[moment of truth]

(Original post by dgeorge)
1. Gayle
2. Amla
3. Tendulkar
4.AB de Villiers
5. Chanderpaul
6.Kallis
7. Sangakarra
8. Broad
9. Ajmal/Swann (really don't know who to pick here.)
10.Morne Morkel
11. Steyn

12th man - Vettori

I agree with the team but some of the positions I would change, firstly Sachin Tendulkar wouldn't play at 3 and would be at 4 and in that case I would swap Kallis with AB and also not sure about Sanga at 7 but overall that is a very good team.

[7589200]

(Original post by dgeorge)
He's shown great improvements over the past year, I think he's definitely one of the top bowlers 2011-2012

For the second question, I HOPE that you're not asking me if Gayle has ever played test cricket?

Some of your names are good, but you seem to have an amazing lack of knowledge about the cricket played outside the "traditional" cricketing spheres of England, SA and Australia

Its not that I dont know about cricket, I have watched every single Test Series in the last two years. Anyway...we are just discussing opinions here after all.

It just happens that SA and Eng are the two best teams in the world, thats why the feature so many players in my list. I support England and India but I have tried to be as objective as possible. I reckon you didn't pick him because WI are currently playing England lol

You obviously support West Indies and I reckon if Kemar Roach had got a five for in the Lords Test, he'd be in your list because you reveal your lack of objectivity with regard to Chris Gayle.

Chris Gayle hasn't played Test cricket for almost two years. He averages 41.6 at a SR of 59 in Test Cricket. Alistair Cook averages 48.3 at a SR of 48. In the last two years he has centuries (double centuries!) against Australia, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. He's single handedly turned matches and series around and currently features in the Top 10 in test cricket. Anyone who could possibly pick one over the other just points to either a complete lack of cricket reasoning and given that I don't think you fit that category, it just means you're biased.

And also, my question about Morkel and Anderson. All you said is that 'Morkel has shown great improvement' - ok? But that doesnt answer the question.
They both average 30 but if you have been closely watching Test cricket in the last 18 months you'd see that Anderson has been VASTLY more successful and is higher in the world rankings for that reason.

And wrt people like Ross Taylor, Shakib and Chanderpaul - if your team doesnt win anything you'll never be a match-winner, you'll never have the experience of doing it in Test Cricket and for that reason I would never pick them; maybe others would...

[moment of truth]

(Original post by dgeorge)
I would love to have included Shakib, but I'm not QUITE sure about fitting him in since Kallis by default would already have the allrounder slot, and Swann/Ajmal are better bowlers. He's certainly a world class player tho.

That is a fair enough point, yeah he isn't a good enough batsmen atm to have a place in the team for his batting.

[Rainingshame]

If you're going purely for another english batsmen in makes more sense to have trott above peitersen . Though really you'd have chanderpaul the guys been beast like recently. for 12th man you'd add vittori.

[nulli tertius]

(Original post by Vazzyb)
Who would make it in to your world 11 of current cricket players for test cricket?

(World Rankings included in brackets)

1 Alistair Cook (6)
2 H Amla (9)
3 J Kallis (3)
4 K Pietersen (18)
5 M Clarke (Captain) (8)
6 AB de Villiers (wk) (2)
7 Stuart Broad (5)
8 Graeme Swann (4)
9 Dale Steyn (1)
10 James Anderson (3)
11 Saeed Ajmal (2)


Would love to know what your thoughts are!

Vb

Bit of a tail.

The three who bat 9, 10, jack for England are 7, 8 and 10 in this line-up.

[7589200]

(Original post by nulli tertius)
Bit of a tail.

The three who bat 9, 10, jack for England are 7, 8 and 10 in this line-up.

Yeah true but England have a long batting line up lol

Its difficult because those 5 are clearly the best five bowlers around at the moment.

I would say that Swann wouldn't be needed if it wasn't a spinning wicket - would you replace him with a batsman?

