Most Competitive All-time XI

Well with in the top 8 test playing nations over the course of test cricket history can put up very strong All-time Test XI, but which one is the best:

AUSTRALIA

1. Victor Trumper
2. Matthew Hayden
3. Donald Bradman* - Captain
4. Greg Chappell
5. Steve Waugh
6. Keith Miller
7. Adam Gilchrist+ - W/Keeper
8. Allan Davidson
9. Shane Warne
10. Dennis Lillee
11. Glenn McGrath

BACK-UPS: Bill O'Reilly, Rodney Marsh, Ricky Ponting, Ray Lindwall.

ENGLAND

1. Len Hutton* - Captain
2. Jack Hobbs
3. Peter May
4. Walter Hammond
5. Dennis Compton
6. Les Ames+ - W/Keeper
7. Ian Botham
8. Harold Larwood
9. Freddie Trueman
10. Jim Laker
11. Syd Barnes

BACK-UPS: Andrew Flintoff, Ken Barrington, Hedley Verity, Allan Knott.

WEST INDIES

1. Conrad Hunte
2. Gordon Greenidge
3. Brian Lara
4. Viv Richards
5. Gary Sobers
6. Frank Worrell* - Captain
7. Clyde Walcott+ - W/Keeper
8. Malcolm Marshall
9. Joel Garner
10. Curtly Ambrose
11. Lance Gibbs

BACK-UPS: George Headley, Jeff Dujon, Michael Holding, Courtney Walsh

SOUTH AFRICA

1. Bruce Mitchell
2. Barry Richards
3. Graeme Pollock
4. Dudley Nourse
5. Jacques Kallis
6. Mike Procter* - Captain
7. Aubrey Faulkner
8. Jock Cameron+ - W/Keeper
9. Hugh Tayfield
10. Allan Donald
11. Neil Adcock

BACK-UPS: Colin Bland, Clive Rice, Herbie Taylor, Shaun Pollock, Denis Lindsay.

PAKISTAN

1. Saeed Anwar
2. Hanif Mohammad
3. Zaheer Abbas
4. Javed Miandad
5. Inzamam-ul-Haq
6. Asif Iqbal
7. Imran Khan* - Captain
8. Wasim Akram
9. Wasim Bari+ - W/Keeper
10. Abdul Qadir
11. Waqar Younis

BACK-UPS: Mohammad Yousuf, Intikhab Alam, Fazal Mahmood, Moin Khan

INDIA

1. Sunil Gavaskar
2. Vijay Merchant
3. Rahul Dravid
4. Sachin Tendulkar
5. Vijay Hazare* - Captain
6. Vinoo Mankad
7. Farook Engineer+ - W/Keeper
8. Kapil Dev
9. Amar Singh
10. Anil Kumble
11. Erapalli Prasanna

BACK-UPS: Syed Kirmani, Polly Umrigar, Subhash Gupte, Bishen Bedi.

NEW ZEALAND

1. Stewie Dempster
2. Glen Turner
3. Bert Sutcliffe
4. Martin Crowe
5. Martin Donnelly
6. John Reid* - Captain
7. Chris Cairns
8. Richard Hadlee
9. Ian Smith+ - W/Keeper
10. Bruce Taylor
11. Shane Bond

BACK-UPS: Andrew Jones, Daniel Vettori, Jack Cowie, Adam Parore

SRI LANKA

1. Sanath Jayasuriya
2. Marvan Attapatu
3. Asanka Gurusinha
4. Aravinda De Silva
5. Mahela Jayawardene
6. Arjuna Ranatunga* - Captain
7. Kumar Sangakkara+ - W/Keeper
8. Ravi Ratnayake
9. Chaminda Vaas
10. Samochandra De Silva
11. Muttiah Muralitharan

BACK-UPS: Hashan Tillakaratne, Romesh Kaluwitharana, Rumesh Ratnayake, Kumar Dharmusena

Based on this its say the mantle for this accolade is between the Windies & Australia super batting-lineups & unbelievably top class bowling attacks.

