Draft: Pane2ar Draft: Return of the Rabbits

[Neptune]

Stewie Dempster

Love that pick, really wish I had enough caps left to get him before

 

[Till Valhalla]

Love that pick, really wish I had enough caps left to get him before

Thanks @ddrap14 for the help. I was gonna take Vihari.

 

[Yash.]

Sid Barnes
Vikram Rathour
Jacques Kallis
Vinod Kambli
Ricardo Powell
Saba Karim
Aashish Kapoor
Bart King (0 caps)
Josh Hull
Doug Freeman
George Lohmann

Post automatically merged: Oct 23, 2024

This finishes my team, definitely not the best bowling lineup, but that batting is stacked for sure

 

[Supreme General]

Erm Lohmann picked twice?

Post automatically merged: Oct 23, 2024

I might be hitting on my foot with two picks left to pick but let's see

11. George Lohmann (18, 6)

@Neptune to go next

^

 

[Aislabie]

Team Reviews
So these teams are going to be quite tricky to review. The ideal Test team contains 13 roles (7 batters, 1 keeper and 5 bowlers), and obviously that has to involve Panesars covering some of the roles. If you don't have Panesars of sufficient quality there are going to be roles missing, so I do recognise that there were things going on with your teams that were absolutely not your fault.

@ahmedleo414

1. Vijay Merchant
2. Ed Joyce
3. Sonny Moloney P
4. Nic Pothas
5. Akram Khan P
6. Karim Janat P
7. Harry Musgrove P
8. Peter Pollock
9. J.J. Ferris
10. Brooke Walker P
11. Ian Salisbury P

Vijay Merchant and Ed Joyce set the tone with bat in hand: they are a high quality opening pair. They should set a good platform for the punchy middle-order to work with more often than not.
Likewise, the new ball pairing is also top quality. And as a bonus, they're a left-right combination that should make for an extra challenge for opposing batters.
Three of your Panesars are leg-spinners with a combined 25 Test wickets @ 77.88 from 23 caps. That's just really not ideal for your spin attack and there was nothing you could do.
You might have improved this team a little by picking an option who bowled finger-spin and batted in the middle order - possibly by using your Rob Key pick for this and picking a one- or two-cap keeper instead of Pothas.

@Aislabie

1. WG Grace
2. Percy Twentyman-Jones P
3. Bill Alley
4. Stanley Jackson
5. Martin Donnelly
6. Ajay Sharma
7. Shadab Khan P
8. Rajagopalan Shyamsunder P
9. Dave Gilbert P
10. Charles Coventry P
11. Asma Farzand P

Going as aggressively as I did for all-rounders meant that I was able to cover a lot of the roles in my team. I just about have seven batters and just about have five bowlers, but you definitely have to squint at it.
My team definitely shouldn't be short of runs: WG Grace at the top of the order will be massive for us, and I also really believe in our middle order.
We don't have a proper opening bowler to lead our attack. I probably overcommitted by picking Ajay Sharma so early on.
The biggest upgrade I could see to my team would be to include Len Johnson or Amar Singh to really lead the attack with the new ball.

@Aravind

1. Yashasvi Jaiswal
2. Khershed Meherhomji P
3. Roy Park P
4. Harry Brook
5. Ryan ten Doeschate
6. Axar Patel
7. Abdul Hafeez Kardar P
8. Roland Pope P
9. Trevor McMahon P
10. Goofy Lawrence
11. Yograj Singh P

Every one of your picks here fills at least one role, sometimes two: Axar might be a place too high at number six, but he does have the batting ability to get it done.
Goofy Lawrence was the pick of the draft for my money. A player I had only vaguely heard of before, and there's a genuine case that he might be the best bowler on any of our teams. Absolutely phenomenal round five pull.
Your Panesars were legitimately dire, and although you've tried to hide them as best you can, you've still squeezed both Khershed Meherhomji and Roy Park into your top three. Park was a legitimately good bat, but that's still two of your top three with zero Test runs between them.
As mad as this sounds, I would have been tempted to include Allan Steel in place of Axar Patel. It's mostly just nitpicking, but that could have opened up the option to pick Sydney Smith for your Rob Key Bonus.