[moment of truth]

(Original post by Vazzyb)
Its not that I dont know about cricket, I have watched every single Test Series in the last two years. Anyway...we are just discussing opinions here after all. It just happens that SA and Eng are the two best teams in the world, thats why the feature so many players in my list. I support England and India but I have tried to be as objective as possible. I reckon you didn't pick him because WI are currently playing England lol You obviously support West Indies and I reckon if Kemar Roach had got a five for in the Lords Test, he'd be in your list because you reveal your lack of objectivity with regard to Chris Gayle. Chris Gayle hasn't played Test cricket for almost two years. He averages 41.6 at a SR of 59 in Test Cricket. Alistair Cook averages 48.3 at a SR of 48. In the last two years he has centuries (double centuries!) against Australia, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. He's single handedly turned matches and series around and currently features in the Top 10 in test cricket. Anyone who could possibly pick one over the other just points to either a complete lack of cricket reasoning and given that I don't think you fit that category, it just means you're biased. And also, my question about Morkel and Anderson. All you said is that 'Morkel has shown great improvement' - ok? But that doesnt answer the question. They both average 30 but if you have been closely watching Test cricket in the last 18 months you'd see that Anderson has been VASTLY more successful and is higher in the world rankings for that reason. And wrt people like Ross Taylor, Shakib and Chanderpaul - if your team doesnt win anything you'll never be a match-winner, you'll never have the experience of doing it in Test Cricket and for that reason I would never pick them; maybe others would...

So Chanderpaul is the best batsmen in the world at the moment and just because WI are struggling you wouldn't put him in the team? Seems a bit unfair considering his record. Steyn is by far a better bowler than Anderson and as someone else said you don't need two quality swing bowlers. I agree with you about the Cook issue, he has by far been one of the best openers in the world and so would probably deserve a place.

[7589200]

(Original post by moment of truth)
So Chanderpaul is the best batsmen in the world at the moment and just because WI are struggling you wouldn't put him in the team? Seems a bit unfair considering his record. Steyn is by far a better bowler than Anderson and as someone else said you don't need two quality swing bowlers. I agree with you about the Cook issue, he has by far been one of the best openers in the world and so would probably deserve a place.

Anderson got wickets in England, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Australia... He's just very good at the moment. You'd be crazy not to pick him.

Who would Chanderpaul replace?

[nulli tertius]

(Original post by Vazzyb)
Yeah true but England have a long batting line up lol

Its difficult because those 5 are clearly the best five bowlers around at the moment.

I would say that Swann wouldn't be needed if it wasn't a spinning wicket - would you replace him with a batsman?

That English tail helps. You would fancy England against that World XI anywhere except the sub-continent/Middle East because you could see the World XI being skittled out for 250 on a bad day.

No. I think you rotate your bowlers. On a dry pitch, you play Ajmal and on a green one you play Anderson. Swann is more versatile bowler than Ajmal. If it doesn't swing there isn't a lot going for Anderson.

[moment of truth]

(Original post by Vazzyb)
Anderson got wickets in England, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Australia... He's just very good at the moment. You'd be crazy not to pick him. Who would Chanderpaul replace?

Do you really need 5 bowlers? You could just add Chanderpaul instead of one of them because you can use Kallis as your 5th bowler. So take out one of your bowlers instead, not sure who, presumably one of the fast bowlers.

[DeadBullyMafiosi]

(Original post by Vazzyb)
x

You said your an England-India supporter. Do you follow Indian cricket? What do you think of Umesh Yadav?

[Dishoom-Dishoom]

OP may claim to be indian but doesnt look like they know much about test cricket.
tendulkar, zaheer khan? still some of the best test player there are. even laxman

And where is this fictitous team playing ?- in india/sri lanka sehwag-gambhir is the best opening partnership there is.

[dgeorge]

(Original post by moment of truth)
I agree with the team but some of the positions I would change, firstly Sachin Tendulkar wouldn't play at 3 and would be at 4 and in that case I would swap Kallis with AB and also not sure about Sanga at 7 but overall that is a very good team.

Agreed, Sanga is playing a bit low, but wasn't sure where else to put him tbh. I think Sachin is ok at 3 (my personal opinion). Likewise, I could easily see Kallis swapping with AB, but I prefer Kallis a bit lower as I tried to balance the teams so that a more aggressive player is paired with one who isn't overly so

[shyamshah]

To be honest with the team overall, it depends on the conditions, because in places like England, Australia, SA you would only play one spinner and three seamers and then in the sub continent you would play two spinners and so the batting order would change also.

[7589200]

(Original post by Dishoom-Dishoom)
OP may claim to be indian but doesnt look like they know much about test cricket.
tendulkar, zaheer khan? still some of the best test player there are. even laxman

Is this why they lost 8-0 away?

[dgeorge]

(Original post by Vazzyb)
Its not that I dont know about cricket, I have watched every single Test Series in the last two years. Anyway...we are just discussing opinions here after all.

