Draft: The Ashes | COMPLETE

[Deleted member 193590]

ALEC BEDSER



The great Surrey bowler took Bradman’s wicket six times in Tests, earning him a deserved place in my team. He was powerfully-built and naggingly accurate, a medium-fast bowler with a classical action who ran in off a short run and explored the 'corridor of uncertainty' with utmost diligence. In 1953, aged 35, he spearheaded England’s Ashes victory with 39 wickets at 17.48, including 14 for 99 at Nottingham. He took 69 wickets at 16.8 apiece in successive series (1950-51 and 1953) against Australia, and took 104 Ashes wickets in total at 27.49 apiece.

1. Arthur Morris
2. Justin Langer
3. Ken Barrington
4.
5. Michael Hussey
6.
7.
8.
9. Shane Warne
10. Alec Bedser
11.

@Sinister One

 

[Master Bates]

Bob Simpson
Herbert Sutcliffe
Maurice Leyland




Billy Barnes

Charlie Turner
George Lohmann

@blockerdave

 

[blockerdave]

I'll take BOB WILLIS

In order to unite the 2 heroes of Headingley 1981. Willis is obviously famous for his 8/43 that sealed victory in the "500/1" match. But his overall Ashes record was strong - 123 wickets at 24.37 with an economy rate of 2.78, a strike rate of 52.5 and 7 five-fers.

@CerealKiller

 

[CerealKiller]

My pick is Freddie Flintoff, just because he owned the 2005 Ashes, just like Stokes is doing now. It will forever be remembered as a performance for the ages.

CerealKiller's XI
1. Len Hutton
2.
3. Don Bradman
4.
5. Mark Waugh
6. Andrew Flintoff
7.
8.
9. Dennis Lillee
10.
11. Glenn McGrath

@Aislabie

 

[VC the slogger]

My picks are Bill O'Reilly and Ray Lindwall. Will do Lindwall's writeup later, but for now here's the Tiger..

​

The records might have him listed as a "Right-arm legbreak" bowler, but Bill O'Reilly or "Tiger" as he was often called was essentially a pace bowler in all but name. Standing at 6ft 2 inches and balding from a young age, he delivered the ball at a pace bordering on medium or medium-fast, and possessed the ablity to bowl leg breaks, googlies and top spinners with no discernible change in bowling action. His whirly bowling action and low point of delivery made him particularly difficult to read; this coupled with his unrelenting accuracy with the ball, the stamina to bowl all day and a generally hostile attitude towards batsmen made him an extremely difficult bowler to face overall, and one who was almost never dominated by any batsman. Even in the match during the 1938 Ashes where Len Hutton scored a record-breaking 364 and England an even bigger 903/7, O'Reilly returned respectable figures of 3 for 178 off 85 overs going at a little above 2 an over. Don Bradman of all people considered him to be the greatest bowler he had ever faced or watched in all his years of association with the game.

A talented sportsman from a young age, O'Reilly excelled at several sports apart from cricket, including tennis, rugby and athletics - he held the state record for the triple jump and one time came second behind 1924 Olympic Gold medalist Nick Winter in a competition. In fact, he may have been lost to cricket altogether but for a chance selection in a Sydney club match whilst he was training to be a schoolmaster during the mid-1920s. It was around this time that he first came to encounter a 17-year old Don Bradman in a local match where the latter smashed an unbeaten 234 with several boundaries off his bowling, although Bradman was also given several reprieves by lethargic fielders, one of whom was busy lighting a pipe whilst a catch came his way off O'Reilly's bowling - nevertheless, he managed to dismiss him first ball the very next day. He had done enough at this point to merit a first-class debut for New South Wales in the 1927/28 season of the Sheffield Shield, taking 7 wickets from 3 matches. He was by now a qualified teacher and his profession came in the way of his budding first-class career, as he was forced to miss the 1928/29 season and didn't play againt until 1931/32. In a period of great change in Australian cricket including retirements of several prominent players of the 1920s such as Arthur Mailey, then arguably Australia's leading legspinner, this potentially cost him an early Test debut during either the 1928/29 or 1930 Ashes series.

