ODI World Cup draft II | 20 teams, 48 matches, 240 WC greats, and the winner is...

[VC the slogger]

@liveinasociety Two Indians in your lineup already

Round 1 (1975)

CerealKiller - Dennis Lillee
Ed Smith - Imran Khan
ahmedleo414 - Sunil Gavaskar
Aravind. - Glenn Turner
Aislabie - Ross Edwards
Umair7 - Majid Khan
mohsin7827 - Clive Lloyd
RUDI - Chris Old
Yash. - Keith Fletcher
Neo 7 - Bernard Julien
Na Maloom Afraad - Dennis Amiss
liveinasociety - Zaheer Abbas
Gaurav_7 - Gary Gilmour
Bevab - Andy Roberts
Fenil - John Snow
VC the slogger - Keith Boyce
Verified Enigma - Syed Abid Ali

Round 2 (1979)

CerealKiller - Desmond Haynes
Ed Smith - Mike Brearley
ahmedleo414 - Bob Willis
Aravind. - Joel Garner
Aislabie - Phil Edmonds
Umair7 - Brian McKechnie
mohsin7827 - Colin Croft
RUDI - Michael Holding
Yash. - Sikander Bakht
Neo 7 - Gordon Greenidge
Na Maloom Afraad - Viv Richards
liveinasociety - Lance Cairns
Gaurav_7 - Mike Hendrick
Bevab - Asif Iqbal
Fenil - Graham Gooch
VC the slogger - Collis King
Verified Enigma - Somachandra de Silva

Round 3 (1983)

CerealKiller - Ashantha de Mel
Ed Smith - Martin Crowe
ahmedleo414 - Larry Gomes
Aravind. - Graeme Fowler
Aislabie - Guy de Alwis
Umair7 - Jeremy Coney
mohsin7827 - Roger Binny
RUDI - Abdul Qadir
Yash. - Duncan Fletcher
Neo 7 - Mohinder Amarnath
Na Maloom Afraad - Kapil Dev
liveinasociety - Allan Lamb
Gaurav_7 - David Gower
Bevab - Madan Lal
Fenil - Malcolm Marshall
VC the slogger - Richard Hadlee
Verified Enigma - Graham Yallop

Round 4 (1987)

CerealKiller - Navjot Sidhu
Ed Smith - Eddie Hemmings
ahmedleo414 - Geoff Marsh
Aravind. - Mohammad Azharuddin
Aislabie - Patrick Patterson
Umair7 - Arjuna Ranatunga
mohsin7827 - Dave Houghton
RUDI - Steve Waugh
Yash. - Wasim Akram
Neo 7 - Dean Jones
Na Maloom Afraad - Courtney Walsh
liveinasociety - Craig McDermott
Gaurav_7 - Saleem Malik
Bevab - Mike Gatting
Fenil - David Boon
VC the slogger - Javed Miandad
Verified Enigma - Kris Srikkanth

Round 5 (1992)

CerealKiller - Brian Lara
Ed Smith - Eddo Brandes
ahmedleo414 - Mushtaq Ahmed
Aravind. - Manoj Prabhakar
Aislabie - Chris Lewis
Umair7 - Anderson Cummins
mohsin7827 - Brian McMillan
RUDI - Mark Waugh
Yash. - Chris Harris
Neo 7 - Ramiz Raja
Na Maloom Afraad - Ian Botham
liveinasociety - Sachin Tendulkar
Gaurav_7 - Andy Flower
Bevab - Mark Greatbatch
Fenil - Allan Donald
VC the slogger - Peter Kirsten
Verified Enigma - Alec Stewart

Round 6 (1996)

CerealKiller - Waqar Younis
Ed Smith - Ian Healy
ahmedleo414 - Inzamam-ul-haq
Aravind. - Rajab Ali
Aislabie - Paul Strang
Umair7 - Aravinda de Silva
mohsin7827 - Graeme Hick
RUDI - Gary Kirsten
Yash. - Andrew Hudson
Neo 7 - Damien Fleming
Na Maloom Afraad - Anil Kumble
liveinasociety - Shane Warne
Gaurav_7 - Sanath Jayasuriya
Bevab - Curtly Ambrose
Fenil - Saeed Anwar
VC the slogger - Steve Tikolo
Verified Enigma - Daryll Cullinan