@CerealKiller

1. Kevin Kasuza P
2. Frank Tarrant
3. Archie Jackson
4. Stuart Law
5. Mohammad Rizwan
6. Mike Procter
7. Gary Crocker P
8. Emile McMaster P
9. Niaz Ahmed P
10. Ujesh Ranchod P
11. Tapash Baisya P

These are five fantastic picks after you picked up a genuinely shite collection of Panesar. In particular, Tarrant and Procter can both be match-winners for you with both bat and ball.
Archie Jackson is also a phenomenal player whose tragic life story makes him a super valuable pick in drafts like this.
My only real criticism is that you could probably have spent your caps better than by dropping them all on Rizwan.
The biggest upgrade to this team would be to split those caps in the middle-order between Michael Bevan and a less experienced keeper-batter rather than Law and Rizwan.

@ddrap14

1. Jimmy Cook
2. Alan Melville
3. Bob Cowper
4. AB de Villiers P
5. Kamindu Mendis
6. Scott Kuggeleijn P
7. Vintcent van der Bijl
8. Tinu Yohannan P
9. William Solomon P
10. Mohammad Sami P
11. Flooi du Toit P

Cowper-AB-Mendis is an absolute joke of a middle-order, especially as two of those combine to make up your spin attack and the other one is your keeper.
You've even got a quality pair of opening batters here as well. Jimmy Cook is one of those whose three Test appearances can lead to him being absolutely slept on.
If the poor bowling side can get your team to four down, then they'll be all-out in no time. While I get the romance of picking van der Bijl, an all-rounder might have served your team a little better.
Franklyn Stephenson is the all-rounder that I'm thinking of, but there were others available who might have served your team balance a little better, even if Vince is the better bowler.

@icyman

1. Blair Hartland P
2. Oscar da Costa P
3. George Bailey
4. Brad Hodge
5. Garry Sobers P
6. Elysse Perry
7. Mohammad Salim P
8. Blessing Mahwire P
9. Barry Milburn P
10. Jofra Archer
11. Yuzvendra Chahal

I don't think it's harsh to say that starting this section of the draft with at least four players who were able to fill roles in your final XI was a remarkable Panesar roll.
Into that mix, you have added some excellent players: in particular, Hodge, Perry and Archer are all great additions to your team.
Despite that, you have also made a couple of selections that I don't quite get - Bailey and Chahal only use five caps between them, but they result in a lot of players being out of position - in particular, Oscar da Costa opening the batting.
I would have included "Albatrott" as your spinner and a big-hitting number 7 bat, and then used your Rob Key bonus on an opening batter like Surendra Bhave or Michael di Venuto. Garry Sobers should bat at three - he did average 72 there, including his then-record 365 not out.

@mohsin7827

1. Charles Coventry P
2. KC Ibrahim
3. Asif Mujtaba P
4. Graeme Pollock
5. Moeez Ghani P
6. Charles Passailaigue
7. Arthur Dolphin P
8. Zafar Gohar P
9. Baqa Jilani P
10. Tim Murtagh
11. George Lohmann

Your Panesars were good enough that you could have certainly built a team around them. Not world-beaters, but Mujtaba (batting all-rounder), Coventry (number 7 basher), Gohar (spinning all-rounder), Jilani (seam-up) and Dolphin (keeper) could all play roles in your team.
Your five Recovery Draft picks included two all-time legends in Lohmann and Pollock. Lohmann was even competent enough to be promoted to see off the new ball in lieu of an opening batter, something he did in two Tests for England.
By promoting three of your Panesars into your top five batters, you made your life far more difficult than it needed to be. You had already used your Rob Key Bonus with which to torture me, and I respect that, but it did mean your 50 caps had to stretch across five players and not four.
Outside of Pollock and Lohmann, you needed your remaining nine caps to stretch across three players, one of whom would ideally bowl well. In this situation it could have paid to look towards the women's game and pick up Annabel Sutherland; other options included Arthur Hill, Rikki Clarke and John Rutherford.