He finally made his Test debut in the 1931/32 series against South Africa claiming 7 wickets at 24.85 from 2 Tests, and would go on to lead the wicket-taking charts for Australia in the 1932/33 Ashes series with 27 wickets at an average of 26.81, which was second only to Harold Larwood's 33 wickets at 19.51 in the series - including a match haul of 10/129 in what was Australia's only victory of a series which England won by a 4-1 margin. However, his performances with the ball were largely overshadowed by the controversial 'Bodyline' tactics employed by Douglas Jardine to successfully curb the Australians by neutralizing the threat posed by Bradman with the bat, causing public outrage within the country. Australia and O'Reilly gained redemption in the next Ashes series in 1934 which was won by a 2-1 margin, where he claimed 28 wickets at 24.92 bowling in tandem with Clarrie Grimmett (25 wickets at 26.72), with whom he formed arguably the greatest leg spin bowling partnership in the history of Test cricket. His best performances included a Test best innings haul of 7 for 54 in a 238-run victory at Trent Bridge, followed by a valiant 7 for 189 in a lone effort as England piled on a total of 627/9 in a drawn match at Old Trafford - his overall tally of 109 wickets at 17.04 saw him lead the season averages and was enough to earn him a spot as one of Wisden's Cricketers of the Year in 1935 alongside fellow team-mates Bill Ponsford and Stan McCabe.

He announced a rather shocking retirement from cricket in 1935/36 when arguably at the peak of his cricketing career, citing family reasons and his own professional teaching career, but an arrangement with his employers at the Sydney Grammar School allowed him to pursue his passion. He played in two more Ashes series in 1936/37 where he claimed 25 wickets at 22.20, and in 1938 claiming 22 wickets at 27.72, which Australia won 3-2 and drew 1-1 respectively to keep their hold on the Ashes urn intact during the 1930s apart from the abberration that was the 1932/33 'Bodyline' series. It was in these final two Ashes series of his career that he truly established himself as an all-time great, for he had the unenviable task of carrying the entire Australian bowling attack on his shoulders during this period with his famed bowling partner Clarrie Grimmett dropped from the Test team under inexplicable circumstances in early 1936. Grimmett, though aged 44 at the time had yet to announce his retirement and was still claiming more wickets than anyone else, including a stunning haul of 33 wickets at 11.24 with 3 match 10-fers from what turned out to be the last 3 Tests of his career. His replacements Chuck Fleetwood-Smith (36 wickets at 35.86) and Frank Ward (11 wickets at 52.18) came nowhere close to matching those figures, forcing O'Reilly to assume the role of the sole leading bowler in the lineup, which he did with 61 wickets at 22.55 during this period.

The 1938 Ashes were the last Tests Australia played until 1945/46, with the advent of the Second World War in 1939. O'Reilly would play three more seasons of domestic cricket in the Sheffield Shield for New South Wales, claiming 55 wickets at 15.12 from 7 matches in 1939/40, 55 again in 1940/41 but at a superior average of 12.43 from 8 matches, and a match haul of 9/124 in what was the only match of the 1941/42 season before first-class cricket was suspended in Australia. He quite reluctantly made one final Test appearance after the War against New Zealand in 1945/46, claiming 5 for 14 and 3 for 19 in an innings victory, and then promptly thew his boots outside the dressing room window instead of hanging them up.

Overall, he claimed 144 wickets at an average of 22.59 from 27 Tests between 1932 and 1946, including 102 wickets at 25.36 in the Ashes with 3 match 10-fers to his name, whilst maintaining a career economy rate of just 1.94 (1.97 in the Ashes) throughout his career. A feat all the more impressive considering he played in an era where scores in excess of 500 and batting averages in the mid to high 50s were often the norm. His success against Wally Hammond, second only to Bradman during this period being case in point - in 19 matches he claimed Hammond's wicket 10 times with the batsman averaging a mere 28.70 against a career average of 58.45 when facing him; he also dismissed Maurice Leyland (avg 56.83 against Australia) 9 times and Herbert Sutcliffe (avg 66.85 against Australia) 6 times respectively. He was third behind Clarrie Grimmett (169 wickets at 21.95) and Hedley Verity (144 wickets at 24.37) amongst wicket-takers in the 1930s with 136 wickets at 23.68, but comfortably ahead of both in the Ashes where Grimmett claimed 106 wickets at 32.44 and Verity 59 at 28.06 to O'Reilly's 102 at 25.36 from 19 matches. In all first-class cricket, he claimed a total of 774 wickets at 16.60 with 63 five-fers and 17 ten-fers between 1927/28 and 1945/46.

