All-Time Test XIs

[Leicester Fox]

Well if I was to do an all time world test XI it would look something like this
Hobbs
Hayden
Bradman
Richards
Waugh (C)
Sobers
Gilchrist (WK)
Warne
Akram
McGrath
Walsh

Some people will question the selection of Waugh but he's the best 5 ever and with the top 4 he won't need to do much batting. Plus he would be a great captain. If I was going to drop him it would be for Lara. Bowlers fairly obvious although I would change them based on conditions. However really I haven't seen anything of Hobbs other than photos, and hardly anything of Bradman and Sobers. We can't just forget about players like that though although there a lot of guys from ages ago that are now forgotten.

If I was to do a more realistic thing and pick a team from the best players I have actually seen play then it would be this.
Hayden
Tendulkar
Ponting
Lara
Pietersen
Kallis
Gilchrist (WK)
Flintoff
Pollock
Warne
McGrath

 

[sohum]

If I was to do a more realistic thing and pick a team from the best players I have actually seen play then it would be this.
Hayden
Tendulkar
Ponting
Lara
Pietersen
Kallis
Gilchrist (WK)
Flintoff
Pollock
Warne
McGrath

Sachin opening in Test cricket?

 

[Leicester Fox]

Sachin opening in Test cricket?

I know but I wanted to fit KP in, I mean I'd already had to make Broad 12th man.

 

[Dare]

Nah I think his overrated. Considering the fact that people think that conditions back in Marshall's era were more-then-less bowler friendly and think that batsman back then are better then the batsman of the modern era because of it. And then they come along and say that Marshall is better then McGrath inspite of their initial arguement.

Pollock was pretty sharp back in his hayday; almost matching Allan Donald for pace. His deteriation during the latter half of his career probably cost him in comparison with the all-time greats and was exposed against clinical batsman such as the Greatest Opening Batsman of alltime, Matthew Hayden.

lol Mallcolm Marshall overrated. that's one of the dumbest things I have ever heard. Sure pitches might have been bowler friendly but not pitch in India is bowlers friendly and Marshall owned India in his time.
And your lucky that there are so few South African fans here or they would have just agreed with me unless they have the aussie_ben ignorance syndrome.

And you always seem to throw random stuff into your posts like the "greatest batsman of all time" thing. Your all time XI seemed to be a direct response to the one that KP made.

 

[cricketfrantic]

No body has picked sehwag, the guy who scores at more than 75 runs per 100 balls (77.75 to be exact) in test matches, has 11 scores of over 150 out of his 15 hundreds, only the second batsman to have 2 triple centuries, another one off course great westindian Brian Lara.

http://stats.cricinfo.com/statsguru...re;template=results;type=batting;view=innings

PS: Obviously it's the poster's prerogative to include whoever he thinks fit to play for his team, posted here about sehwag, just in case he is slipped from the memory of the concerned selector

 

[deerkick]

Didn't Sehwag get in good form just recently? I don't remember him being this good back in the days.

 

[stereotype]

My all time side, this side isnt necessarily the best team on paper but ive gone with what i think is the best TEAM.

Matthew Hayden
Justin Langer
Donald Bradman
Ricky Ponting
Brian Lara
Garfield Sobers
Adam Gilchrist
Wasim Akram
Shane Warne
Waqar Younis
Glenn McGrath

12th man Viv Richards

I have picked this side in partnerships, almost every player apart from the Don and Gilly share strong historical partnerships with the others, My ODI side would be little different with Viv replacing Langer and Gilly moving up the order. Langer and Hayden shared a very special partnership for Australia and I would be confident my side would get off to very solid starts. Don would do what he does best while Ricky also shares familiarity with Langer and Hayden whilst averaging late 50's.

Lara and Sobers are from different eras however i would doubt it would take long to forge a partnership, both known for scoring massive innings. Once they are dismissed after a score i can only begin to imagine Gilly comes in with a license to thrill and my number 8 has scored many a century also at a fair rate.