Round 7 (1999)

CerealKiller - Roger Twose
Ed Smith - Ricky Ponting
ahmedleo414 - Geoff Allott
Aravind. - Michael Bevan
Aislabie - Herschelle Gibbs
Umair7 - Neil Johnson
mohsin7827 - Glenn McGrath
RUDI - Shaun Pollock
Yash. - Darren Gough
Neo 7 - Jacques Kallis
Na Maloom Afraad - Lance Klusener
liveinasociety - Sourav Ganguly
Gaurav_7 - Saqlain Mushtaq
Bevab - Moin Khan
Fenil - Rahul Dravid
VC the slogger - Shoaib Akhtar
Verified Enigma - Chris Cairns

Round 8 (2003)

CerealKiller - Collins Obuya
Ed Smith - Stephen Fleming
ahmedleo414 - Maurice Odumbe
Aravind. - Marvan Atapattu
Aislabie - Andrew Symonds
Umair7 - Andy Bichel
mohsin7827 - Yuvraj Singh
RUDI - Klaas-Jan van Noortwijk
Yash. - Damien Martyn
Neo 7 - James Anderson
Na Maloom Afraad - Adam Gilchrist
liveinasociety - Chaminda Vaas
Gaurav_7 - Shane Bond
Bevab - John Davison
Fenil - Muttiah Muralitharan
VC the slogger - Brett Lee
Verified Enigma - Makhaya Ntini

Round 9 (2007)

CerealKiller - Daniel Vettori
Ed Smith - Chris Gayle
ahmedleo414 - Michael Clarke
Aravind. - Lasith Malinga
Aislabie - David Hemp
Umair7 - Shaun Tait
mohsin7827 - AB de Villiers
RUDI - Kumar Sangakkara
Yash. - Graeme Smith
Neo 7 - Kevin Pietersen
Na Maloom Afraad - Ryan ten Doeschate
liveinasociety - Jacob Oram
Gaurav_7 - Mahela Jayawardena
Bevab - Brad Hogg
Fenil - Scott Styris
VC the slogger - Matthew Hayden
Verified Enigma - Nathan Bracken

Round 10 (2011)

CerealKiller - Umar Akmal
Ed Smith - Dale Steyn
ahmedleo414 - Brendon McCullum
Aravind. - Robin Peterson
Aislabie - Virender Sehwag
Umair7 - Graeme Swann
mohsin7827 - Saeed Ajmal
RUDI - Upul Tharanga
Yash. - Ajantha Mendis
Neo 7 - Zaheer Khan
Na Maloom Afraad - Shahid Afridi
liveinasociety - Tillakaratne Dilshan
Gaurav_7 - JP Duminy
Bevab - Imran Tahir
Fenil - Kevin O'Brien
VC the slogger - MS Dhoni
Verified Enigma - Ross Taylor

Round 11 (2015)

CerealKiller - Steven Smith
Ed Smith - Wahab Riaz
ahmedleo414 - Jason Holder
Aravind. - Brendan Taylor
Aislabie -
Umair7 - Niall O'Brien
mohsin7827 - Trent Boult
RUDI - Mohammed Shami
Yash. - Martin Guptill
Neo 7 - Ed Joyce
Na Maloom Afraad - Mitchell Starc
liveinasociety - Gary Wilson
Gaurav_7 - Corey Anderson
Bevab - Sean Williams
Fenil - Glenn Maxwell
VC the slogger - Ravichandran Ashwin
Verified Enigma - Shakib Al Hasan

Round 12 (2019)

CerealKiller - Jos Buttler
Ed Smith - Faf du Plessis
ahmedleo414 - Chris Woakes
Aravind. - Mohammad Nabi
Aislabie -
Umair7 - Rohit Sharma
mohsin7827 - Jason Roy
RUDI - Kane Williamson
Yash. - Nicholas Pooran
Neo 7 - Mushfiqur Rahim
Na Maloom Afraad - Babar Azam
liveinasociety - INVALID
Gaurav_7 - Hardik Pandya
Bevab - Joe Root
Fenil - Yuzvendra Chahal
VC the slogger - Ben Stokes
Verified Enigma - Shadab Khan

 

[Neo 7]

VENUE SELECTION :

Riverside Ground, Chester-le-Street, Durham, England - 1999 ()
Senwes Park, Potchefstroom, North West, South Africa - 2003 ()

 

[VC the slogger]

@mohsin7827 Eden Park already taken. Now that your squads are complete, you guys can review which grounds you want properly for your home games if you want to make any changes to those already selected thus far.