Although he had no pretensions of being a proper batsman with just 1 fifty throughout his first-class career (that too in a Test match!) and a batting average of 13.13, he could be occasionally relied upon, such as when he scored an unbeaten 30 in the 1934 Ashes to help Australia avoid the follow-on in response to England's 627/9 in a high-scoring draw. He was nevertheless a hitter of sorts, with around 17% of his Test runs coming in the form of sixes.

Playing Role

O'Reilly will take on the mantle of the lead spinner (though Sydney Barnes might disagree) in my lineup, complemented by the pace of Lindwall and Miller - one of the great fast bowling pairs of all time, and with the cunning of Barnes, I have to say this makes for a very formidable bowling attack that is capable of destroying the best of batting lineups. And you know what's even scarier? I still have another spot lying empty for either another fast bowler or a spinner. O'Reilly may even open the bowling in helpful conditions, a role he would often perform for the Australian teams captained by Bill Woodfull and Don Bradman. Now, all I need is a few decent batsmen..


VC's XI

1. Jack Hobbs
2.
3.
4.
5.
6. Keith Miller
7. Adam Gilchrist
8. Ray Lindwall (writeup later)
9.
10. Bill O'Reilly
11. Sydney Barnes


@Survivor​

In continuation..

While all of Australia despised Douglas Jardine and the 'Bodyline' tactics he imposed using Harold Larwood during the 1932/33 Ashes, many couldn't help but admire the latter's ability to run in all day and bowl fast. Perhaps they even secretly wished for a similar bowler in Australian ranks, as the Australian bowling attack at the time was solely comprised of spinners such as Clarrie Grimmett, Bill O'Reilly and Bert "Dainty" Ironmonger whilst being moderately supported to some extent by fast bowlers Tim Wall and Ernie McCormick, who had a bit of pace but nothing quite close to the accuracy and stamina that Larwood possessed. Their wishes would come to fruition thanks to a young boy of Swedish descent watching one of the matches from the crowd during the First Test of the 1932/33 series, which saw the first use of 'Bodyline' in a Test match and is perhaps best remembered for Stan McCabe's courageous counter-attacking innings of 187 in response to it in a lineup sans Bradman. That young boy was none other than Ray Lindwall, who having watched Larwood and McCabe that day would model himself on both, emulating the former's classical side-on bowling action and the latter's sheer aggression with the bat.

He grew up to be proficient in both cricket and rugby league football, playing for St George under the captaincy of Test legend Bill O'Reilly and also appearing in the NSW Rugby Football League premiership for the St George club alongside his older brother Jack Lindwall, a prolific quarter back who could go on to become the club's all-time leading try-scorer. Under the influence of O'Reilly however, he cut short his NSWRFL career to focus on playing Test cricket for Australia; the former also effectively turned him from a mediocre top-order batsman who could bowl into a high quality fast bowler who could bat in the lower-order, quite the opposite of Arthur Morris whom he did the other way around by picking him as a batsman rather than a slow bowler. This would pay rich dividens once cricket resumed after the War in 1945, by which time Lindwall was easily the fastest bowler in Australia. In a match against the Australian Services team captained by Lindsay Hassett that appeared in the 1945 Victory 'Tests', he claimed match figures of 6/95 - hardly earth shattering numbers, but his ability to swing the ball at pace and bowl hostile bouncers impressed Hassett, who hailed him as the best fast bowling prospect in the world in over a decade.

