Another draft!-Test players of the 90s and later - FINISHED!

[shravi]

My picks are Brian Lara and Dale Steyn. I will do the write ups later.

 

[Aoun13]

chris cairns. I'll do writeup in an hour.

 

[Aditya]

Sourav Ganguly​

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Test Debut : India vs England at Lord's, 1996

His test stats don't really do justice to his talent but hardly anyone will argue that Sourav Ganguly is one of the finest batsman that India or the world has ever seen. His ODI record is far better than his test record, maybe the position at which he came to bat at the test level had to do a lot with it but his ability to make crucial runs lower down the order was very helpful. Not only his batting but his ability to bowl when needed was very crucial for India's purpose. Apart from his batting and bowling, his captaincy skills were amazing. He was the one who made the Indian team believe that they are not only a good team in sub continent but also in overseas. Who can forget the Natwest series in 2002! There were many outstanding victories under his captaincy. Some might argue about who is better, Ganguly or Dhoni but it must be said that both were exceptional at their times.

Matches : 113 | Runs : 7212 | HS : 239 | Ave : 42.17 | Hundred's : 16
Matches : 113 | Wickets : 32 | BBI : 3/28 | BBM : 3/37 | Ave : 52.53

 

[cricket_icon]

My second pick is Shoaib Akhtar. Write up will follow.

 

[Aoun13]

Surprised to see Sourav Gangully this early, even there are better indian player(batsmen) in Tests then Sourav Gangully in this era.
Nevertheless Sourav was a classy player on his day and the best indian captain I have seen for India even better then Dhoni.

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You can not say that Shoaib Akhtar was not one of the greatest bowlers this era has produced but all his abnormal body and his attitude made him just a good bowler not "the great" one.

When he was at this prime he was unplayable. I still remember that Sachin and Dravid wickets, pure class it was.
His bowling against Aussies in Srilanka i guess was also quite fascinating to watch when he was all over them.

As a whole a great talent but never able to play upto his potential which is the sad part of the story.

 

[sifter132]

chris cairns. I'll do writeup in an hour.

I hate to break it to you, but Chris Cairns debuted in November 1989 I know it stunned me too, thought he would definitely be available...He was only 19 on debut. Waqar Younis is another one too, for those wondering - he's not available either. I might make a short list of people in the first post just as a reminder.

So please pick again. Mohit - please hold off until Cairns has been replaced.

And good on you for adding to the discussion. Most people are just picking and staying silent thus far

I saw Ganguly make 144 at Brisbane, he was a good player, but I'm not sure he did enough in my eyes to be a great one. India as a whole seemed to play better when he was there though, so he could be a good captain for Aditya's XI.

And Shoaib was certainly talented, and bowled a handful of really lethal spells in his career (couple against NZ stand out), but he also spent a lot of time huffing and puffing off his long run and bowling rubbish. You never knew which Shoaib you would get on any given day. Hopefully it's the good Shoaib that turns up for cricket icon

 

[Aoun13]

Sadly me to able to know just before sleeping. I thought Cairn will fill my allrounder spot pretty well.

ML Hayden

 

[mohit_dude10]

Muttiah Muralitharan

Debut v Australia at Colombo (RPS), Aug 28-Sep 2, 1992

Mat: 133 | Wkts: 800 | Ave: 22.72 | BBI: 9/51 | BBM: 16/220 | S/R: 55 | 5w: 67 | 10w: 22​

Muttiah Muralitharan is arguably one of the best spinners to have ever played cricket. He had a fairy tale ending in test cricket, picking up 800 wickets. Being the first one to do so and way ahead of Warne who finished with 702.

Murali had his fair share of controversies as well, was accused of chucking very early in his career, but he didn't let that affect his career. He ended up as one of the most successful test bowler.

With Warne picked, the only other best option left was Murali. So I had to pick him, though I have missed out on a lot of pace bowlers these 2 rounds.

My Team:

Adam Gilchrist†

Muttiah Muralithran

 

[age of the fall]

Muttiah Muralitharan

Will add write up later.

Sadly me to able to know just before sleeping. I thought Cairn will fill my allrounder spot pretty well.

ML Hayden

My second pick is Shoaib Akhtar. Write up will follow.

chris cairns. I'll do writeup in an hour.

My picks are Brian Lara and Dale Steyn. I will do the write ups later.

People have gotten lazy this round

 

[Gaurav_7]

Yeah, ha ha.

Sifter, come on mate, pick now.

 

[sifter132]

People have gotten lazy this round

Indeed. Come on guys. It doesn't have to be a masterpiece of writing, especially for these more well regarded guys. Just a little about why you like them.

Muttiah Muralitharan

Will add write up later.