Bowling partnerships are also there Warne and McGrath are the most successful wicket taking partnership of all time and Waqar and Wasim is a partnership of swing and seam, right and left.

Probably on merit only Langer would consider himself very lucky to be there but his record with Hayden speaks for itself.

Matthew Hayden averages 55.91 while opening with Justin Langer
Justin Langer averages 49.04 while opening with Matthew Hayden
Ricky Ponting averages 61.33 when Hayden and Langer are his openers
Brian Lara averages over 70 when batting first, further giving this batting line up ammunition to post almost unrivalled totals.
Waqar Younis bowls at an average of 22.92 when bowling with Wasim Akram
Wasim Akram bowls at an average of 21.33 with Waqar Younis
Shane Warne bowls at an average of 24.87 when bowling with Glenn McGrath
Glenn McGrath bowls at an average of 21.38 when with Warne

All these stats are improved from their normal states, this team gets the most out of its players as well as having individual brilliance.

 

[aussie_ben91]

Pitch conditions have only really started to change in the past 5 years, coincidentally the same time period that Pollock started to struggle more and more. Look at Lords for example, in the 1990's there was only 1 Test match that failed to produce a result, and that was heavily rain effected. Yet, in the last 3 years there's been 1 Test match that ended in a result, and that was in 2005, every other Lords Test match since then has been a draw.

How you can claim a bowler to took 374 Test wickets at 20, 1651 FC wickets at 19 and 521 List A Wickets at 23 to be over-rated is beyond me. It's yet again another example of Aussie_Ben tunnel vision. As soon as you get an opinion into your head it stays there, no matter what anyone says. I could chuck statistics and quotes from players at you for years and you'd not even remotely change your tune.

I said his overrated in the logic that posters like you use to rate and compare players from the past, but yeah whatever you say.

I never denied that Pollock was class, just that he was never as good as Marshall. Pollock had a great career, but he's got nothing on Marshall. Marshall had an 18 year career, and still maintained his average for the entirity.

I don't disagree that Pollock was as ever good as Marshall but he wasn't far off. It is certainly a better and closer comparison then comparing someone like Gordon Greenidge to someone who is obviously better then him like Matthew Hayden.

lol Mallcolm Marshall overrated. that's one of the dumbest things I have ever heard. Sure pitches might have been bowler friendly but not pitch in India is bowlers friendly and Marshall owned India in his time.
And your lucky that there are so few South African fans here or they would have just agreed with me unless they have the aussie_ben ignorance syndrome.

You're seriously not suggesting that the Indian team of the 1980's compares to the one of the past 10 years. The batting lineup especially of Sehwag, Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman and Ganguly would be way harder to bowl to then a batting lineup generally based around 2 players in Gavaskar and Azaruddin.

Your all time XI seemed to be a direct response to the one that KP made.

Your right. Karndog or someone else suggested that I made an Alltime Test XI and I did.

 

[Dare]

I don't disagree that Pollock was as ever good as Marshall but he wasn't far off. It is certainly a better and closer comparison then comparing someone like Gordon Greenidge to someone who is obviously better then him like Matthew Hayden.

It is actually the same sot of comparison as the one of GG vs Hayden. Marshall was equally better than Pollock as you think that Hayden is better than GG.

You're seriously not suggesting that the Indian team of the 1980's compares to the one of the past 10 years. The batting lineup especially of Sehwag, Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman and Ganguly would be way harder to bowl to then a batting lineup generally based around 2 players in Gavaskar and Azaruddin.

Its obvious that this Indian team is better than the one in the 80s but India had more batsman than just Gavaskar and Azharuddin. Kapil Dev, Vengsarkar, Amarnath. In the 80s India had a good batting team. And bowling in India is bowling in India, there is no place harder for a pace bowler to bowl than in India. And Marshall was one of the best ever to bowl in India when it comes to fast bowlers.
The only ones that are close or better than Marshall and have better figures than him are Richard Hadlee and Courtney Walsh, but no bowler in the 80s had more wickets in India than Marshall and he still managed to keep his average below 19 in India.

