All-Time IPL Draft

Yeah I've been offline for quite sometime. Any overseas pacers that are unpicked?:p
 
Aislabie said:
Umar Gul is definitely unpicked. Plenty of others but he's such a good T20 player
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Say no more. Wonder how @CerealKiller didn't want him in. :p

I rate him as one of the greatest T20I bowlers in history. Think he'll do a fine job with his two in the middle, two at the death spells. Had a very short IPL career but that produced twelve wickets in six games for a dysfunctional Kolkata side that had a raw Ishant Sharma, a surprisingly half decent Agarkar, misused Murali Kartik and most importantly, the lord Ashoke Dinda himself. Consider his overall impact on the T20 game and while there are other very good alternatives that could all be picked on merit, think I'll let my heart rule on this one.
 
Bevab said:
Say no more. Wonder how @CerealKiller didn't want him in. :p

I rate him as one of the greatest T20I bowlers in history. Think he'll do a fine job with his two in the middle, two at the death spells. Had a very short IPL career but that produced twelve wickets in six games for a dysfunctional Kolkata side that had a raw Ishant Sharma, a surprisingly half decent Agarkar, misused Murali Kartik and most importantly, the lord Ashoke Dinda himself. Consider his overall impact on the T20 game and while there are other very good alternatives that could all be picked on merit, think I'll let my heart rule on this one.
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I decided to get 4 overseas within my 5 pre-T20 players, so that didn’t allow me to pick current generation overseas players.
 
And so my final line-up shall be..

@Bevab's Blasters

  1. :aus: :os: :bat: Don Bradman :slvo:
  2. :aus: :os: :bat: David Warner
  3. :ind: :local: :ar: C.K. Nayudu :slvo:
  4. :ind: :local: :bat: Mohammad Azharuddin :slvo:
  5. :ind: :local: :ar: Yusuf Pathan
  6. :ind: :local: :wk: MS Dhoni :c:
  7. :ind: :local: :ar: Amar Singh :slvo:
  8. :ind: :local: :ar: Harbhajan Singh
  9. :pak: :os: :bwl: Umar Gul
  10. :ind: :local: :bwl: Subhash Gupte :slvo:
  11. :sri: :os: :bwl: Lasith Malinga

Well, what do we have here?