It just happens that SA and Eng are the two best teams in the world, thats why the feature so many players in my list. I support England and India but I have tried to be as objective as possible. I reckon you didn't pick him because WI are currently playing England lol

You obviously support West Indies and I reckon if Kemar Roach had got a five for in the Lords Test, he'd be in your list because you reveal your lack of objectivity with regard to Chris Gayle.

Chris Gayle hasn't played Test cricket for almost two years. He averages 41.6 at a SR of 59 in Test Cricket. Alistair Cook averages 48.3 at a SR of 48. In the last two years he has centuries (double centuries!) against Australia, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. He's single handedly turned matches and series around and currently features in the Top 10 in test cricket. Anyone who could possibly pick one over the other just points to either a complete lack of cricket reasoning and given that I don't think you fit that category, it just means you're biased.

And also, my question about Morkel and Anderson. All you said is that 'Morkel has shown great improvement' - ok? But that doesnt answer the question.
They both average 30 but if you have been closely watching Test cricket in the last 18 months you'd see that Anderson has been VASTLY more successful and is higher in the world rankings for that reason.

And wrt people like Ross Taylor, Shakib and Chanderpaul - if your team doesnt win anything you'll never be a match-winner, you'll never have the experience of doing it in Test Cricket and for that reason I would never pick them; maybe others would...

Yeah man, hope I didn't ruffle your feathers too much, didn't mean to insult. Hope we can keep it all friendly

SA and Eng are the two best Test teams at the moment, arguably, but doesn't mean that I'll lift half the side in with the rest of the world.

I'm not sure how you arrived at your assumption that I'm biased though? Kemar Roach is definitely one of the BETTER bowlers, but is a bit inconsistent and I would surely wait another 1-2 years of seeing how consistent he was before including him in a world team. Don't assume that because I support someone that that will colour my decision to put them in the team. If you noticed, I included 5 South Africans, but surely you wouldn't say that I lack objectivity with them would you?

What got me curious was the fact that you think that no NZ, WI or Bangladesh player would make it into an England or SA side. If you think that, I'll repeat what I said earlier, in that you can't possibly know much about cricket if you think that at least one person from each side you mentioned can't make an England or SA team.

Chris Gayle hasn't played Test cricket for 2 years, but due to the fact that he has been playing cricket all over the world (Australia, India, Bangladesh, Zim, etc) I am quite sure his Test skills are as sharp as ever, if not better. The hallmark of his innings is that he has PACED himself well, which is probably the most important part of a Test innings.

You looked at the statistics for Cook, yet failed to give a look at those for Gayle the last 2 years he played. How can you be objective if you look at only one side of the coin? I was going to put his stats, but I'll let you do so and come back to me to show your "objectivity" :P

I'm willing to admit that my support for Morkel is more subjective than objective, but as pointed out, we already have a swing bowler in our side. Again, if you put in Anderson, I wouldn't be surprised/disagree.

I'm not sure of your last point. You wouldn't pick a brilliant test player simply because his team did not give the necessary support? Doesn't make much sense to me

SA and England are at the top because they have a number of people who contribute on a regular basis. This does not mean that the INDIVIDUAL players are all better than other good players on other weaker sides

[dgeorge]

(Original post by Vazzyb)
Anderson got wickets in England, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Australia... He's just very good at the moment. You'd be crazy not to pick him.

Who would Chanderpaul replace?

As said otherwise, take out a bowler. No need to have 5 specialist bowlers when you have Kallis as well.

[7589200]

I think I would take Swann out in spin unfriendly conditions. Replace him with Chanderpaul or Tendulkar or Sangakara I suppose.

[Dishoom-Dishoom]

(Original post by Vazzyb)
Is this why they lost 8-0 away?

are you asking who is the best international 'team' or whehter india has any top level players? of course india as a team has fallen off the top perch as a test team, (though still right up there in limited overs) was always going to happen at their peak half their team was over 32. south africa or england are probably best test side at the moment given they have spent last 7 years bringing in young players into international frame. india hasnt bothered to do that in the last7 years becuase they were winning -what do you do , drop the likes of dravid, tendulkar, laxman, sehwag, zaheer for some youngsters?

[patrickinator]

(Original post by Vazzyb)
Morne Morkel over James Anderson - why?

Gayle - does he play Test Cricket lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqcqiwDKG5w

One of the best innings of cricket I have ever seen. Douchebag