I have finally formed my extremely controversial World ODI XI. Have a look:
Sachin Tendulkar, Don Bradman, Jacques Kallis, Viv Richards, Michael Bevan, Garry Sobers, M S Dhoni, Wasim Akram (replaces Imran Khan, see note), Richard Hadlee, Joel Garner, M Muralitharan.
People who are conspicuous by their absence are W G Grace, Dennis Lillee, Malcolm Marshall, Andy Roberts, Wally Hammond, Jack Hobbs, Gordon Greenidge, Sydney Barnes, Shane Warne and a few more. The prime reason for their omission is that they have no or little exposure to the limited overs game. Don Bradman & Sobers, however, have been included because they are a class apart.
Openers like Greenidge have been omitted because their strike rate is lower than the 70 cut off set up by me for specialised batsmen. Shane Warne has been dropped in favour of Murali because the latter has a much better bowling average.
The inclusion of Kallis, Bevan and Dhoni would certainly raise many eyebrows. But Kallis is not only a good all-rounder, but he is also the Mr. Dependable. An alternative was Rahul Dravid, but Kallis can bowl on a seamer's wicket.
Bevan is perhaps the best limited overs player. Apart from having a batting average of 54 (strike rate 74), he is also an extremely useful player in the death overs.
Dhoni scores over Gilchrist because of three reasons. One, his batting average of 44 is better than Gilchrist with 36. Second, his strike rate of 99 is the best in the team (Gilc 95). Lastly, we cannot afford to give Gilc an opening slot in the current scheme of things.
Let me justify Tendulkar, which might be required in the current state of affairs. Apart from having a remarkable strike rate of 86 (batting avg 44), Tendulkar is a handy leg spinner too.
Note: I miss Akram in my team, as he like Garner, has the rare ability to control runs in the death overs. Also, he is arguably the best left-arm fast bowler ever. But whom do I take out?
2 comments:
Take out Imran! How do you justify Imran vs Akram? Unless you are trying to answer the question - who's the captain of the team? I don't think you need another all rounder since you already have 8 people that can bowl in this team. Thats far too many. Also I am unclear who the openers are.
BTW - its amazing when you think about the 12th man.. Only one name appears in every single list of this sort... Surely you know who I am talking about
Yup..even I was thinking about replacing Imran with Akram. Not only the latter has a better bowling average, but also he would add sharpness to the attack as the world's best left arm seamer. Only that I would have to take off Garry Sobers from the attack.
Hey, who are the 8 bowlers? I thought I had only 6. I don't consider Richards & Bevan as bowlers. (Of course, that's open to argument)
Openers are, of course, Sachin & Bradman. Although I am a lot confused about it. Who's the 12th man you are talking about??
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