Draft: All-Time Cricket Sixes

[ahmedleo414]

Jacques Kallis

I mean, what more can be said about this man. One of the greatest all rounders in cricket history. Also hit over 250 6s in his career

1. Chris Gayle
2. Tony Greig
3. MS Dhoni
4. Jacques Kallis
5. ?
6. ?

@CerealKiller

 

[CerealKiller]

The next six machine in my team will be the Kiwi batsman, who can bowl decent medium pace, Colin Munro

CerealKiller's XI
1. Kieron Pollard
2. Viv Richards
3. Colin Munro
4. Rishabh Pant
5.
6.

@Bevab

 

[Bevab]

My pick will be the legendary Virender Sehwag, a man who reinvented the role of an opener in test cricket with his pure aggression. While he is believed to have underachieved in ODIs, he had an incredible strike rate of 104 which was achieved nearly an entire decade before the current English openers put up such numbers. And in T20s, Viru struck close to 150.

This is the same man who had no regard for defence or personal milestones in test cricket, preferring to attack from the very first ball. He is also one of the rare cricketers whose strike rates improve across formats significantly. Imagine the absolute carnage he could create in this new format given his style along with the skill and technique he possessed, something that most sloggers in cricket history wouldn't be able to match.

With the ball, he did not rate himself highly. That is unsurprising given his absolute disdain for spinners but Sehwag was a perfectly serviceable off-spinner in the shorter formats (who was arguably not utilized fully?) and an over of him is a worthy tradeoff when you consider the huge impact he would offer with the bat.

@Aislabie[DOUBLEPOST=1590095535][/DOUBLEPOST]

Damn.. i was going to pick Watson next

I was genuinely surprised to see him available this late in the draft, as I was with Sehwag. Expected both of them to have gone in the first two rounds.

 

[Bevab]

No way....I completely forgot that.

I would rather have AbD who has the experience of bowling in a World Cup semi-final over Lynn who might hurt his shoulder attempting to bowl (unless that was part of the plan).

 

[Yash.]

Lynn who might hurt his shoulder attempting to bowl (unless that was part of the plan).

If Lynn can't. Gilly would bowl. He still has the best strike rate ever in T20 history. 1 ball 1 wicket!

 

[Aislabie]

Virender Sehwag

I'm amazed he lasted as long as he has - the main reason I hadn't already picked him was that I assumed someone else already had and didn't check

 

[Aislabie]

Wasim Akram

ODI stats: SR: 88.33, b/6: 34.78 in 356 matches
Peak performance: 23 (11, 3x6) and 9-0-24-3 vs Sri Lanka, 1994

This was a gimme pick here: one of the all-time great death bowlers with a penchant for muscular six-hitting. Wasim more or less predated Twenty20 cricket so I've taken a look at his one-day international stats instead, and they show that he's the perfect selection for this format. When he retired from the format in March 2003, he had hit the sixth-most sixes of any batsman in the history of the format to that point. Even today, as the format has evolved to far better suit power-hitting, he sits at 28th on the all-time list and third all-time for sixes from seven or below in the batting order. Because that's the remarkable thing about Wasim Akram: in another lifetime, he could have suffered injury setbacks and chosen to be a truly world-class power hitter. Instead, he stayed fit enough to be the left-arm fast bowler we all remember him as. But I'm picking him for both roles.

@Aislabie 's VI:
1. Graeme Hick
2. Brendon McCullum
3.
4. Ian Harvey
5. Wasim Akram
6.

@Yash.

 

[Yash.]

Now to get some good enough bowling, I’ll take one of the earliest superstars of the IPL, and one of the main reasons behind CSK’s dominance in the earlier seasons, Albie Morkel.



One of the best all rounders to have played T20 cricket, Albie Morkel was good enough to bowl first change in T20 Cricket, and bat at no. 4. He has the ability to hit boundaries with ease, and hit them long long... really long, including most probably the largest six in IPL history with 125m against Pragyan Ojha in 2008. Also, he possess the nerves to finish the game, as he did multiple times for CSK, the most famous being the one, when he hit 28 runs in the second last over against RCB.

On his bowling front, he has taken 248 wickets at an average of 25.44 with an economy of 7.5, which is acceptable in T20 cricket. He’ll come in at no. 4 here too.[DOUBLEPOST=1590162874][/DOUBLEPOST]@AsadRM

 

[AsadRM]

Ben Stokes​

Oh dear oh dear! How can Ben Stokes OBE be unpicked for so long? Ben Stokes' combative nature, allied to his powerful frame and outrageous talent, lifted England to another level. Never was that more true than when he secured his place in English cricket history with an indefatigable batting display in the 2019 World Cup final. In making an unbeaten 84 he exhausted every ounce of strength, talent, and willpower. Then when he imagined it might be all over, he came out to bat once more to help win a Super Over by the 'barest of margins'. The English stalwart is the epitome of resilience as he wins the game, from situations beyond science.

One of the most explosive all-rounders of the modern era, Ben Stokes's energy is infectious on the cricket field. He is extremely passionate about everything that he does and being an aggressive character means that there is seldom a dull moment when he is around. An attacking southpaw with a penchant for the big hits while also being capable of playing a big innings, Stokes is also equally good with the ball. An IPL millionaire twice over - he was bought for £1.7m (34 crores PKR) by Rising Pune Supergiants for only one season of 1 and a half months. That pricetag shattered all the records previously of money in Cricketing history. He ended up winning tournament MVP, and then picked up for £1.4m (28 crores PKR) the following season by Rajasthan Royals.