The England side looks good as well but it has a very old look in that only Flintoff, Botham & Knott are players over the past 30 years that made the XI or squad although Boycott, Underwood & Willis aren't that far off.

South Africa also supremely talented,no side in history can boast to have produced so many talented/top class all-rounders & one could say they would be a supreme fiedling side as well.

Pakistan Brilliant in every department, great captain, solid batting, some of the greatest bowlers over the past 25 years.

India classy batting, world class spinners that could run roit over oppositions in home conditions, good fast bowlers but compared to some sides one gets the fielding its a bit behind in greatness.

The Kiwis solid side, lacking that truly SUPERB batsman in their ranks i think although Crowe & Turner come very close.

Sri Lanka some classy batsmen but very short on bowling behind Murali & Vaas.

Barrington needs to be in Englands side ahead of Compton, Statham needs to be ahead of Larwood (I say that before Steds does)

1) Australia
2) West Indies (their backups could make a worthy all time team)
3) England
4) RSA
5) Pakistan
6) New Zealand
7) India
8) Sri Lanka

^ India have got to be above NZ

After a quick look. Headley MUST play for WI. Lindsay should be SA keeper. All in SA would regard him as the best they have produced.

EDIT- Interesting how 2 of the semi-finalists in the Battle of the Englishmen, Ranji and Grace, do not even make the reserves for England.

My rankings:
1) West Indies
2) Australia
3) England
4) Pakistan
5) South Africa
6) India
7) Sri Lanka
8) New Zealand

TBF, Aussies done a pretty good job here.

I do feel Hendren, Rhodes, and Grace should be considered. Grace should probably be in the all-rounder spot ahead of beefy, on fitness grounds alone.

1 England
2 Australia
3 West Indies
4 South Africa
5 Pakistan
6 India
7 Sri Lanka
8 New Zealand

Goughy said:

EDIT- Interesting how 2 of the semi-finalists in the Battle of the Englishmen, Ranji and Grace, do not even make the reserves for England.

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Not interesting, people just forget sometimes.

aussie said:

NEW ZEALAND

1. Stewie Dempster
2. Glen Turner
3. Bert Sutcliffe
4. Martin Crowe
5. Martin Donnelly
6. John Reid* - Captain
7. Chris Cairns
8. Richard Hadlee
9. Ian Smith+ - W/Keeper
10. Bruce Taylor
11. Shane Bond

BACK-UPS: Andrew Jones, Daniel Vettori, Jack Cowie, Adam Parore

The Kiwis solid side, lacking that truly SUPERB batsman in their ranks i think although Crowe & Turner come very close.

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It's a pity the likes of Dempster and Donnelly didn't play too many tests. You look at their records and also some of the accolades they received while playing in England (I just read their profiles on cricinfo, Dempster and Donnelly here, and also reread part of this book I've got with a collection of articles on NZ cricket) and you have to wonder what could have been if we'd had more players of that calibre. The 1949 NZ team that toured England was actually pretty good (only lost one of the 32 matches played, and drawing all four tests), but apart from them our early teams were pretty poor.

I'd also put Jack Cowie into the starting line-up, replacing either Cairns, Taylor or Bond in your team. Test bowling average of 21.53, and first-class average of 22.28 (best bowling of 6/3!!), and according to Wisden "Had he been an Australian, he might have been termed a wonder of the age".

silentstriker said:

1) Australia
2) West Indies (their backups could make a worthy all time team)
3) England
4) RSA
5) Pakistan
6) New Zealand
7) India
8) Sri Lanka

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India should definitely be above NZL and they'd be closer to RSA and PAK than you'd think.

grecian said:

Barrington needs to be in Englands side ahead of Compton, Statham needs to be ahead of Larwood (I say that before Steds does)

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If Barrington is to be there it would be ahead of May i'd say. Larwood/Statham is debatable.

adharcric said:

India should definitely be above NZL and they'd be closer to RSA and PAK than you'd think.

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Not without better fast bowling.

Goughy said:

After a quick look. Headley MUST play for WI.

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Wouldn't say he must, if he plays yeah that middle-order would look even so powerful, but Frank Worrell was a great skipper i don't think the windies would lose much if Worrell was there instead, but they would gain a lot. Headley would be a solid back-up no doubt.