VENUE SELECTION

VC the slogger - Sir Viv Richards Stadium Antigua (2007), St George's Park Pt Elizabeth (2003)
ahmedleo414 - Jinnah Stadium Gujranwala (1996), Grange CC Edinburgh (1999)
Aislabie - County Ground Northampton (1999), Nairobi Gymkhana (2003)
Aravind. - Newlands Cape Town (2003), WACA Ground Perth (1992)
Bevab -
CerealKiller - Rawalpindi Stadium (1996), Gaddafi Stadium Lahore (1987)
Ed Smith - Lord's Cricket Ground (1999), Asgiriya Kandy (1996)
Fenil - Feroze Shah Kotla Delhi (1996), Diamond Oval Kimberley (2003)
Gaurav_7 -
liveinasociety - Harare Sports Club (2003), Sabina Park Kingston (2007)
mohsin7827 - Sophia Gardens Cardiff (2019), ????
Na Maloom Afraad -
Neo 7 - Riverside Ground Chester-le-Street (1999), Senwes Park Potchefstroom (2003)
RUDI - County Ground Chelmsford (1983), City Oval Pietermaritzburg (2003)
Umair7 -
Verified Enigma - New Wanderers Johannesburg (2003), Melbourne Cricket Ground (2015)
Yash. - Adelaide Oval (1992), Eden Park Auckland (2015)

@Bevab @Gaurav_7 @Umair7 @Na Maloom Afraad

 

[Paranoid Kendroid]

Mujeeb ur Rehman

 

[Bevab]

Are there any grounds even left?

Post automatically merged: Jun 3, 2023

Can’t believe the last round is almost over in six hours where as the previous ones were taking over forty eight hours…

 

[Gaurav_7]

Are there any grounds even left?

Yeah please if anyone can let me know what is left..

 

[Paranoid Kendroid]

The Waystar Wickets

1. Tillakaratne Dilshan (2011)
2. Sourav Ganguly (1999)
3. Zaheer Abbas (1975)
4. Sachin Tendulkar (1992)
5. Allan Lamb (1983)
6. Gary Wilson (2015)
7. Jacob Oram (2007)
8. Lance Cairns (1979)
9. Shane Warne (1996)
10. Chaminda Vaas (2003)
11. Craig McDermott (1987)
12th: Mujeeb ur Rehman (2019)

Our middle order is f**ked! Honestly can't see us doing well against any of the teams

 

[VC the slogger]

Are there any grounds even left?

Somewhere in the low 100s stil..

https://www.planetcricket.org/forums/threads/odi-world-cup-draft-ii-one-player-from-each-world-cup-1975-2019.120540/#post-3583685

Can’t believe the last round is almost over in six hours where as the previous ones were taking over forty eight hours…

 

[VC the slogger]

Yeah please if anyone can let me know what is left..

Pretty much all the grounds in India (save for Kotla), West Indies, Netherlands, Sri Lanka, Ireland, and some pretty big name ones in England too save for Lord's..

 

[Bevab]

I'll take Rose Bowl, Southampton 2019 for my first ground.

I assume you'd be slightly better off picking a ground that lets your team's strength shine in a pitch that isn't heavily decked towards you over one that tries to massively favour your players' strengths? Something like India getting bamboozled by the Pune pitch because O'Keefe was able to spin his way to a win as the pitch negated any skill difference in spin bowling due to the over-assistance while Smith was the point of difference of quality batting that saw his team through on a minefield...

 

[Bevab]

Actually scratch my previous choice, I'll take Trent Bridge 2019 (Nottingham ) and Arbab Niaz Stadium 1987 (Peshawar ), thank you very much.