  • I've modeled my playing XI on the Chennai Super Kings strategy of having key players in key roles. The only exception would be that Chennai always prefer having an all-rounder who floats in the batting order and can provide overs consistently, my first target was Bravo but Gul was too good an option to pass up on and when you've got Amar Singh and CK Nayudu as fifth and sixth bowling options, you can afford to not have an overseas player pick up the slack.
  • Two overseas batsmen in the top three to provide you with consistency and fast starts (ignore the current season :p). Warner will be the more aggressive player in the entirety of the game and unlike other traditionally aggressive bashers or players who take their time to settle in and then go big, Warner can attack from the first ball and still provide such starts on a startlingly consistent basis. On the other side you have the greatest batsman in history who also happened to be one of the most aggressive of his own times with control in every shot of his and mental energy to save his wicket at all times. Expect him to bat in the 130-140 SR zone before gearing up for a big finish while Warner blazes away at a 140+ strike-rate.
  • In at three and four filling in the 'Raina' and 'Badri' roles are Nayudu, a slogger who gave no mercy to the best of bowlers and loved his big sixes. He shall perform the vital role of ensuring that the momentum does not fall with the dismissal (if any) of my openers. Azharuddin was one of the finest and most graceful Indian batters in history and had the tendency to be really aggressive once he was set. He will be very important in tackling the modern day wrist-spinners who should be very worried about facing a master of spin like him. If there are only 7-8 overs left in the game, Azhar can always be dropped down the order all the way down to even eight and only introduced if a set batsman falls to keep a quasi-accumulator still in there.
  • The middle order will first and foremost have MS Dhoni, the man himself. For a side aiming to play in the CSK way, it makes perfect sense to have their ever present skipper. Being one of the most consistent middle order performers on a sluggish Chepauk track in addition to his cat-like reflexes behind the stumps and inspiring leadership that has given Chennai three IPL titles and consistency that most other franchises can only dream of also helps.
  • The other player in here is Yusuf Pathan. A bit of an interesting pick as I deem this one player the 'luxury' player in my side. I had a couple of pre-T20 players as backups too in case I was missing out elsewhere. Pathan will be my go-to hitter to provide some luscious blows to the opposition bowlers and has free license to go for the kill from ball one. Could be a 0(1) but could also end up being a 42(21), 68(37) or a 100(37) all of which could either turn a struggling situation into an above par score or a good score to an unbeatable one. Unless there is a catastrophic collapse, I wouldn't even mind sending him in at the ninth or tenth over mark to give him more time to attack.
  • Amar Singh will be filling in the role of the versatile CSK all-rounder and he is probably the best domestic option you could have got for pacers. You can get four high quality overs from him and he wouldn't hesitate to be a pinch-hitter whenever he is promoted. If the team needs some really quick runs at the end or the middle for a boost, Amar Singh will be your man.
  • As for the bowling attack, Amar Singh and Malinga are both excellent with the new ball. The former will operate in the 130-140 kph range with the occasional 140+ surprise ball while Malinga at the peak of his powers is a 145+ kph bowler easily with the variations to also deceiver batsmen.
  • In case of there being a left-handed batsman at the crease in the powerplay, Harbhajan Singh will always be a viable option to go to with the ball. He can float the ball or be quick through the air if required and has a fantastic economy rate in the powerplay. Even if there is not a left-hander at the crease, he will still bowl an over to relieve Malinga for death overs duty. And prime Harbhajan was also a genuine wicket-taker in addition to having fantastic control. Good luck trying to attack him.
  • Combining with him in the middle overs as the leggie who looks for wickets will be Gupte. With him being relieved of the workload to carry an entire bowling attack by himself until his arms dropped off, he will look to unleash his top spinner, two googlies and leg spinner, all of which would have devious turn on even a flat pitch. I'm quite surprised that he was left so late in the draft, as India's best leg spinner in their history he will be a very dangerous bowler to face. Nayudu can sneak in an over or two if required with his Symonds' style mix of medium pace off-spin in this middle overs phase if required.
  • Umar Gul will fill in the role of DJ Bravo with the ball if not the bat. He shall start in the middle overs unless we turn to him in the powerplay on situations demanding his expertise use of the seam and will always bowl two overs at the death. His middle over(s) will be mixed in with the spinners on the Chepauk pitch that will suit his style of utilizing cutters and the seam very well. Joining him at the death will be Malinga with two overs and Amar Singh with one. On occasion, Harbhajan may also bowl an over at the death if Amar Singh finishes his spell up front on a green pitch that suits his style of swingers very well.

A team that has one of the shrewdest IPL captains with a known template for success and the strategy of employing two overseas pacers to minimize the chances of an Indian pacer traveling the distance? I see a championship winning side in this XI. :spy
 
@Aislabie
  1. :wi: :bat: Chris Gayle :os:
  2. :ind: :bat: Kris Srikkanth :slvo:
  3. :aus: :ar: Charlie Macartney :os: :slvo:
  4. :saf: :wkb: AB de Villiers :os:
  5. :ind: :bat: Vinod Kambli :slvo:
  6. :ind: :ar: Hardik Pandya
  7. :ind: :ar: Irfan Pathan
  8. :ind: :bat: Mohammad Kaif
  9. :ind: :ar: Chetan Sharma :slvo:
  10. :ind: :bwl: Amit Mishra
  11. :wi: :bwl: Joel Garner :os: :slvo:
:tick: The top six or seven is ridiculously explosive. I'd absolutely back them to go out and score 200 most weeks, against most attacks.
:tick: Joel Garner, backed up by our two main spinners, will guarantee us twelve overs of reliable, economical fare.
:x: The Mohammad Kaif pick of a luxury fielder was something I'd been wanting to do for a while, but in hindsight I should probably have picked up another bowler instead. I was tempted by Tambe.

