Sharma, Leus du Plooy, Naman Dhir, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Josh Brown)

Test one coming soon too

 

[ddrap14]

All Uncapped Test XI

1. Abhimanyu Easwaran
2. Alex Davies
3. Narayan Jagadeesan
4. Baba Indrajith
5. Sam Northeast
6. Ryan Higgins
7. Jordan Clark
8. Beyers Swanepoel
9. Harsh Dubey
10. Sam Cook
11. Joel Paris
12th man and late cut: Daniel Worrall

(others considered - R Smaran (this kid is legit as hell), Fergus O'Neill, Tanush Kotian, Ahmed Bashir, Tim Ward, Azan Awais, Mohsin Riaz, Mohammad Amir Khan, Will Rhodes, Ed barnard, Anshul Kamboj, Jamie Porter, Jack Carson, Ben Coad, James Wharton)

 

[ddrap14]

I also never finished the letter series. Should I pick that back up too I wonder

 

[Till Valhalla]

(the spin/AR stocks are dire, don't judge me pls)

Rahul Tewatia