 

[Gaurav_7]

Eden Gardens 1987 or 2011 whichever is available please

Gabba/Perth/MCG 1992 whichever is available please

 

[Yash.]

I'm also switching from Adelaide to Castle Avenue, Ireland

 

[Aislabie]

Steelbacks Unchained

Home venues: County Ground, Northampton (1999 ); Nairobi Gymkhana, Nairobi (2003 )

1. Virender Sehwag (2011)
2. Herschelle Gibbs (1999)
3. Avishka Fernando (2019)
4. David Hemp (2007)
5. David Miller (2015)
6. Andrew Symonds (2003)
7. Chris Lewis (1992)
8. Guy de Alwis (1983)
9. Paul Strang (1996)
10. Phil Edmonds (1979)
11. Patrick Patterson (1987)
12th: Ross Edwards (1975)

David Miller comes in after averaging 65 at a strike rate of 140 in the 2015 World Cup. No notes, just a really obvious pick.

Avishka Fernando comes in after averaging 51 at a strike rate of 106 in the 2019 World Cup. He only played four games, but he did get his side off to a really good start in each one of them.

Ross Edwards shuffles down to 12th man duties, and I might sub him back in after David Hemp plays the first game. Genuinely unhinged team this one, borne out of an unwillingness to engage when this thread was utter chaos; I'm quite proud of it.

Round 1 (1975)

CerealKiller - Dennis Lillee
Ed Smith - Imran Khan
ahmedleo414 - Sunil Gavaskar
Aravind. - Glenn Turner
Aislabie - Ross Edwards
Umair7 - Majid Khan
mohsin7827 - Clive Lloyd
RUDI - Chris Old
Yash. - Keith Fletcher
Neo 7 - Bernard Julien
Na Maloom Afraad - Dennis Amiss
liveinasociety - Zaheer Abbas
Gaurav_7 - Gary Gilmour
Bevab - Andy Roberts
Fenil - John Snow
VC the slogger - Keith Boyce
Verified Enigma - Syed Abid Ali

Round 2 (1979)

CerealKiller - Desmond Haynes
Ed Smith - Mike Brearley
ahmedleo414 - Bob Willis
Aravind. - Joel Garner
Aislabie - Phil Edmonds
Umair7 - Brian McKechnie
mohsin7827 - Colin Croft
RUDI - Michael Holding
Yash. - Sikander Bakht
Neo 7 - Gordon Greenidge
Na Maloom Afraad - Viv Richards
liveinasociety - Lance Cairns
Gaurav_7 - Mike Hendrick
Bevab - Asif Iqbal
Fenil - Graham Gooch
VC the slogger - Collis King
Verified Enigma - Somachandra de Silva

Round 3 (1983)

CerealKiller - Ashantha de Mel
Ed Smith - Martin Crowe
ahmedleo414 - Larry Gomes
Aravind. - Graeme Fowler
Aislabie - Guy de Alwis
Umair7 - Jeremy Coney
mohsin7827 - Roger Binny
RUDI - Abdul Qadir
Yash. - Duncan Fletcher
Neo 7 - Mohinder Amarnath
Na Maloom Afraad - Kapil Dev
liveinasociety - Allan Lamb
Gaurav_7 - David Gower
Bevab - Madan Lal
Fenil - Malcolm Marshall
VC the slogger - Richard Hadlee
Verified Enigma - Graham Yallop

Round 4 (1987)

CerealKiller - Navjot Sidhu
Ed Smith - Eddie Hemmings
ahmedleo414 - Geoff Marsh
Aravind. - Mohammad Azharuddin
Aislabie - Patrick Patterson
Umair7 - Arjuna Ranatunga
mohsin7827 - Dave Houghton
RUDI - Steve Waugh
Yash. - Wasim Akram
Neo 7 - Dean Jones
Na Maloom Afraad - Courtney Walsh
liveinasociety - Craig McDermott
Gaurav_7 - Saleem Malik
Bevab - Mike Gatting
Fenil - David Boon
VC the slogger - Javed Miandad
Verified Enigma - Kris Srikkanth

