Draft: The A Team

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:aus: :ar: Bill Alley never played a Test match. He's also probably the best all-rounder available in this draft.

His sporting career began as a professional boxer and amateur cricketer in Sydney. His boxing career ended after 28 wins and no losses when he was hit on the head not by an opponent, but by a cricket ball. After a relatively late first-class debut as a 26-year-old, he made a strong start to his New South Wales career with three hundreds in his first dozen Shield matches, which earned him and average in the forties and meant he was tipped for a Baggy Green by none other than Don Bradman.

However, his career changed course when he landed the most lucrative job in cricket: professional at Colne Cricket Club in the golden age of the Lancashire League. This resulted in a ten-year absence from first-class cricket while he set records in the League that put names like Conrad Hunte, Garry Sobers and Hanif Mohammad in the shade. At the age of 38, he turned to county cricket when a Colne couldn't offer the same security as a five-year contract with Somerset. This alone should show how good he was - a county team fully prepared to offer a five-year deal to a 38-year-old who'd not played first-class cricket in a decade, save for a single game for the Commonwealth XI where he batted at number three ahead of Everton Weekes, Clyde Worrell and Ken Grieves and also opened the bowling. After that five-year deal ended, Bill Alley continued for a further seven more before retiring on his own terms.

In 1961, aged 42, Alley scored 3,019 first-class runs at an average of 56.96 with eleven centuries and his career-best 221 not out. The following year, aged 43, he took 112 wickets at 20.74, including six five-fors and his career-best 8 for 65. Just an absolute weapon of a cricketer, and it's one of cricket's great what-ifs to consider what might have been if cricket had been his first choice of sport in his 20s.

1.
2.
3.
4. :wi: :wkb: Jimmy Adams
5. :pak: :bat: Fawad Alam
6. :ind: :bat: Pravin Amre
7. :aus: :ar: Bill Alley
8. :eng: :bwl: Jimmy Anderson
9. :eng: :bwl: Bob Appleyard
10. :aus: :bwl: Terry Alderman
11. :saf: :bwl: Neil Adcock

@Aravind.
 
My bad, instead it will be :pak: :ar: Saeed Ahmed to slot into my team. Test batting avg of 40, bowling avg of 36.
 
Chris Adams ...

:pak: :ar: Shahid Afridi
:ind: :arwk: Lala Amarnath
:ind: :bat: Mohammad Azharuddin :c:
:pak: :wk: Umar Akmal
:eng: :bwl: Jofra Archer
:saf: :bwl: Kyle Abbott
:pak: :bwl: Saeed Ajmal


@RUDI
 
Really good pick this one - one of many many people whose career got kicked to the kerb after a run-in with Vizzy, but a true all-rounder who could make his Test team either as a batter, a bowler or a wicket-keeper depending on what they needed.

Thank you for providing the cricketing insights , especially of those old times ... :Cheersmate:
 
:eng: :ar: Gubby Allen :c:

Batting
FORMATMatInnsNORunsHSAve100s50s6sCtSt
Test2533275012224.19132200
FC26537654923318028.671147-1310

Bowling

FORMATMatInnsBallsRunsWktsBBIBBMAveEconSR4w5w10w
Test254543862379817/8010/7829.373.2554.1351
FC265-361801751878810/40-22.232.9045.9-489

1) :ind: :bat: Madhav Apte
2) :pak: :bat: Abid Ali
3) :pak: :bat: Azhar Ali
4)
5) :zim: :bat: Kevin Arnott
6)
7) :eng: :ar: Gubby Allen :c:
8) :eng: :ar: William Attewell
9)
10) :pak: :bwl: Shaheen Afridi
11) :pak: :bwl: Shoaib Akhtar
@ddrap14
 
1. :eng: :bat: Dennis Amiss
3. :saf: :bat: Hashim Amla
4. :saf: :bat: Hylton Ackerman
5. :wi: :bat: Keith Arthurton
6. :aus: :ar: Ron Archer
7. :eng: :wkb: Les Ames
9. :aus: :bwl: Jo Angel
10. :pak: :bwl: Mushtaq Ahmed

The West Australian pace stalwart is my first quick. Unfortunate to only play four Tests in the era of many other Aussie greats - Hughes, Alderman, McDermott...

@Verified Enigma
 
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:ind: :bat: Iftikhar Ali Khan 'Nawab of' Pataudi, the only 'Indian' to ever play for England.


Career Stats:​

FormatMatInnsNORunsHSAve100s50s6sCtSt
Test610019910219.9010000
FC127204248750238*48.612934-580

  1. :ind: :bat: Mayank Agarwal
  2. :eng: :bat: Bobby Abel
  3. :ind: :ar: Mohinder Amarnath
  4. :ind::eng: :bat: Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi
  5. ?
  6. :aus: :ar: Warwick Armstrong
  7. :pak: :wkb: Sarfaraz Ahmed
  8. :pak: :ar: Intikhab Alam
  9. ?
  10. ?
  11. :wi: :bwl: Curtly Ambrose
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