C_C
International Captain
Nah. I want balance to the side.O'Donnell above Steve Waugh OR Hussey? Unusual selection...
Critical to ODIs i believe is having a longish tail and six bowlers who can bowl decently, to cover the possibility of a minimum 1 bowler having a bad day.
Gilly to Symonds is already a formidable enough lineup batting-wise. Probably only challenged/matched by a similar alltime WI or India batting six.
Including Hussey or Waugh ( i dont think waugh should make it - his average/strike rate are way too down for this sort of alltime odi XIs) would make the batting unecessarily strong but leave four frontline bowlers + mark waugh and Symonds to make up the overs. The latter two are part timers imo and an alltime team can never go in a match with only four frontline bowlers.
O'Donell seemed the best fit - he was a lusty lower order hitter and a bowler reliable enough to do 5-6 overs a match ( basically Mark Waugh, Symonds and O'Donell make up 10-15 overs and the four frontliners make up 35-40 overs.)
I think perhas Australia's biggest weakeness in an alltime ODI XI is the lack of any genuine ODI allrounders. WI have the same problem imo though Hooper was a better bowler significantly than Mark Waugh or Symonds and can almost be considered a decent ODI allrounder.