Lindwall made his Test debut alongside his long term mentor O'Reilly, in what was the latter's last Test match for Australia against New Zealand in 1945/46 - a match that was retrospectively given Test status later. He claimed one wicket apiece in either innings with the ball, but scored a duck with the bat as Australia emerged victorious by an innings. He played his first Ashes series in 1946/47 under the captaincy of Don Bradman, but a bout of chickenpox hampered his first Ashes Test in Brisbane where he was able to deliver only 12 overs for 23 runs before being forced to withdraw completely from the match. He didn't appear again until the Third Test at Melbourne, where he bowled in tandem with Keith Miller for the first time thereby marking the beginning of a partnership that would trouble English batsmen for a decade with their pace and hostility with the new ball until Miller's retirement in 1956. It was his batting that caught the headlines on this occasion though; he smashed a century off just 89 balls in the second innings - the third fastest in Test history a the time behind Jack Gregory (67 balls in 1921/22) and Gilbert Jessop (76 balls in 1902). He finished the series with an Ashes best of 7 for 63 in the final Test at Sydney, emerging with 18 wickets at 20.38 - the best bowling average on either side, along with 160 runs at 32.00 for the series which Australia won 3-0. They were largely unchallenged in their next Test assignment against India, on their maiden tour of Australia and their first since gaining independence from Britain, who found themselves thoroughly outclassed by Bradman (715 runs at 178.75) and Lindwall (18 wickets at 16.88) over 5 Tests which they lost 4-0, with the latter claiming a career best innings haul of 7 for 38 at Adelaide.

Lindwall's performances saw him chosen by Don Bradman to spearhead his 'Invincibles' bowling attack in the 1948 Ashes, despite injury concerns prior to the tour. He played through pain in the first couple of Tests, claiming 5 for 70 and 3 for 61 in the Second Test at Lord's which Australia won by a humongous 409 runs. Throughout the Test series, he bowled long spells without compromising on pace, and his hostile short pitched bowling caused several problems for the English batsmen including Len Hutton, who was shockingly dropped for the Third Test due to his struggles against Lindwall; he also felled Denis Compton with a vicious bumper that gave him a bloody eyebrow and forced him to retire hurt, but the latter resumed his innings to score a courageous unbeaten 145. He saved his best performance of the series for the final Test at The Oval, Bradman's last for Australia, where his brilliant 6 for 20 saw England skittled for 52 in their first innings, and later claimed 3 for 50 in the second innings. They lost the match by an innings, thereby denying Bradman to finish his Test career with an average of above 100 - he was out for a duck in his final innings which saw him finish with an average of 99.94, making it one of the most memorable moments in the history of Test cricket. Bradman's 'Invincibles' finished the tour unbeaten and won the Test series 4-0, with Lindwall claiming 27 wickets at 19.62 and scoring 191 runs at 31.83 with a highest of 77. He finished the tour with 86 wickets at 15.68 in all first-class matches, thereby placing him second on the season averages - a performance which saw him named as one of Wisden's Five Cricketers of the Year in 1949. By this point in his career, he was considered to be the leading fast bowler in the world with Wisden placing him "permanently in the gallery of great fast bowlers".

The early 1950s saw Lindwall at arguably the zenith of his Test career with him claiming 88 wickets at 20.87 between 1950 and 1953. It was during this time that he added a mean inswinger to his arsenal to complement his already great outswinger. However, Australia entered a transitional phase during this period and Lindwall would win only one Ashes series in 1950/51, where he claimed 15 wickets at 22.93 but performed poorly with the bat. The 1953 Ashes where he claimed 26 wickets at 18.84 with 3 five-fers were his best statistically in the Ashes, but Australia lost 1-0 despite his performances along with those of Keith Miller with the ball. As 50s wore on, Lindwall became less prolific with the ball despite still being a world class bowler in his own right - between 1954 and 1960 he would claim 70 wickets at a much higher than usual average of 29.60 from 23 matches, whilst also scoring 480 runs at 22.85 with 1 century. He was never quite the same force with either ball or bat in his final three Ashes series in 1954/55 (14 wickets at 27.21; 106 runs at 26.50 from 4 matches), 1956 (7 wickets at 34.00; 36 runs at 18.00 from 4 matches) and 1958/59 (7 wickets at 29.85; 19 runs at 9.50 from 2 matches), but nevertheless managed to once again reclaim the urn under the captaincy of Richie Benaud in his final Ashes series after having suffered two defeats on the trot in 1954/55 and 1956.

