Draft: All-Time England ODI XI

[NILAYSHAH60]

Dimitri Mascarenhas​

An all-rounder, a powerful striker of the ball and a workhorse bowler, Dimitri Mascarenhas had all these skills. He was born in London and played his Cricket for Hampshire in the English County Cricket Championships. He grew up in Perth, Australia but returned back to England in 1996 to pursue a professional career for what he liked the most, nothing else than Cricket. Mascarenhas had the ability to strike the ball long and hard. On his day he could've teared apart any bowler. His 5 consecutive sixes to Yuvraj Singh in an ODI match at The Oval against the Indian team back in 2007 showed the potential in this decent all-rounder. And not just that, he was an excellent fielder too with his bullet arm throws and his acrobattic catching. His exploits in the T20 Cricket prooved that he was a limited overs specialist. Unfortunately, he only got to play 20 ODIs and injuries didn't help his cause either. But he could've been truly a great asset for England.

​

MY XI so far

1. Jason Roy
2. Andrew Strauss
3. Graham Gooch
4. Kevin Pietersen
5.
6.
7. Dimitri Mascarenhas
8.
9. Adil Rashid
10.
11.

@Sinister One

 

[Master Bates]

James Tredwell

@blockerdave

 

[CerealKiller]

Jimmy Anderson

@Sinister One

Already taken

 

[NILAYSHAH60]

Already taken

Changes made

 

[blockerdave]

Neil Fairbrother.

I imagine this is exactly who @Aislabie was expecting me to pick!

Was England’s finisher in the 90s and the closest to a Michael Bevan we ever had. In fact he was the proto-Bevan.

Great nurdler, keeping the rate ticking over by finding gaps and not letting the bowlers relax with dot balls. Could go aerial and accelerate when needed to. Also an absolutely fantastic fielder.

2092 runs at a spit under 40, and strike rate of 72. Not super impressive by today’s standards but he was England’s most complete ODI player for a long time.

@CerealKiller, you’re up

 

[Aislabie]

I imagine this is exactly who @Aislabie was expecting me to pick!

Yep, I expected you to be looking at Fairbrother, with Lamby as your contingency option. I went for Lamb for reasons that I'll explain fully when I pick the final member of my top-eight (whenever that may be), but I'm genuinely shocked that both were still available until so recently

 

[blockerdave]

Yep, I expected you to be looking at Fairbrother, with Lamby as your contingency option. I went for Lamb for reasons that I'll explain fully when I pick the final member of my top-eight (whenever that may be), but I'm genuinely shocked that both were still available until so recently

Tyranny of the recent I guess, especially when run rates have accelerated to such an extent that even the likes of Trott, Strauss etc. have better strike rates

 

[Aislabie]

Tyranny of the recent I guess, especially when run rates have accelerated to such an extent that even the likes of Trott, Strauss etc. have better strike rates

True; for the likes of Rashid, Bopara and Kieswetter (yes, I know that one was me), Tredwell and Mascarenhas to go before Fairbrother is still blasphemy though.

 

[CerealKiller]

Tim Bresnan

CerealKiller's XI
1. Ian Bell
2.
3.
4. Paul Collingwood
5. Jos Buttler
6.
7. Tim Bresnan
8. Stuart Broad
9. Graeme Swann
10. Darren Gough
11.

@Rebel2k19

 

[Gaurav_7]

1. Nick Knight
2. Alec Stewart
3. Joe Root
4. James Taylor
5.
6. Ben Stokes
7.
8.
9.
10. Derek Underwood
11. James Anderson

 

[CerealKiller]

@Aislabie

 

[Aislabie]

Overall Pick #39: Mark Ealham

Profile
A lot of people probably don't remember Mark Ealham, and those who do probably have a vague idea of a stocky medium-pacer whose cricketing style was remarkably unremarkable. His results, however, were surprisingly good. His efficient, wicket-to-wicket style made him incredibly difficult to score off, and on pitches with any kind of assistance he turned into a real attacking threat simply by hitting the seam and attacking the stumps. Although there is a school of thought which says that his school of bowling would be outmoded in the modern era, even the most destructive of hitters can't score runs if they've missed a straight ball as so many of the batsmen Ealham faced in his career did. With the bat, he was a fighter. Playing in quite a poor England side, this led to him fulfilling the same firefighter's role that he takes up in this side, but a T20 strike rate of over 150 with a six every 9.6 deliveries shows that he could also be a valuable late-order hitter if the situation calls for it.

Statistics

| | Right-handed batsman | Right-arm medium-pace |
England ODIs|64 matches|716 runs @ 17.46, SR: 65.56 (best 45)|67 wickets @ 32.79, econ. 4.08 (2 5WI, best: 5/15)|9 catches
List A|417 matches|6,326 runs @ 23.96, SR: n/a (1 century, best 112)|477 wickets @ 26.50, econ. 4.10 (4 5WI, best: 6/53)|110 catches

Finest Performances

Aislabie's XI so far:
1. Craig Kieswetter (Pick #22)
2. Dennis Amiss (Pick #9)
3.
4. Eoin Morgan (Pick #15)
5. Allan Lamb (Pick #33)
6. Andrew Flintoff (Pick #4)
7. Moeen Ali (Pick #28)
8. Mark Ealham (Pick #39)
9.
10.
11.

Next pick:
@blockerdave

 

[Aislabie]

I'd been eyeing up Taylor for a while, and had been 50/50 about picking him. In the end, Gaurav really made my choice for me there. Ealham was my Craig White plan B for some time, but I didn't want to take the chance that Dave would pick him instead as he's just such a retro ODI kind of player. As it is, picking him here is the first real gamble I've taken in the draft.

 

[blockerdave]

Weirdly I’m picking a player who I’d probably also pick if we were doing a draft for worst test xi.

Step forward Alan Mullally. With the red ball, he was one of many ineffective left armers we had in the 90s (think Illott, Brown, Smith) but was very effective with the white ball, being at one point the number 2 ODI bowler in the world.

Rarely moved the red ball off the straight, but got the white ball nipping back dangerously. Taking 63 wickets in 50 matches at 27.42, and economy rate of 3.84 and a strike rate of 42.6 he forms another plank of the attack which is primed to get wickets.

All yours @NilayShah60

 

[blockerdave]

I'd been eyeing up Taylor for a while, and had been 50/50 about picking him. In the end, Gaurav really made my choice for me there. Ealham was my Craig White plan B for some time, but I didn't want to take the chance that Dave would pick him instead as he's just such a retro ODI kind of player. As it is, picking him here is the first real gamble I've taken in the draft.

Tbf he wasn’t on my radar. I’m glad you picked him as I think you were the one person who I thought might have picked my player who might serve a similar role is down for my next pick.