Round 5 (1992)

CerealKiller - Brian Lara
Ed Smith - Eddo Brandes
ahmedleo414 - Mushtaq Ahmed
Aravind. - Manoj Prabhakar
Aislabie - Chris Lewis
Umair7 - Anderson Cummins
mohsin7827 - Brian McMillan
RUDI - Mark Waugh
Yash. - Chris Harris
Neo 7 - Ramiz Raja
Na Maloom Afraad - Ian Botham
liveinasociety - Sachin Tendulkar
Gaurav_7 - Andy Flower
Bevab - Mark Greatbatch
Fenil - Allan Donald
VC the slogger - Peter Kirsten
Verified Enigma - Alec Stewart

Round 6 (1996)

CerealKiller - Waqar Younis
Ed Smith - Ian Healy
ahmedleo414 - Inzamam-ul-haq
Aravind. - Rajab Ali
Aislabie - Paul Strang
Umair7 - Aravinda de Silva
mohsin7827 - Graeme Hick
RUDI - Gary Kirsten
Yash. - Andrew Hudson
Neo 7 - Damien Fleming
Na Maloom Afraad - Anil Kumble
liveinasociety - Shane Warne
Gaurav_7 - Sanath Jayasuriya
Bevab - Curtly Ambrose
Fenil - Saeed Anwar
VC the slogger - Steve Tikolo
Verified Enigma - Daryll Cullinan

Round 7 (1999)

CerealKiller - Roger Twose
Ed Smith - Ricky Ponting
ahmedleo414 - Geoff Allott
Aravind. - Michael Bevan
Aislabie - Herschelle Gibbs
Umair7 - Neil Johnson
mohsin7827 - Glenn McGrath
RUDI - Shaun Pollock
Yash. - Darren Gough
Neo 7 - Jacques Kallis
Na Maloom Afraad - Lance Klusener
liveinasociety - Sourav Ganguly
Gaurav_7 - Saqlain Mushtaq
Bevab - Moin Khan
Fenil - Rahul Dravid
VC the slogger - Shoaib Akhtar
Verified Enigma - Chris Cairns

Round 8 (2003)

CerealKiller - Collins Obuya
Ed Smith - Stephen Fleming
ahmedleo414 - Maurice Odumbe
Aravind. - Marvan Atapattu
Aislabie - Andrew Symonds
Umair7 - Andy Bichel
mohsin7827 - Yuvraj Singh
RUDI - Klaas-Jan van Noortwijk
Yash. - Damien Martyn
Neo 7 - James Anderson
Na Maloom Afraad - Adam Gilchrist
liveinasociety - Chaminda Vaas
Gaurav_7 - Shane Bond
Bevab - John Davison
Fenil - Muttiah Muralitharan
VC the slogger - Brett Lee
Verified Enigma - Makhaya Ntini

Round 9 (2007)

CerealKiller - Daniel Vettori
Ed Smith - Chris Gayle
ahmedleo414 - Michael Clarke
Aravind. - Lasith Malinga
Aislabie - David Hemp
Umair7 - Shaun Tait
mohsin7827 - AB de Villiers
RUDI - Kumar Sangakkara
Yash. - Graeme Smith
Neo 7 - Kevin Pietersen
Na Maloom Afraad - Ryan ten Doeschate
liveinasociety - Jacob Oram
Gaurav_7 - Mahela Jayawardena
Bevab - Brad Hogg
Fenil - Scott Styris
VC the slogger - Matthew Hayden
Verified Enigma - Nathan Bracken

Round 10 (2011)

CerealKiller - Umar Akmal
Ed Smith - Dale Steyn
ahmedleo414 - Brendon McCullum
Aravind. - Robin Peterson
Aislabie - Virender Sehwag
Umair7 - Graeme Swann
mohsin7827 - Saeed Ajmal
RUDI - Upul Tharanga
Yash. - Ajantha Mendis
Neo 7 - Zaheer Khan
Na Maloom Afraad - Shahid Afridi
liveinasociety - Tillakaratne Dilshan
Gaurav_7 - JP Duminy
Bevab - Imran Tahir
Fenil - Kevin O'Brien
VC the slogger - MS Dhoni
Verified Enigma - Ross Taylor