Overall, he claimed 228 wickets at 23.03 with 12 five-fers, and 1502 runs at 21.15 with 2 centuries and a best of 118 from 61 Tests between 1946 and 1960. This included a return of 114 wickets at 22.44 in the Ashes from 29 matches, the third highest among Australian fast bowlers after Glenn McGrath and Dennis Lillee, to go with 795 runs at 22.08 with his explosive lower-order batting - which fetched him a 89-ball century and the fastest fifty in the Ashes in terms of minutes. By the time of his retirement, he had eclipsed the legendary Clarrie Grimmett's 216 wickets to finish atop Australia's leading wicket-takers list, but was later eclipsed over a decade later by his pupil Dennis Lillee. He also formed one of the great fast bowling pairs in Test cricket alongside Keith Miller, with whom he shared the new ball for much of his career; in 50 Tests together they claimed a total of 340 wickets. The pair were hailed as the best of their era and credited with bringing fast bowling back into prominence in Test cricket, which was dominated by batsmen and slow bowlers for much of the early 20th century until their emergence. Richie Benaud, who skippered Lindwall between 1958 and 1960 claimed that he was "technically the best fast bowler" that he had ever seen, and his childhood hero Harold Larwood on whom he largely modeled his bowling action considered Lillee to be equal to Lindwall at his peak, "but not ahead of him". Among other things, he had the privilege to captain Australia for one Test during a tour of India in 1956/57 with then skipper Ian Johnson being unavailable, very nearly emulating mid-1920s Australian skipper Herbie Collins' unique feat of winning the NSWRL premiership and captaining his country in Test cricket, but for two finals defeats he suffered in 1942 and 1946 during his rugby league football career.


Playing Role

With Lindwall and Miller bowling in unison alongside Barnes and O'Reilly, I'm pretty confident my bowling attack is perhaps the strongest assembled in the draft thus far. Lindwall can bat at No 8 and give it an almighty thwack too.


VC's XI

1. Jack Hobbs
2.
3.
4.
5.
6. Keith Miller
7. Adam Gilchrist
8. Ray Lindwall
9.
10. Bill O'Reilly
11. Sydney Barnes​

 

[Master Bates]

With Lindwall and Miller bowling in unison alongside Barnes and O'Reilly, I'm pretty confident my bowling attack is perhaps the strongest assembled in the draft thus far. Lindwall can bat at No 8 and give it an almighty thwack too.

​

Oh Reilly?​

 

[VC the slogger]

Oh Reilly?​

In my opinion anyway..

 

[Aislabie]

Overall Pick #36: Charlie Macartney
​

Profile
Someone I was holding onto in the hope of him being a little overlooked, Charlie Macartney adds a little bit of star quality to a team already dripping with it. His career followed something of a similar trajectory to another man in my team: like Steve Smith, he originally made the Australian squad as a leg-spinning all-rounder who would often bat well down the order. Much of that phase of his career was spent at number seven or eight, although he did bat as low as ten on occasion. Unlike Smith though, he definitely was a Test-standard leg-spinner, taking his first 26 wickets at 20.15 apiece. But that was a mere curtain-raiser to the second act of his career in which he was Australia's specialist number three batsman. From 1910 onwards, the time at which his bowling took a backseat, he averaged over 60 at three and over 50 even with a bunch of Tests when he was pressed into service as a makeshift opening batsmen. Macartney's overall numbers may suffer slightly from performing two different and very specialist roles, but he absolutely demolished both. In my side, it's his batting that's his main job, but he will also be my third spinner.

Statistics
ASHES - 1,640 runs @ 43.15 (6 centuries, best 170) and 33 wickets @ 27.51 (1 5WI, best 7/58) in 26 matches
ALL TESTS - 2,131 runs @ 41.78 (7 centuries, best 170) and 45 wickets @ 27.55 (2 5WI, best 7/58) in 35 matches
FIRST-CLASS - 15,019 runs @ 45.78 (49 centuries, best 345) and 419 wickets @ 20.95 (17 5WI, best 7/58) in 249 matches


Aislabie's XI so far:
1.
2.
3. Charlie Macartney (Pick #36)
4. Steve Smith (Pick #8)
5. Steve Waugh (Pick #5)
6. Ben Stokes (Pick #19)
7. Brad Haddin (Pick #25)
8.
9. Jim Laker (Pick #18)
10.
11.