@Neptune

1. Will Pucovski
2. Ted Bowley
3. Mahadevan Sathasivam
4. Aubrey Faulkner
5. John Morris P
6. Denis Lindsay
7. Chamika Karunaratne P
8. Iqbal Siddiqui P
9. Usman Khan Shinwari P
10. Tabish Khan P
11. Pud Thurlow P

Your Panesars blessed you with many middling seam bowlers, but it did not bless you with spin or quality batting. In picking Aubrey Faulkner, you took a big step towards addressing both of those problems in one go.
Sathasivam is another one of those legendary players who played his whole career outside of the closed shop of Test cricket. I really like him as your use of the Rob Key Bonus.
Spending 19 caps on Denis Lindsay is a big swing: although he was obviously excellent, there are modern players who could offer a similar skillset at a fraction of the cost.
To upgrade this team, I would have gone with Heinrich Klaasen at six (despite his mediocre Test record) and spent the extra caps on someone like Michael Bevan instead of Ted Bowley even if it meant Sathasivam, Faulkner or Morris having to bat a bit out of position.

@Paranoid Kendroid

1. Jeremy Solozano P
2. Jim Parks Sr
3. George Headley
4. KS Duleepsinhji
5. Sarfaraz Khan
6. Jack Crawford
7. Vijay Rajindernath P
8. Roger Wijesuriya P
9. Simon Kerrigan P
10. Rubel Hossain P
11. Billy Frank P

Your 3-4-5 is an absolute powerhouse; genuinely very impressive and terrifying for our Panesar bowlers.
It was really handy that two or three of your Panesars are able to cover roles in your team. Solozano as an opener, Rajindernath as a keeper and at a push Billy Frank with the ball should all be able to contribute.
You definitely needed to pick up some proper bowlers in the draft - you probably have secured a good amount of draws, but in my opinion neither Parks nor Crawford are going to turn up and bowl a side out on their own.
The biggest possible upgrade to your team would have been to include more bowling. Giff Vivian, Amar Singh and Franklyn Stephenson would add up to fit into your team alongside Headley and Duleep's batting.

@Perfect Square

1. Devang Gandhi P
2. Barry Richards
3. Glen Bruk-Jackson P
4. Tom Groube P
5. Chris Cowdrey P
6. Jamie Smith
7. Aamer Jamal
8. Sajid Khan
9. Tshepo Moreki P
10. Vivek Razdan P
11. Mohammad Abbas

Barry Richards was absolutely the steal of the draft coming in at just 4 caps and as late as the fifth pick in the draft. With that kind of start you had the opportunity to get well ahead of the game.
You also made very good use of current players who are currently early in their careers in order to keep costs down. That might mean this team ages like a fine wine.
With that said, what were you doing with your batting? Four of your Panesars batting in your top five is a move so cavalier that Prince Rupert would look upon it with concern.
A more balanced to your team selection would have been to go out looking for more top-six batters, and bowlers who could hold the willow. To pick two main changes, I would replace Sajid with Zulfiqar Ahmed in a like for like swap and then also looked to bring in Jack Russell (not that one) with the bat.

@Supreme General

1. Chris Rogers
2. Stuart Williams P
3. Scott Borthwick P
4. Ernest Tyldesley
5. Clive Rice
6. Dwayne Smith P
7. Lee Germon P
8. Robert Stewart P
9. Rashid Khan
10. Gus Atkinson
11. David Johnson P

This team is built around a stash of solid if not spectacular Panesars, in addition to the huge steal of Clive Rice at pick #20 in the draft.
After that, you then used each of your last three picks to fill specific gaps in your team: a spinner, then an opener, then a classy number four. I can't criticise that at all.
The only real shortcoming here was in your pick of Gus Atkinson as a Round 1 pick. Although it may age like fine wine depending on how the rest of Atkinson's career goes, it was still a very odd choice with all of the top quality players still available at that point.
With this being a Round 1 pick, I'd have been inclined to go with a more all-round player first up. Perhaps someone like county legend George Thompson could have got your Northants quota up, as you were ultimately left with only Chris Rogers representing the greatest county of all time.