 

[aussie_ben91]

It is actually the same sot of comparison as the one of GG vs Hayden. Marshall was equally better than Pollock as you think that Hayden is better than GG.

LOL, I'm sorry. You're not getting away with this one. How is comparing a guy with an average of 44 to a guy with an average of 52 a similar comparison to a guy with a bowling average of 21 to a guy with a bowling average of 23? I don't care what era you're in.
If you asked anyone in the Australian camp they'd say that Hayden is the most hard-working and dedicated player that they have ever played with. He might appear to be a bit've slogger but that's just a testerment to how good he really is. When the going gets tough I'd take Hayden over Gordon Greenidge or any other opener in the history of the game because his always overcome pressure with flying colours.

 

[Dare]

LOL, I'm sorry. You're not getting away with this one. How is comparing a guy with an average of 44 to a guy with an average of 52 a similar comparison to a guy with a bowling average of 21 to a guy with a bowling average of 23? I don't care what era you're in.
If you asked anyone in the Australian camp they'd say that Hayden is the most hard-working and dedicated player that they have ever played with. He might appear to be a bit've slogger but that's just a testerment to how good he really is. When the going gets tough I'd take Hayden over Gordon Greenidge or any other opener in the history of the game because his always overcome pressure with flying colours.

And i would take Hayden too hence I have him in my XI.
Im sure that GG was just as hard working and dedicated as Hayden was.
And yea I am saying that comparing GG and Hayden is like comparing Marshall and Pollock. It just aint right.

 

[ChefMan21]

HAHA!

Gilchrist at 6 is a massive problem. I doubt he would've even played much Test Cricket if he was purely a batsman. Everyone that's been in the Australian lineup over the past decade for an extended period of time has been a better batsman then he is in Tests.
Yes, he is the greatest keeper-batsman of all time by a country mile but his merely not good enough to bat in the top 6. Atleast not in an Alltime World Test XI.

OMG! LOL! You have no idea!

 

[stereotype]

It is actually the same sot of comparison as the one of GG vs Hayden. Marshall was equally better than Pollock as you think that Hayden is better than GG.




Its obvious that this Indian team is better than the one in the 80s but India had more batsman than just Gavaskar and Azharuddin. Kapil Dev, Vengsarkar, Amarnath. In the 80s India had a good batting team. And bowling in India is bowling in India, there is no place harder for a pace bowler to bowl than in India. And Marshall was one of the best ever to bowl in India when it comes to fast bowlers.
The only ones that are close or better than Marshall and have better figures than him are Richard Hadlee and Courtney Walsh, but no bowler in the 80s had more wickets in India than Marshall and he still managed to keep his average below 19 in India.

Glenn McGrath did fairly well at 21.3 against most of the modern batsman. India probably the best batting line up he could bowl too he bowled at an average of under 19

 

[aussie_ben91]

OMG! LOL! You have no idea!

LOL

So you think that he would've been selected in Tests purely as a batsman over Justin Langer, Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting, Mark Waugh, Steve Waugh and Damien Martyn?

If you do by some chance think that he would've then its a demonstration on how little you know about the Australian cricket team and cricket in general.

 

[karnog]

Its karnog not karndog.
By the way India in India were formiddable. Dust bowl pitches which had an unfair advantage to the best spinners of that era. Hence it created the perception (which ended a few years ago) that India can only play in India. There was little opportunity for pace men and Malcolm Marshall was successful. Mcgrath's average in India was 21.3 an amazing average especially against such a batting line up. Marshall's was 24. I've always felt Mcgrath was the better bowler (marginally) but its hair splitting when comparing such bowlers. lol Malcolm Marshall overrated. That's a joke. Fine bowler and its sad he died of cancer nearly a decade ago.