[2025] PlanetCricket's All Time XIs - England ongoing

[Viper.]

The way we did it in discord was that we'll first nominate WK (the most votes gets in), then we nominate openers (the 2 with most votes get in), then middle-order players (3 most votes get in), then we have a vote to decide the bowling combo (how many pace, how many spin), then we nominate pacers and spinners individually and based on elected combination, the most voted pacers and spinners get in. Then after we vote 10 players this way, based on team balance we vote for the final player who could be a Bat/AR/Bowler based on needs (Bowlers could be voted here if all-rounders made it through the pacer/spinner vote).

But the key difference is there were nominations done first where all possible names were given, and then a final poll for voting

 

[Pinch hitter]

Opener : Alastair Cook
MO Batsman : Joe Root
Fast bowler : James Anderson
Keeper : Jonny Bairstow

 

[ddrap14]

Opener - Hobbs
Middle-order - Root
Pacer - JIMMY
WK - Les Ames

 

[Till Valhalla]

Middle order - Trott
Opener - Cook
Fast - Bob Willis
Spinner - Prior

 

[ddrap14]

Spinner - Prior

Uh

 

[Till Valhalla]

Uh

Keeper

 

[Welwyn]

Cook,
Root,
Jimmy,
Knott

 

[malikali]

Alastair Cook
Joe Root
James Anderson
Matt Prior

 

[Na Maloom Afraad]

Love the concept, reminds me of the PC Nominations we used to do for the annual awards.

1. Herbert Sutcliffe
2. Joe Root
3. Sydney Barnes
4. Les Ames

Was tempted to put Grace instead of Root, but nah.

 

[Paranoid Kendroid]

Can someone break the keeper deadlock? I couldn't find any videos of Les Ames keeping but Alan Knott was exceptional and perhaps England's best?
In Test matches, it makes sense to take the better keeper although Ames wasn't no mug with the gloves. Based on what I read, it seems Knott is clearly ahead of Ames.

 

[ddrap14]

View attachment 306736

Can someone break the keeper deadlock? I couldn't find any videos of Les Ames keeping but Alan Knott was exceptional and perhaps England's best?
In Test matches, it makes sense to take the better keeper although Ames wasn't no mug with the gloves. Based on what I read, it seems Knott is clearly ahead of Ames.

Ames is a top 3 keeper-batsman of history for mine. I know I can't break the tie because I voted for Ames in the first place, but I wanted to offer a bit of a defense.

Also, that'd mean taking Darren Berry over Adam Gilchrist for Australia, which is lunacy

 

[Paranoid Kendroid]

View attachment 306737
Ames is a top 3 keeper-batsman of history for mine. I know I can't break the tie because I voted for Ames in the first place, but I wanted to offer a bit of a defense.

Also, that'd mean taking Darren Berry over Adam Gilchrist for Australia, which is lunacy

I couldn't find any comparison between except opinions from another forum so let's try to look at it from a statistical POV.

Although, judging keepers by average dismissals per match (let's use dpm as an acronym) isn't the best way to go about it, it does paint a picture.

Alan Knott: 95 Tests (250 cts, 19 st, 2.83 dpm), 511 FCs (1211 cts, 133 st, 2.63 dpm)
Les Ames: 47 Tests (74 cts, 23 st, 2.06 dpm), 593 FCs (703 cts, 418 st, 1.89 dpm)

Ames was a great stumper but Knott is clearly the better one when it comes to standing behind the pacers.

Batting-wise, yes Les Ames blows Knott out of proportion. Ames had more than 100 FC tons (43.51 avg) while Knott averaged shade under 30 with just 17 tons.

But England has enough quality all-rounders and batters to make up for all of it.

And let's not forget Ames averaged just 27 against Australia and even worse, 17.43 in Australia with just 2 fifties in 17 innings.
By comparison, Knott average almost 33 against Australia and 33.84 in the country. He has a better away record than Ames despite being considered the worser of the two.
Seeing how important Ashes is to most English fans, something to ponder.


(Ames)



(Knott)

And Knott also won the Kent Supporter's Favourite Wicketkeeper of the Era by a big margin over Ames. He also has the advantage of longevity behind him.

I rest my case.

 

[Paranoid Kendroid]

Also, that'd mean taking Darren Berry over Adam Gilchrist for Australia, which is lunacy

Not really because he never played any international cricket and the batting difference is quite large. And Gilly has better dismissal-ratio to further the non-existing argument.

 

[Aislabie]

I'll break the tie for Les Ames.

The first proper keeping all-rounder in the sense that he would make the team on the strength of each discipline on its own. There was absolutely nothing wrong with his glovework - he just kept far more against bowlers to whom he had to stand up to the stumps, hence fewer catches but an astonishing number of stumpings in both Test and first-class cricket.

 

[Paranoid Kendroid]

I'll break the tie for Les Ames.

The first proper keeping all-rounder in the sense that he would make the team on the strength of each discipline on its own. There was absolutely nothing wrong with his glovework - he just kept far more against bowlers to whom he had to stand up to the stumps, hence fewer catches but an astonishing number of stumpings in both Test and first-class cricket.

Who are your exact 4 nominations?