Goughy said:

Lindsay should be SA keeper. All in SA would regard him as the best they have produced.

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Not sure about that, pre-isolation the best keepers SA have produced where Cameron, Waite & Lindsay. From cricinfo reports & scorecards it seems as if Waite & Lindsay where the better batsmen while Cameron was the better glovesman.

So for me if you have Mitchell/Richards/G Pollock/Nourse/Kallis/Procter/Faulkner as your top 7, picking the best pure keeper won't be a problem.

Goughy said:

EDIT- Interesting how 2 of the semi-finalists in the Battle of the Englishmen, Ranji and Grace, do not even make the reserves for England.

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IMO even though Grace was one of the early legends England have produced better players down the years.

silentstriker said:

Not without better fast bowling.

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Even without it, the bating lineup and spin attack is too good. We've never had a potent pace attack but that hasn't always made us a crap team.

Sir Redman said:

I'd also put Jack Cowie into the starting line-up, replacing either Cairns, Taylor or Bond in your team. Test bowling average of 21.53, and first-class average of 22.28 (best bowling of 6/3!!), and according to Wisden "Had he been an Australian, he might have been termed a wonder of the age".

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Yea i guess you could stick him in there ahead of Taylor, since i had put Taylor in so as to give the Kiwi batting more strenght.

silentstriker said:

1) Australia
2) West Indies (their backups could make a worthy all time team)
3) England
4) RSA
5) Pakistan
6) New Zealand
7) India
8) Sri Lanka

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You seriously think NZl have a better all time lineup than India.

India have easily the better batting and spin bowling.
And Kapil and Amar opening the attack are fairly decent - althugh Hadlee and Bond are better. But overall I'd say India are decidedly stronger.

adharcric said:

Even without it, the bating lineup and spin attack is too good. We've never had a potent pace attack but that hasn't always made us a crap team.

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Very true. I do think we'd win at home. I just don't know if we can take 20 wickets overseas. That's kind of been our problem throughout our history.

silentstriker said:

Very true. I do think we'd win at home. I just don't know if we can take 20 wickets overseas. That's kind of been our problem throughout our history.

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Well we would be among the best in the subcontinent and not so good overseas, but I think Kapil and Bedi can take wickets overseas. I don't know how good Amar Singh was, but Kumble would do fine I reckon. On the whole, you have to average out the subcontinent and overseas performance to see that this all-time XI should be ahead of NZL, etc but still behind teams like PAK and RSA.

adharcric said:

Well we would be among the best in the subcontinent and not so good overseas, but I think Kapil and Bedi can take wickets overseas. I don't know how good Amar Singh was, but Kumble would do fine I reckon. On the whole, you have to average out the subcontinent and overseas performance to see that this all-time XI should be ahead of NZL, etc but still behind teams like PAK and RSA.

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Right but you aren't taking wickets of a normal side. You are taking wickets of batsman in other all time sides. So yea they would be a good attack, if they play against other normal teams, but if they come up against the batting line ups of say aussie lineup of Trumper, Hayden, Bradman, Chappell, Waugh or the RSA line up of Mitchell, Richards, Pollock, Nourse, Kallis......do you feel our attack can get them out twice enough times? I don't.

Kapil was a quality bowler, who was very good. But he wasn't in the class of Trumper, Bradman, etc, whose wickets he'd have to take.

silentstriker said:

Kapil was a quality bowler, who was very good. But he wasn't in the class of Trumper, Bradman, etc, whose wickets he'd have to take.

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why not? he was a brilliant bowler and bradman and trumper were great batsmen, not god...they had lost their wickets to several bowlers during their careers, a lot of them worse than kapil...

Anil said:

why not? he was a brilliant bowler and bradman and trumper were great batsmen, not god...they had lost their wickets to several bowlers during their careers, a lot of them worse than kapil...

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Its about bowling out such lineups consistently, not taking wickets here and there. Kapil was a great bowler, not brilliant, not like he was in the top 30 all time or anything.