Next Pick:
@VC the slogger

 

[VC the slogger]

​

The late-1990s and early-2000s saw the emergence of four batsmen - namely Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, Jacques Kallis and Ricky Ponting, who would go on to achieve run-scoring feats hitherto unseen in Test cricket since the days of Don Bradman, George Headley and Wally Hammond in the 1930s. Of the four, Tendulkar was the man who Bradman saw a bit of himself in, Lara the unmatched genius capable of piling on scores no one had ever dreamt of, and Kallis the unappealing grinder who would quietly pile on century after century like some sort of automaton. But statistically, none of them came close to matching Bradman's average than Ponting at the very peak of his powers. Between 2002 and 2006, he scored an astonishing 6141 runs at an average of 72.25 from 57 Tests, boasted a Test career batting average of 59.99 after 107 Tests which extended to an even more astonishing 68.78 from the No 3 position. But like Bradman himself who once possessed a peak batting average of 112.29, father time would slowly but surely chip away at those numbers to the point where he ended up with the lowest batting average of the four.

Ponting initially burst onto the scene in the early 1990s as a talented but somewhat brash youngster, becoming the youngest Tasmanian to score a century in the Sheffield Shield aged 18 years and 40 days during his debut season in 1992/93. Rod Marsh, the Test wicket-keeping great considered him to the best teenage batsman he had ever seen, and there were calls for Ponting to make his Test debut for Australia as early as the 1993 Ashes series. It would take two more years for him to finally make the leap, culminating with a Test debut at the age of 21 against Sri Lanka in 1995/96 where he very nearly scored a century on debut but for a questionable umpiring decision which saw him dismissed for 96. But he largely failed to establish his place in the Test side until 1999 due to his off-field escapades during this period which included brawls at night clubs and other disciplinary issues, averaging a mere 36.63 after 22 Tests. A century in his first ever Ashes Test in 1997 nevertheless proved he was player destined for great things if only he could add better discipline to his life, which he finally did with 883 runs at 63.07 in 1999, though he had a poor Ashes series in 1998/99 scoring only 47 runs from four innings before being dropped from the lineup. He had a horror tour of India in 2000/01 where he could manage only 17 runs at 3.40, but was still persisted with and promoted to the No 3 position for the 2001 Ashes series. Following a couple of failures, he finally came of age with an aggressive 144 off just 154 balls, ending the series with 338 runs at 42.25 to cement his place as Australia No 3, a position he wouldn't relinquish for the next decade. His increasing maturity saw him displace 1999 World Cup winning captain Steve Waugh as the leader of the Australian ODI side, a move which paid rich dividends with him leading Australia to the title unbeaten with a heroic 140* in the final against India. He capped it off with a starring role in yet another victorious Ashes series for Australia in 2002/03, scoring 417 runs at 52.12 with 2 centuries. Thus began the most prolific phase of his Test career.

He would go on to eventually replace Steve Waugh as Australian Test captain following the latter's retirement after the 2003/04 series against India, where Ponting himself scored back to back double centuries - a record 242 in defeat, and a career best 257 to finish with 706 runs at 100.85 for the series. Despite his own batting form initally suffering following the elevation which saw him go century-less in 2004, Australia remained unbeaten in each of his first six series in charge as skipper owing to a star-studded lineup containing the likes of Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer - including a first Test series victory in India since 1969 which was stewarded by Gilchrist in Ponting's injury-enforced absence from the lineup. He rediscovered his batting form in time for the 2005 Ashes for which Australia remained favorites to win, but would go on to lose 2-1 to give England their first Ashes series victory since 1986/87. Ponting's own form remained patchy throughout the tour with 359 runs at 39.88, although he did score an extremely memorable 156 off 275 balls to hold England at bay at Old Trafford. If anything, this disappointment only spurred him on to greater heights as a batsman - he would go on to score 2059 runs at an average of 79.19 over the next year, including an Ashes best 576 runs at 82.28 with a high score of 196 in the 2006/07 rematch where Australia whitewashed England 5-0, making him the first captain since Warwick Armstrong in 1920/21 to lead Australia to an Ashes whitewash of their rivals. However, the victory was followed by the retirements of Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath, Ponting's two greatest trump cards with the ball, along with those of Justin Langer and Damien Martyn. For the first time, it seemed his leadership would truly be tested.