Round 11 (2015)

CerealKiller - Steven Smith
Ed Smith - Wahab Riaz
ahmedleo414 - Jason Holder
Aravind. - Brendan Taylor
Aislabie - David Miller
Umair7 - Niall O'Brien
mohsin7827 - Trent Boult
RUDI - Mohammed Shami
Yash. - Martin Guptill
Neo 7 - Ed Joyce
Na Maloom Afraad - Mitchell Starc
liveinasociety - Gary Wilson
Gaurav_7 - Corey Anderson
Bevab - Sean Williams
Fenil - Glenn Maxwell
VC the slogger - Ravichandran Ashwin
Verified Enigma - Shakib Al Hasan

Round 12 (2019)

CerealKiller - Jos Buttler
Ed Smith - Faf du Plessis
ahmedleo414 - Chris Woakes
Aravind. - Mohammad Nabi
Aislabie - Avishka Fernando
Umair7 - Rohit Sharma
mohsin7827 - Jason Roy
RUDI - Kane Williamson
Yash. - Nicholas Pooran
Neo 7 - Mushfiqur Rahim
Na Maloom Afraad - Babar Azam
liveinasociety - INVALID
Gaurav_7 - Hardik Pandya
Bevab - Joe Root
Fenil - Yuzvendra Chahal
VC the slogger - Ben Stokes
Verified Enigma - Shadab Khan

 

[Bevab]

Bevab's Blasters

1. Mark Greatbatch (1992)
2. John Davison (2003)
3. Joe Root (2019)
4. Mike Gatting (1987)
5. Sean Williams (2015)
6. Asif Iqbal (1979)
7. Moin Khan (1999)
8. Brad Hogg (2007)
9. Madan Lal (1983)
10. Curtly Ambrose (1996)
11. Imran Tahir (2011)
12. Andy Roberts (1975)

Some thoughts on my team and the draft overall....

• I'm quite pleased with the team I've managed to form at the end and overall it was a fun draft albeit very chaotic to participate in. I still believe that having no restriction on the order in which the years went by would have been better if the draft was to be a free for all (it wasn't when I did put up that suggestion I think) as that would have introduced more of a strategic element where you'd also have the opportunity to pick up a good player in any year if you were late to any round (would have also meant that certain really good players wouldn't go unpicked like Davey in '19) in contrast to what we had where it felt like if you missed out on a key target or two you'd have to compromise in some way or the other for the worse alongside being late scrolling in frustration to see all of the big names gone. It did not detract from the fun of the draft in the end for me though and I did end up picking a couple of names I wouldn't have due to the nature of the rules which I'm happy to have been challenged by.
  
  
  
  
• I did not plan much in the earlier rounds other than wanting to not get restricted in any country barring West Indies and Pakistan along with forming a functional bowling unit before the turn of the century. The former was because I didn't believe there would be significant enough patterns over a large scale of World Cups across matches and the latter was because both of those sides declined in ODIs compared to their past and I didn't believe I would have been interested in their star performers in a solo campaign or two (and in hindsight I believe I had access to only a couple of notable West Indian players at the time of my picks). I was definitely wrong on the former when I started looking into holes in my XI and realised that certain WCs did show a small but notable collection of players in a certain role, such as the number fours in 2007 WC (Styris, Pietersen, Mahela, Clarke, Tendo) and the 2019 WC having a good collection of number threes (Faf, Babar, Root, Kane, Kohli, Shakib). Had I known about this I would have planned for it earlier across every WC (assuming time permitted me to do so). In the end all I could manage was to pick up all of my spinners before 2015 as the last two WCs were notoriously difficult for good spinners and wait till 2019 for arguably the most important batting role in the team. The two key players in my draft were probably Davison and Hogg, I didn't have any real alternate options to either of them that weren't noticeably worse or forced me to compromise in some place.
  
