Alright here we go.
Openers
Opening batsman #1 will be Jack Hobs. He has one of the highest averages of all time and as far as I can see the highest among openers (might be wrong so correct me). 60 000+ runs in 1st class and still managed to keep his average over 50. He opened for so many test and only had 4 ducks and to me that is impressive.
Opening batsman #2 Matthew Hayden. A powerful batsman but not a sloger, plays excellent aggressive cricket but still manged to get 30 centuries. In my opinion he is a excellent companion to Hobs, he can score the runs quickly but if need be slow it down and play according to the teams needs.
Middle Order
Is there even a question as to who the #3 is. Don Bradman the best to ever play the game and is surely going to stay there for a long time.
#4. Well now its not so easy to pick the rest of the middle order because only one guys was a sure thing. #4 was between Wally Hammond and Ken Barrington and I decided to go with Hammond only because of his better First Class average and his better conversion rate. He was a little more consistent as I can tell from his First Class average but having Barrington wouldn't have been a bad thing.
#5. This one might be a bit controversial and not because of the batsman I chose but because I chose him to be my wicket keeper. I know that there are better WK out there but I chose to play him because I wanted to make room for another all-rounder. The decision was between Everton Weekes and Clyde Walcott and it ended up being Walcott. He was a great attacking batsman and a stroke maker and one of the best batsman to come out of the West Indies.
#6. Well there is no doubt that Garfield Sobers deserves to be in every world eleven. The greatest all-rounder to play the game and one of the best batsman ever. One of the best attacking batsman of his time and the 1st man to hit 6x6. He could bowl 3 different styles and his pace bowling didn't lack speed as I saw in a clip where he was bowling bouncers at a batsman.
#7. This one is related to my choice and number 5. I decided to pick Imran Khan. The greatest leader to ever lead a team and his captaincy was brilliant too. He is the man who took Wasim and Waqar under his wing and turned them into the players that they became. His bowling was brilliant, one of the fastest men of his time and a great swing bowlers. He finished his career with 362 wickets and averaged 22.8. And his batting wasn't anything to be ignored he is more than capable of batting in the middle order and that's what he did for Pakistan in his playing days. He is also the captain of the squad.
#8. And its Wasim Akram. The greatest swing bowler ever and one of the most accurate. He could bowl many different deliveries but it was his swing that was his greatest asset. 414 wickets at 22.6 with most of his matches played in the sub continent is absolutely amazing. The most amazing this about Wasim to me is the pace that he got from such a short run up, it looked as short as a spin bowlers run up. Hes reverse swing was only matched by his playing partner Waqar Younis and their yorkers were deadly. He is also a handy batsman with a double century to his name.
#9. This one was probably the toughest one to decide. Muralitharan or Warne, not an easy decision. Me being a Murli fan I was leaning towards him but I had to go with Warne because of the pitches he had to ply on in his home country. Muralis stats are absolutely incredible and if its not Warne than its definitely him but Warne was a master of the leg break. He could turn the ball a long way and he had plenty of deliveries to leave batsman looking foolish.
#10. This man in my mind is the greatest pace bowler of all time. And his name is Malcolm Marshall, the man with one of the most beautiful bowling styles to ever play the game. His accuracy was amazing his pace wasn't express but he had enough of it to give the English batsman nightmares. He could seam the ball just as well as he could swing it and he had a good bouncer which surprised batsman because Marshall wasn't really a tall bowler. Marshall's stats speak for them self, 1651 first Class wickets at a average of 19 is mind boggling to me. Only man I would consider placing into his spot is Curtly Ambrose.
#11. This one is another no brainier for me. Glen McGrath arguably the greatest modern era bowler and one of the best of all time. His accuracy was as good as anyone's and he had incredible control when he was bowling. He didn't generate allot of pace but his bowling action was just beautiful to watch. Everything seemed easy when he was bowling.
There are 2 men that I feel really bad about leaving out and those are George Headley (black Bradman) and Sir Viv one of my favorite players of all time. Headley was one of the best batsman of his time its just too bad that he couldn't play more matches because that's the only reason I didn't include him. And Sir Viv well that's just self explanatory.
So to sum it up.
Jack Hobbs
Matthew Hayden
Don Bradman
Wally Hammond
Clyde Walcott +
Garfield Sobers
Imran Khan *
Wasim Akram 1
Shane Warne
Malcolm Marshall
Glen McGrath 2
Please comment and leave opinions.
Plenty of depth in the bowling stocks with 6 frontline bowlers (7 if you include Hammond). Very similar looking side to mine (6 frontline bowlers, recognised batsman down to number 6 with handy (and some very handy) players to follow) but I just have to say mine is better