Praise Crom! He's been picked! I thought I was going to have to pick him there for a minute. A Warne/Murali partnership and I think you guys might have needed to surrender, due to the sheer awesomeness


Anyhoo...I've spent the last couple of hours umming and ahhing over this one. Keep changing my mind, but just need to go with it...

Andy Flower

It's pretty simple - he's the ONLY man in history who's been able to sustain a 50+ batting average while keeping (There are a few others but none played more than 5 Tests...Reference ). The other guys who swung between batting and keeping all have a distinct drop in performance when they don the gloves. I don't want that, I want a quality batsman AND a tidy gloveman. I've got one. Oh and he's left handed too, so that leaves only one of those to go.

The other thing I'd kinda forgotten about Flower until I looked him up is that he played his last Test at the end of 2002 at only age 34 - coming off the best few years of his career. From 1998/99 til his last season of 2002/03 he scored 2852 runs @ 60.68, with 7 centuries. If he'd had another couple of years, maybe he'd be up there with Gilchrist in all-time teams. Playing for the low profile Zimbabwe side didn't help his world wide reputation for excellence either.

I'll confess I never studied his keeping too much, but I read it was of a decent standard. I remember seeing a study of byes conceded and he was around Mark Boucher's level (which I could find it now...). Anyway thinking logically, Zimbabwe always had a relatively strong tail and Flower could easily have played as a specialist batsman, so it wouldn't have been hard to select a specialist keeper. But Flower kept batting strongly and obviously did a good enough job with the gloves for that to never cross the selectors minds.

Debut: vs India, Harare, 1992/93
Tests: 63 (keeping in 55 of his 63 Tests)
Runs: 4794
Average: 51.54 (average of 53.70 with gloves on)
100s: 12 (all 12 as keeper)

1
2
3
4
5 Andy Flower (wk)
6
7
8 Shane Warne (c)
9
10
11

 

[Gaurav_7]

Mohammad Yousuf​

He found it difficult to get going initially during his innings but, once done, he was superb. His classical technique, high back lift, made his shots look beautiful. When in full flow, he looks one of the elegant man with the bat in his hand. He has an appetite to score big, stay long at the crease. He also, like Kallis, makes the bowlers earn his wicket and doesn't throw it away. A perfect person to come in at number 5 for my team.

M 90, 156 Inns, 7530 Runs @ 52.29, HS 223

Has 24 hundreds to his name.

Wisden Cricketer of the Year 2007
ICC Test Player of the Year 2007

XI

1.
2.
3. Jacques Kallis
4.
5. Mohammad Yousuf
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.

 

[AbhishekS]

Round 2​

Kumar Sangakkara​

Need to go out right now, posted my pick just so there isn't a pause in the draft. Will surely post a write-up soon.

And I'd like to mention that I take Sanga in as a batsman and not as a wicket-keeper.​

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Round 1: Virender Sehwag
Round 2: Kumar Sangakkara

 

[mohit_dude10]

Praise Crom! He's been picked! I thought I was going to have to pick him there for a minute. A Warne/Murali partnership and I think you guys might have needed to surrender, due to the sheer awesomeness


Anyhoo...I've spent the last couple of hours umming and ahhing over this one. Keep changing my mind, but just need to go with it...

Yeah, quite surprised actually that Murali wasn't picked yet. And good pick that Andy, easily the 2nd best keeper-bat according to the stats. 1st being Gilly

 

[shravi]

Dale Steyn is the best fast bowler still playing, by a country mile. He bowls at blinding speeds and is a master of the outswinger. He also has a deadly inswinger as Ian Bell found out. He doesn't blow hot and cold like the Rawalpindi Express and even though he grew up with the luxuries that are South African pitches, he is equally devastating in batsman friendly conditions as India have found out on a few occasions. He is a true wicket taking bowler. In 2008, he became the fastest South African, and the 15th fastest overall, to reach 100 Test wickets. What strikes me about Steyn is not his average, but his strike rate of 39.9. Taking a wicket every 40 balls is quite phenomenal in this day and age. In 46 matches (85 innings as a bowler), he has taken 238 wickets @ 23.21 with 14 four-fors, 16 five-fors and has taken 10 wickets in a match on 4 occasions. What's more, he is only 28! It is generally accepted that a fast bowler goes through his peak between the ages of 28 and 32 and if an average of 23.21 and a strike rate of 39.9 is what he has right now, it's quite scary as an opposition supporter that he can actually do better than that.

Brian Lara was a true master and wielded his bat like a wand playing some of the most beautiful and majestic shots you could ever hope to see. He was a true artist. When in full flow, nobody could stop him and the fact that he holds the highest test score and the highest first class score is a testament to that. In 131 tests (232 innings) he scored a mammoth 11953 runs at an average of 53 with 34 centuries and 48 fifties. He is also a left hander which means that I have 1/2.