- - -

@Bevab
  1. :aus: :os: :bat: Don Bradman :slvo:
  2. :aus: :os: :bat: David Warner
  3. :ind: :local: :ar: C.K. Nayudu :slvo:
  4. :ind: :local: :bat: Mohammad Azharuddin :slvo:
  5. :ind: :local: :ar: Yusuf Pathan
  6. :ind: :local: :wk: MS Dhoni :c:
  7. :ind: :local: :ar: Amar Singh :slvo:
  8. :ind: :local: :bwl: Harbhajan Singh
  9. :pak: :os: :bwl: Umar Gul
  10. :ind: :local: :bwl: Subhash Gupte :slvo:
  11. :sri: :os: :bwl: Lasith Malinga
:tick: Almost certainly the best opening pair I'll analyse in this draft, both Bradman and Warner are top-quality batsmen capable of scoring rapidly. The use of Bradman as an opener makes complete sense in the Twenty20 format, even if it wasn't his role in the longer formats.
:tick: Amar Singh, Umar Gul and Lasith Malinga is a deadly fast bowling trio, each of which fits perfectly into a T20 bowling attack. Imagine coming in with four overs to go, but they'll be bowled by peak Umar and peak Malinga. Impossible.
:x: There are perhaps a few players who are being squeezed into a role that they might not quite fit into. Those in particular would be Nayudu and Amar Singh batting higher than you'd like; if by some miracle you get through that opening pair, there's an opportunity.

- - -

@CerealKiller
  1. :ind: :wk: Farokh Engineer :slvo:
  2. :ind: :bat: Rohit Sharma
  3. :ind: :bat: Virat Kohli
  4. :pak: :bat: Zaheer Abbas :slvo:
  5. :ind: :bat: Dinesh Karthik
  6. :eng: :ar: Ian Botham :slvo:
  7. :ind: :ar: Krunal Pandya
  8. :pak: :bwl: Abdul Qadir :slvo:
  9. :wi: :bwl: Curtly Ambrose :slvo:
  10. :ind: :bwl: Kuldeep Yadav
  11. :ind: :bwl: Ashish Nehra
:tick: Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Zaheer Abbas. In the same batting order.
:tick: I also cannot imagine anybody wanting to try to attack either of your star pre-T20 bowlers, Ambrose and Qadir, each for different reasons.
:x: A couple of your players have reputations that outgrew their accomplishments. Both Botham and Engineer were great players, but Engineer probably shouldn't be above the Rohit, Virat or Zaheer. Botham is lucky to be picked at all when the likes of Aubrey Faulkner missed out.

- - -

@mohsin7827
  1. :aus: :ar: Shane Watson:os:
  2. :ind: :bat: Navjot Sidhu :slvo:
  3. :ind: :bat: Vijay Merchant :slvo:
  4. :wi: :ar: Viv Richards:os::slvo:
  5. :pak: :ar: Imran Khan:os::slvo:
  6. :ind: :bat: Rishabh Pant
  7. :ind: :ar: Ravindra Jadeja
  8. :ind: :wk: Syed Kirmani :slvo:
  9. :afg: :bwl: Rashid Khan :os:
  10. :ind: :bwl: Zaheer Khan
  11. :ind: :bwl: Jasprit Bumrah
:tick: You have Viv Richards and Imran Khan in the same time.
:tick: You also have Rashid Khan and Jasprit Bumrah in the same team.
:x: If anything, the opening pair isn't great; though both are capable of hitting big, both are also capable of getting bogged down. In that case though I guess you just promote Viv.

- - -

@NePtuNe Gaming
  1. :nz: :wk: Brendon McCullum
  2. :ind: :bat: Syed Mushtaq Ali :slvo:
  3. :wi: :bat: Brian Lara :slvo:
  4. :ind: :bat: Suresh Raina
  5. :ind: :ar: Yuvraj Singh
  6. :saf: :ar: Lance Klusener
  7. :ind: :ar: Kapil Dev :slvo:
  8. :ind: :ar: Dattu Phadkar :slvo:
  9. :ind: :ar: Ravichandran Ashwin
  10. :ind: :bwl: Yuzvendra Chahal
  11. :pak: :bwl: Waqar Younis :slvo:
:tick: There are lots of hitters here, headlined of course by McCullum and Lara, but there's an unbroken string of them filling your top seven or eight. They could be put in almost any order and work.
:tick: You have the holy grail of spin attacks - an offie, a leggie and a leftie - as well as the possible part-timers of Phadkar.
:x: If it can be counted as a weakness, in this team you know which bowlers will be targeted - the seam of Klusener and Kapil doesn't quite match up compared to Waqar or the spinners, meaning they'll be under a lot of pressure.