@Till Valhalla (I had to guess your batting order)

1. Kenia Jayantilal P
2. Stewie Dempster
3. Rahmanullah Gurbaz
4. Travis Dowlin P
5. Imran Khan P
6. Abhishek Sharma
7. Shahid Afridi
8. Richard Blakey P
9. Fionn Hand P
10. Shamar Joseph
11. George Gladstone Marais P

This team has Imran Khan in it. Even if that came from the Unlucky Dip, that's still a massive boon for your team. Add to that that Jayantilal, Blakey and a push Dowlin can all fill roles in the team, and we are already cooking with gas.
Stewie Dempster was a huge pick in Round 5 - it's scarcely believable that he went so long without being picked up, but he did and you got him all to yourself.
It felt as if you never quite planned out how you wanted your finished team to look. As a result of that you ended up with five opening batters in the form of Jayantilal, Dempster, Gurbaz, Sharma and Afridi.
Your Rob Key Bonus should have been spent far better than it was. Rather than going for Abhishek, you could have picked up somebody like Franklyn Stephenson, Shantanu Sugwekar, Duncan Spencer or Gamini Goonasena depending on what kind of role you were looking to fill in your team.

@Yash.

1. Sid Barnes
2. Vikram Rathour P
3. Jacques Kallis P
4. Vinod Kambli
5. Ricardo Powell P
6. Saba Karim
7. Aashish Kapoor P
8. Bart King
9. Josh Hull P
10. Doug Freeman P
11. Lohmann Fred Spofforth (auto pick)

Your team has Jacques Kallis in it. Much like the lucky folks who had Sobers and Imran, this is simply impossible to overlook as a huge upside.
Your players all addressed specific holes in the team: Barnes filled your opener role; Kambli gives Kallis someone to bat with; Karim takes the gloves and a top six berth; Bart King comes in and doesn't use a single cap out of your budget.
You tried to pick George Lohmann, who was already in Mohsin's team - although even without him, you probably already had the best team in the draft.
I took the liberty of replacing your old-timey opening bowler with 18 caps with another old-timey opening bowler with 18 caps: Fred Spofforth comes in to complete this absolutely bonkers team.

If I have to pick a winner of this draft, then it is @Yash. who not only bossed the Unlucky Dip, but then turned around and picked up the most balanced roster of players any of us managed in the Recovery Draft despite having the last pick. Well played.

 

[Yash.]

You tried to pick George Lohmann, who was already in Mohsin's team - although even without him, you probably already had the best team in the draft.
I took the liberty of replacing your old-timey opening bowler with 18 caps with another old-timey opening bowler with 18 caps: Fred Spofforth comes in to complete this absolutely bonkers team.

He was my second choice pick after Lohmann so thanks

Post automatically merged: Oct 23, 2024

If I have to pick a winner of this draft, then it is @Yash. who not only bossed the Unlucky Dip, but then turned around and picked up the most balanced roster of players any of us managed in the Recovery Draft despite having the last pick. Well played.

Pretty neat comeback to drafts I suppose

 

[CerealKiller]

@CerealKiller

1. Kevin Kasuza P
2. Frank Tarrant
3. Archie Jackson
4. Stuart Law
5. Mohammad Rizwan
6. Mike Procter
7. Gary Crocker P
8. Emile McMaster P
9. Niaz Ahmed P
10. Ujesh Ranchod P
11. Tapash Baisya P

These are five fantastic picks after you picked up a genuinely shite collection of Panesar. In particular, Tarrant and Procter can both be match-winners for you with both bat and ball.
Archie Jackson is also a phenomenal player whose tragic life story makes him a super valuable pick in drafts like this.
My only real criticism is that you could probably have spent your caps better than by dropping them all on Rizwan.
The biggest upgrade to this team would be to split those caps in the middle-order between Michael Bevan and a less experienced keeper-batter rather than Law and Rizwan.

Thanks to the Panesars constraints, this might be the draft team that was the most fun to build for me.
And i couldn’t resist picking Rizwan, he might just go down as the second-best Test keeper ever when he retires

 

[Aravind.]