While he did lead Australia to another World Cup victory in early 2007 - making him the first captain since Clive Lloyd to win back to back titles, and managed to keep Australia at the top of the Test rankings until a visit from South Africa in 2008/09, he was never again quite the same force with the bat. During the final phase of his career between 2007 and 2012, he would score 4055 runs at an average of 40.15, a very pedestrian number by his previously near-Bradmanesque standards. This period was marked by two further Ashes defeats in 2009 where Australia lost 2-1 to England despite Ponting rediscovering some of his old fluency with the bat with 385 runs at 48.12, and at home in 2010/11 where he reached his nadir as both batsman and captain, scoring just 113 runs at 16.14 and losing the series 3-1 - making him the first Australian captain to lose an Ashes series at home since Allan Border in 1987, and the only Australian captain to lose three Ashes series. The latter result, followed by Australia's semi-final exit from the 2011 World Cup where Ponting scored a valiant century in vain, led to his resignation from both the Test and ODI captaincies. He played out the last year-and-a-half of his career purely as a batsman, but apart from a couple of centuries against a weak Indian bowling attack never looked his old self with the bat. His final Test series against South Africa in 2012/13 saw him average an embarrassing 6.40 with the bat from 5 innings, though he fared better domestically for Tasmania winning Sheffield Shield player of the year with 911 runs at 75.91 in his final home season. He ended his first-class career playing county cricket in England with an unbeaten 169 in his final innings.

Overall, Ponting scored 13378 runs at an average of 51.85 with 41 centuries from 168 Tests between 1995 and 2012, finishing second in terms of runs only to Sachin Tendulkar (15921 at 53.78), and third in terms of centuries after Tendulkar (51) and Jacques Kallis (45). In the Ashes, he scored a total of 2476 runs at an average of 44.21 with 8 centuries - a far cry from his overall Test figures but which still made him joint fourth alongside Greg Chappell, Arthur Morris and Herbert Sutcliffe among players with the most centuries in the Ashes. He spent a majority of his career batting at No 3 for Australia, where he averaged an extremely high 56.27 with 32 centuries - the third highest in terms of runs from the position after Kumar Sangakkara (11679 at 60.82) and Rahul Dravid (10524 at 52.88). He led Australia in 77 Tests as captain between 2004 and 2010, winning 48 and losing only 16 with a win percentage of 62.33 second only to Steve Waugh's 71.92 from 57 Tests. All throughout, he possessed arguably one of the safest pair of hands in the field, at either slip or at cover, from where he claimed 196 catches - the fourth highest by a non wicket-keeper after Rahul Dravid (210), Mahela Jayawardene (205) and Jacques Kallis (200).

Playing Role

Ponting will take on the bowlers from No 3, a position from where he averages 48.22 with 7 centuries in the Ashes. Not sure if I want him to captain given his mixed record, but we'll see how it goes..


VC's XI

1. Jack Hobbs
2.
3. Ricky Ponting
4.
5.
6. Keith Miller
7. Adam Gilchrist
8. Ray Lindwall
9.
10. Bill O'Reilly
11. Sydney Barnes


@Survivor​

 

[Deleted member 193590]

My Captain - MICHAEL VAUGHAN



stunned the Australians and looked like a stylish great when he made three centuries - 177 at Adelaide, 145 at Melbourne and 183 at Sydney - in 2002-03. The pressure of captaincy blunted his batting in 2005, however, as he made just one century, 166 at Old Trafford, but his Ashes average of 47 compares to 41 overall.

England captains will always be judged by their performances against Australia and in 2005 Vaughan produced his best. Marshaling a talented side against one of the best teams of all-time, Vaughan masterminded a spectacular triumph.

1. Playing an aggressive, attacking, almost un-English style of cricket, Vaughan's sides were often very entertaining to watch. A win rate of 50.98 percent certainly puts him in elite company.

1. Arthur Morris
2. Justin Langer
3. Ken Barrington
4. Michael Vaughan
5. Michael Hussey
6.
7.
8.
9. Shane Warne
10. Alec Bedser
11.