- - -

@Parth D
  1. :ind: :local: :bat: Gautam Gambhir
  2. :wi: :os: :ar: Sunil Narine
  3. :ind: :local: :wkb: Ambati Rayadu
  4. :wi: :os: :ar: Sir Garfield Sobers :slvo:
  5. :ind: :local: :ar: Ravi Shastri :slvo:
  6. :wi: :os: :ar: Kieron Pollard
  7. :ind: :local: :bat: Ajay Jadeja :slvo:
  8. :pak: :os: :ar: Wasim Akram :slvo:
  9. :ind: :local: :bwl: Bhuvaneshwar Kumar
  10. :ind: :local: :bwl: Anil Kumble
  11. :ind: :local: :bwl: Javagal Srinath :slvo:
:tick: There is a huge amount of explosive hitting in this side, in particular Narine, Sobers, Pollard and Akram. One imagines that your batting order would be very flexible so that you would always have at least one of these players at the crease.
:tick: You are also flush with a huge number of bowling options - Sobers may not be your first choice of any particular kind of bowler, but he's a fifth or sixth bowler of three different kinds. You'd have unlimited options.
:x: It's a bugbear I often pull up in these analyses, but the lack of a full-time wicket-keeper hurts this team. A specialist keeper and modest batsman - someone like Indrajitsinhji - would improve the side in place of Jadeja - or a more explosive modern option in place of Rayudu.

- - -

@Yash.
  1. :ind: :local: :bat: KL Rahul
  2. :ind: :local: :bat: Sachin Tendulkar
  3. :ind: :local: :bat: Virender Sehwag
  4. :ind: :local: :wk: Ishan Kishan
  5. :wi: :os: :ar: Andre Russell
  6. :saf: :os: :ar: Jimmy Sinclair :slvo:
  7. :saf: :os: :ar: Mike Procter :slvo:
  8. :ind: :local: :ar: Bapu Nadkarni :slvo:
  9. :ind: :local: :bwl: Deepak Chahar
  10. :eng: :os: :bwl: Frank Tyson :slvo:
  11. :ind: :local: :bwl: Erapalli Prasanna :slvo:
:tick: You have a well-balanced and well-stocked bowling attack. I'd be particularly excited/terrified to see Procter and Tyson opening the bowling together.
:tick: Your top three is particularly impressive - I'd maybe swap Sehwag and Rahul, but honestly they're all great options.
:x: A weird one to pick, but dressing room dynamics. Jimmy Sinclair was famously racist, even by the standards of his time. It was apparently his behaviour that ultimately led to half-St Helenan Charlie Llewellyn emigrating to England because he was so done with Sinclair's shit. Not sure how he'll gel with, for example, Andre Russell.
 
Nayudu mostly batted anywhere from three to five in his prime and even past it usually while Amar Singh was frequently promoted up the order and would otherwise bat at either seven or eight. Their averages may not look that good but these were two cricketers far better than the stats would suggest. I do agree that it is a bit of a risk but with the likes of Bradman, Warner and Dhoni who offer consistency in nearly every game it makes sense to take the risk.

I would have gone with the weakness you suggested for @Yash.'s team for mine too. That dressing room is full of leadership figures and players believing in autonomy and 'my way is the best way'. Works well when you have them pulling in the same direction for a common cause but can easily lead to combustion and flames.[DOUBLEPOST=1606499727][/DOUBLEPOST]Seeing that @Aislabie has put forward an objective analysis, I'll try to make mine more of a subjective one on what I like and dislike if time permits!
 
Aislabie said:
A weird one to pick, but dressing room dynamics. Jimmy Sinclair was famously racist
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Okay so this was something I didn't factor in. Assuming they'll gel perfectly, this side is just too good :p
 
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