His meteoric rise through the ranks of English Cricket is exemplary! At only 17, he was playing for Durham in County Championship. Nevertheless, his career has still been a rollercoaster ride; from being the villain of Kolkata by conceding 4 sixes in a row in the last over and losing the final of World Cup in 2016, to a brawl outside a club in 2017, to punching a locker in 2014 and sustaining a broken wrist and missing the World Cup, to the hero of Headingley, to the man of the match in 2019 World Cup's final and many more. He grew in stature even further when he decided to tour Bangladesh, even when his captain had declined due to security concerns. He wasn't a part of the 2017/18 Ashes and England lost 4-0 to their arch-rivals, Australia.

The Pakistani Cricketing icon Imran Khan has also appreciated his phenomenal exploits with the bat and the ball, and listed him as the best player in the world right now. And when Imran Khan praises someone, you know that he is someone special.

2019 was the year of redemption of him as he caught the greatest catch of all-time in the first game of the World Cup, won the world cup singlehandedly that too from an unimaginable position leaving behind the demons of Kolkata in 2016.

The best all-rounder of the decade will provide my team with brilliant hard-hitting and accurate medium fast-bowling. He is a very good tactician and leader as well. This is why he is the vice-captain of the English team. Also, he is most likely to captain England in Tests this summer, as Joe Root might take leave to be with his wife when she is giving birth this July.

Ben Stokes will most probably be my team's skipper unless I pick a better option in the next pick.

A few of his honors and accolades:

• Man of the Final in Cricket World Cup – 2019
• Second-fastest Test double hundred in terms of balls faced.
• Fastest 250 in Tests for which he took 196 balls.
• Second highest number of sixes in a Test innings – 11 sixes
• Most runs in a Test innings at the sixth position – 258 runs
• Most runs in the first session of a day in Tests – 130 runs
• Highest Test partnership for the sixth wicket. He achieved this feat against South Africa when he made a partnership of 399 runs with Bairstow.
• Became the second cricketer after Ian Botham to have over 4,000 runs and over 100 wickets in Tests for England.
• He was awarded the Freedom of the Borough of Allerdale on 25 September 2019.
• He was awarded the 2019 BBC Sports Personality of the Year in Aberdeen.
• Stokes was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE)in the 2020 New Year Honors for services to cricket. In case you don't know, OBE is an award given by the Royal family.

Asad's XI:
Ben Stokes
Kl Rahul
AB de Villiers
Abdul Razzaq

@VC the slogger

 

[ahmedleo414]

Damn Stokes was going to be my next pick, but my next pick seems like so far away

 

[Na Maloom Afraad]

Man, the gap between my picks has really screwed me over. Stokes, Lynn, Rohit, Munro and Akram were all on my shortlist as my next pick. They're all gone now.

 

[VC the slogger]

I pick Jimmy Sinclair, the powerful South African all-rounder who played between 1896 and 1911 at a time when sixes were only recorded when a player hit the ball completely out of the ground. And yet, Sinclair managed to do it no less than SIXTEEN times during his 25 Tests, nearly thrice more than any other player during this period and five times more than the most renowned slugger of the age in Gilbert Jessop. This included a thundering knock of 104 against Australia in 1902 with 6 sixes - a feat unheard of at the time. He was also a world class fast bowler by all standards and could have easily made it to the side for his bowling if he never scored a run with the bat, but I'm glad he did both with such aplomb. To top it all, he was the first man in Test history to score a century and claim five wickets in an innings in the same Test match in 1899, and is recorded to having scored South Africa's first three centuries at Test level. He is also perhaps the only man in history to hit a six that traveled from one city to another, when one of his sixes went flying out the Old Wanderers stadium, landed on a train headed for the Cape and was only recovered once it reached it's destination.

Suck on that, Dre Russ.


VC's XI

1) Rohit Sharma
2) Jimmy Sinclair
3) Andre Russell
4) Lance Klusener
5)
6)

@blockerdave

 

[blockerdave]

My pick is ROY FREDERICKS. A dashing opening batsman for the West Indies during their early years of dominance, Fredericks was renowned for taking on the fast bowlers - such as in his 71-ball hundred vs Lillee and Thomson at the WACA in 1975. Fredericks also offers up very serviceable chinamen, so there's no problems getting his over out of him.

@Na Maloom Afraad

1. Garry Sobers
2. Roy Fredericks
3. Marcus Trescothick (w)
4. Franklyn Stephenson
5. x
6. x

 

[Aislabie]

2) Jimmy Sinclair

An outstanding pick of a player I'm ashamed to say I knew little about. He'd have been perfect for the pre-Twenty20 draft we did a few months back

 

[Na Maloom Afraad]

Corey Anderson is somewhat of a forgotten mercenary. The man broke Shahid Afridi's 18-year old record of the fastest ODI century in 2014 against the West Indies, which became the then record. Anderson's record only stood for a year as ABdV scored his 31-ball ton against the same opposition, a year later in the same month.

Corey Anderson can also bowl, very well.

NMA's ALL-TIME SIXES VI

Ben Dunk
Shahid Afridi
Yuvraj Singh
Corey Anderson

"Corey Anderson had always been known for his powerful striking, but he took it to a new level on New Year's Day 2014 when he set what was then the world record for the fastest ODI hundred with a 36-ball blitzkrieg against West Indies in Queenstown. It came at a time, a few months after he scored a century in his second Test, that Anderson was suggesting he was ready to fulfill the potential spotted in him as a teenager." - ESPNCricinfo

You're up @El Loco