@Aravind

1. Yashasvi Jaiswal
2. Khershed Meherhomji P
3. Roy Park P
4. Harry Brook
5. Ryan ten Doeschate
6. Axar Patel
7. Abdul Hafeez Kardar P
8. Roland Pope P
9. Trevor McMahon P
10. Goofy Lawrence
11. Yograj Singh P

Every one of your picks here fills at least one role, sometimes two: Axar might be a place too high at number six, but he does have the batting ability to get it done.
Goofy Lawrence was the pick of the draft for my money. A player I had only vaguely heard of before, and there's a genuine case that he might be the best bowler on any of our teams. Absolutely phenomenal round five pull.
Your Panesars were legitimately dire, and although you've tried to hide them as best you can, you've still squeezed both Khershed Meherhomji and Roy Park into your top three. Park was a legitimately good bat, but that's still two of your top three with zero Test runs between them.
As mad as this sounds, I would have been tempted to include Allan Steel in place of Axar Patel. It's mostly just nitpicking, but that could have opened up the option to pick Sydney Smith for your Rob Key Bonus.

Thanks for the review mate, I agree there were better players than Axar when I picked him, but all of them including Allan Steel was picked in previous draft. You already know, I planned to pick 5 players, who are not picked in previous draft and managed to pick 4 of them, except RTD.

Further, I seriously felt Kuldeep Yadav (13 caps) & Mohammad Asif "one of my personal favourite bowler, irrespective of other activities" (23 caps) will be picked by someone.

 

[Supreme General]

The only real shortcoming here was in your pick of Gus Atkinson as a Round 1 pick. Although it may age like fine wine depending on how the rest of Atkinson's career goes, it was still a very odd choice with all of the top quality players still available at that point.

4 words

Alcohol and recency bias

 

[Till Valhalla]

felt as if you never quite planned out how you wanted your finished team to look. As a result of that you ended up with five opening batters in the form of Jayantilal, Dempster, Gurbaz, Sharma and Afridi.

I don't know about Gurbaz, but I think Sharma and Afridi can be really good at lower positions too.

My plan was vibes.

 

[icyman]

I don't think it's harsh to say that starting this section of the draft with at least four players who were able to fill roles in your final XI was a remarkable Panesar roll.
Into that mix, you have added some excellent players: in particular, Hodge, Perry and Archer are all great additions to your team.
Despite that, you have also made a couple of selections that I don't quite get - Bailey and Chahal only use five caps between them, but they result in a lot of players being out of position - in particular, Oscar da Costa opening the batting.
I would have included "Albatrott" as your spinner and a big-hitting number 7 bat, and then used your Rob Key bonus on an opening batter like Surendra Bhave or Michael di Venuto. Garry Sobers should bat at three - he did average 72 there, including his then-record 365 not out.

I got a bit confused towards the last 2 picks- my choice of opener was going to be Neil Johnson, but that left me without a front line spinner. Chahal's inclusion was to merely cover the spin base. The others that I had thought of were- Chuck Fleetwood-Smith(but again similar to Sobers) and Micheal Bevan.

The opening batsman- totally missed Di Venuto. Ought to have researched a bit more.

 

[Neptune]

@Neptune

1. Will Pucovski
2. Ted Bowley
3. Mahadevan Sathasivam
4. Aubrey Faulkner
5. John Morris P
6. Denis Lindsay
7. Chamika Karunaratne P
8. Iqbal Siddiqui P
9. Usman Khan Shinwari P
10. Tabish Khan P
11. Pud Thurlow P

Your Panesars blessed you with many middling seam bowlers, but it did not bless you with spin or quality batting. In picking Aubrey Faulkner, you took a big step towards addressing both of those problems in one go.
Sathasivam is another one of those legendary players who played his whole career outside of the closed shop of Test cricket. I really like him as your use of the Rob Key Bonus.
Spending 19 caps on Denis Lindsay is a big swing: although he was obviously excellent, there are modern players who could offer a similar skillset at a fraction of the cost.
To upgrade this team, I would have gone with Heinrich Klaasen at six (despite his mediocre Test record) and spent the extra caps on someone like Michael Bevan instead of Ted Bowley even if it meant Sathasivam, Faulkner or Morris having to bat a bit out of position.