@Sinister One

 

[Master Bates]

Monty Noble
@Aislabie

 

[Aislabie]

Overall Pick #40: Jack Iverson
​

Profile
In Laker, I have one of the best-ever exponents of the deeply traditional art of off-spin bowling. For his main spinning partner, I have picked one of cricket's most remarkably individual spinners. Jack Iverson was cricket's original mystery spinner, but that really doesn't fully convey what he was. A schoolboy fast bowler, adult life for "Big Jack" meant Army service, and Army service soon meant World War Two. Without retelling his life story, in on-base recreational hit-abouts he developed a unique method of bowling leg-spin that resembled what we now know as the carrom ball. It allowed him to spin the ball in all directions without any way of the batsman discerning any details that would help him play the ball. His rise in the game was rapid: in late 1946, he made his debut for Brighton Cricket Club in Third Grade at the age of 31. Nobody could play him. By November 1949, he had been selected for the Victorian state team. Still nobody could play him. In December 1950, he was picked for the Australian Ashes squad, and would play all five Tests against England. Still nobody could play the now 35-year-old Iverson. The only respite for England from the spinner they couldn't understand came in the fifth Test, when Iverson stood on the ball whilst trying to field it. And as suddenly as that, one of cricket's briefest, brightest and most bizarre career came to a close. The ageing Iverson never fully retired from his ankle injury, and would play only two more first-class matches after his Ashes series. All but two matches of his career came in fourteen stunning months.

Statistics
ASHES - 3 runs @ 0.75 (best 1*) and 21 wickets @ 15.23 (1 5WI, best 6/27) in 5 matches
ALL TESTS - 3 runs @ 0.75 (best 1*) and 21 wickets @ 15.23 (1 5WI, best 6/27) in 5 matches
FIRST-CLASS - 277 runs @ 14.57 (best 31*) and 157 wickets @ 19.22 (9 5WI, best 7/77) in 34 matches


Aislabie's XI so far:
1.
2.
3. Charlie Macartney (Pick #36)
4. Steve Smith (Pick #8)
5. Steve Waugh (Pick #5)
6. Ben Stokes (Pick #19)
7. Brad Haddin (Pick #25)
8.
9. Jim Laker (Pick #18)
10.
11. Jack Iverson (Pick #40)

Next Pick:
@blockerdave

 

[blockerdave]

Pace has always made a difference in the Ashes, and few have demonstrated that as clearly as MITCHELL JOHNSON in the 2013/2014 Ashes, where he battered and bullied England into submission and breakdown.

"He bowls to the leeeeeeeft, he bowls to the riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight, that Mitchell Johnson, his bowling is shite"... so sang the Barmy Army on the triumphant 2010/11 tour, as the "once in a generation" bowler struggled (as he had in 2009) for confidence and direction. He didn't make the 2013 Ashes tour to England, but some hostile spells in the ODI series that followed where he troubled Jonathan Trott in particular gave an indication that perhaps he was back in the groove, and he was selected for the first test of the return series in 2013/14

You might have forgotten, given what came after, but his first spell was pretty innocuous. It was the 2010/11 Johnson... wayward, unthreatening... he was hooked pretty quickly.

But when he came back... my oh my. He helped the Aussies obliterate England for 136 with 4/61 before taking 5/42 in the second innings.

Bowling for the rest of the series in short, hostile bursts, Johnson obliterated England. His record for the series was incredible - 37 wickets at 13.97 with a strike rate of 30.5 balls, and 3 five-fers including a best of 7/40. He also averaged 27.5 with the bat - nearly double his bowling average.

Overall, his Ashes record is surprisingly decent (obviously helped by this series), since he was never actually that bad - even in 2010/11 he ripped us apart in our only defeat at Perth. 87 wickets in 19 matches at 25.81 and a strike rate 43.2.


@CerealKiller - double pick for you.

 

[Aislabie]

MITCHELL JOHNSON

Damn it, he was very much my main target

 

[CerealKiller]

My first pick is Hugh Trumble, statistically the second most succesful Ashes spinner, after Shane Warne, with 121 wickets at an average of almost 21. He was an unplayable offspinner on wet pitches, which were more common in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but could take wickets in all conditions. He bowled close to medium pace, and had an excellent slower ball. He was no rabbit with the bat, averaging over 19 and even occasionally opening.
My second pick is Alan Knott, the legendary English 'keeper. Apart from a flawless technique behind the stumps, he was more than useful with the bat, contributing to narrow England wins and draws multiple times.

CerealKiller's XI
1. Len Hutton
2.
3. Don Bradman
4.
5. Mark Waugh
6. Andrew Flintoff
7. Alan Knott
8. Hugh Trumble
9. Dennis Lillee
10.
11. Glenn McGrath

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