  
  
  
• Considering that I was late to many rounds I've gotta be very satisfied with the team I managed to form. There are no real standouts or tournament MVPs here other than perhaps Madan Lal but all of them are at their natural positions, filling in roles they did in real life. The only exception is again Madan Lal who was a first change bowler in '83 because Sandhu bowled up front with Kapil but given that he was the opening bowler just four years ago in another WC and has ample experience in that role I don't think his performances will be worse off due to it. A few of them had deceptively good tournaments such as Iqbal being the third highest wicket taker in '79 while also being the twelfth highest run-scorer, Gatting being a high output dynamic accumulator all the way back in '87, Greatbatch being a proto-Gayle with more than twice as many sixes as the next best in '92. These names may not stand out at first glance but all of them had excellent tournaments bringing something very unique at their respective points in time and I hope they can all combine together to form a side greater than the sum of their parts.
  
  
  
  
• I don't think I regret any pick I made, none were bad and if the worst player I'm benching is Andy Roberts you know there is a really solid team in there. I would have loved to have someone who finished in the top three for run charts as a truly elite batter to rely on but Root and Gatting (both of whom were the fifth highest in their tournaments) will have to suffice with Greatbatch hopefully pulling his weight too. Maybe I would have not picked Gatting and waited for a number four in '07 if I knew about the prolific number of number fours in that tourney? Or perhaps I'd have picked Prabhakar (who was a top ten ODI bowler back in that time) instead of Greatbatch if I had known I would have never picked another Indian in the draft? If I had to make one change it would probably be Raina in for Williams in 2015 (am I still allowed to make that swap by the way given I don't have any restrictions applying? ) It's nothing against Williams who had a splendid tournament himself and also offers a better bowling option, Raina's left-handedness, absolute disregard for spin and my own personal bias are the ones making me prefer him (I would probably change my mind in an hour though knowing myself). I held off on picking Raina because I wanted the flexibility of picking Rohit or Kohli should I miss out on one of my primary number three targets. Other than the lack of a lefty and a standout batter (but then again Rooty was the leading run scorer for a WC winning side in a stacked lineup that meant sharing the burden) I wouldn't say the team has any weakness.
  
  
  
  
• Our team balance is pretty simple in the end. Greatbatch and Davison's roles will be to act as powerplay hitters with Greatbatch being the more Gayle/Rohit like consistent one while Davison aims to propel us to quick starts. They are followed by two accumulators with Root being a hybrid of an anchor and dynamic accumulator at three acting as the team's primary run-scorer while Gatting serves to be the purely dynamic one seeking to support him like he did for Lamb and Gooch in '87. Williams is then in as the middle order hitter to spruce up the scoring with his own aggressive brand of batting. Iqbal will act as the team's firefighter, his SR in '79 was perfectly decent at the time (even the great Viv is only marginally better than him in this regard) to hopefully give us some decent hitting should he be needed for scoring quickly. Moin and Hogg will then serve as the team's finishers with the former being quite good at it. Madan Lal does give us some proper batting depth too should he be required, let's not forget that he was the fourth highest run scorer for India in the '83 final.
  
  
  
  
• With the ball I expect Ambrose to be his usual, miserly self (there was only one game in '96 when he went for more than 3 RPO) in the powerplay with hostile pace and yorkers while Madan Lal offers some swing at the other end looking for early wickets. We've got Iqbal then for further pace should that be the case or we can go straight to the spin choke courtesy of Hogg, Tahir and Davison with Williams bowling the odd over should he be needed. We've also got Root as backup just in case someone is unfit or we have two of our main bowlers being too expensive. I expect Hogg to be the more attacking spinner while Tahir tries to be more defensive initially. Davison is our wildcard here, he can either bowl in upfront as a surprise or bowl in the middle overs and can either pick up wickets whilst leaking runs or be economical. He is the ideal guy you'd want as your sixth bowler if you need wickets or to restrict the opposition but I expect it'll always be a risk with him. Shockingly, Roberts is our worst bowler on paper in this team with him averaging 20 whilst everyone else other than Williams is below 20. I don't think he'll stay as the twelfth man forever though especially with the possibility of green pitches in play where I think he'll make a bigger impact than one of the spinners. Our captain will be Gatting, I think leading his side to a WC final is a good reflection on the bloke's ability to be captain (irrespective of what the actual reality is) and I expect him to work well with our side.