Totally agree with your criticism, Lindsey isn't really a 19 cap worth player in this draft, but I had already identified Bowley as someone I wanted for my second spin + opener option so his 19 caps fit a little too well for me to ignore it

 

[Paranoid Kendroid]

You definitely needed to pick up some proper bowlers in the draft - you probably have secured a good amount of draws, but in my opinion neither Parks nor Crawford are going to turn up and bowl a side out on their own.

Fair enough. Honestly, I hadn't done enough research for the draft picks.

 

[mohsin7827]

By promoting three of your Panesars into your top five batters, you made your life far more difficult than it needed to be. You had already used your Rob Key Bonus with which to torture me, and I respect that, but it did mean your 50 caps had to stretch across five players and not four.
Outside of Pollock and Lohmann, you needed your remaining nine caps to stretch across three players, one of whom would ideally bowl well. In this situation it could have paid to look towards the women's game and pick up Annabel Sutherland; other options included Arthur Hill, Rikki Clarke and John Rutherford.

I did realized during draft keeping Rob key bonus for myself would have been better
At one time did consider having an allrounder from women's game Enid Bakewell or Deepti Sharma

 

[Aislabie]

Pane2ar Post-Draft Tournament​

Fixtures

1. @Perfect Square vs @Yash. at Melbourne Cricket Ground - Yash's XI won by 10 wickets
2. @CerealKiller vs @ahmedleo414 at Basin Reserve - CerealKiller's XI won by 3 wickets
3. @Till Valhalla vs @Aislabie at Queen's Park Oval - Aislabie's XI won by 227 runs
4. @Supreme General vs @Neptune at Newlands - Neptune's XI won by 8 wickets
5. @ddrap14 vs @Aravind. at Karachi National Stadium - Match drawn (Aravind's XI led on first innings)
6. @mohsin7827 vs @Paranoid Kendroid at Galle - Mohsin's XI won by 9 wickets
7. @icyman vs @Perfect Square at Eden Gardens - Icyman's XI won by 286 runs
8. @Yash. vs @CerealKiller at Harare Sports Club - CerealKiller's XI won by 227 runs
9. @ahmedleo414 vs @Till Valhalla at Sher-e-Bangla Stadium - Match drawn (Ahmedleo's XI led on first innings)
10. @Aislabie vs @Supreme General at Abu Dhabi - Supreme General's XI won by 2 wickets
11. @Neptune vs @ddrap14 at Malahide - Ddrap's XI won by 222 runs
12. @Aravind. vs @mohsin7827 at Cardiff - Mohsin's XI won by 102 runs
13. @Paranoid Kendroid vs @icyman at The Oval - Icyman's XI won by 201 runs
14. Final: @icyman vs @CerealKiller at Lord's

(grounds are for illustrative purposes only - this is Cricket Captain, it makes literally no difference)

Points
Results
Win - 12 points
Tie - 8 points
Draw (1st inns lead) - 5 points
Draw (1st inns level or not complete) - 4 points
Draw (1st inns loss) - 3 points
Loss - 0 points

Bonus (first 100 overs)
4 points - 400 runs / 9 wickets
3 points - 350 runs / 7 wickets
2 points - 300 runs / 5 wickets
1 point - 250 runs / 3 wickets

	Pld	Won	Tied	Draw	Loss			Points
@icyman	2	2	0	0-0-0	0	7	8	39
@CerealKiller	2	2	0	0-0-0	0	4	6	34
@mohsin7827	2	2	0	0-0-0	0	3	6	33
@ddrap14	2	1	0	0-0-1	0	3	6	24
@Neptune	2	1	0	0-0-0	1	5	7	24
@Yash.	2	1	0	0-0-0	1	3	7	22
@Aislabie	2	1	0	0-0-0	1	4	6	22
@Supreme General	2	1	0	0-0-0	1	3	6	21
@Aravind.	2	0	0	1-0-0	1	4	6	15
@ahmedleo414	2	0	0	1-0-0	1	3	6	14
@Till Valhalla	2	0	0	0-0-1	1	3	6	12
@Perfect Square	2	0	0	0-0-0	2	1	4	5
@Paranoid Kendroid	2	0	0	0-0-0	2	2	3	5