Current Generation Best XIs

Tests

:eng::bat: Alastair Cook
:saf::bat: Hashim Amla
:nz::bat: Kane Williamson
:aus::bat: Steve Smith
:pak::bat: Misbah-ul-Haq :c:
:saf::wkb: AB De Villiers
:ind::ar: Ravi Ashwin
:aus::bwl: Mitchell Starc
:saf::bwl: Dale Steyn
:pak::bwl: Yasir Shah
:eng::bwl: Jimmy Anderson

I approached this as though I was picking a team to play a real game rather than putting the best names in there, that's just my philosophy so there's a bit of reasoning for the team I've chosen.

The first thing that's noticeable is that there's only 6 batsmen. Ravi Ashwin is a fine player but I'm not sure he's quite good enough to be an all rounder batting at 6 so he swaps with De Villiers who is the superior batsman.

Since this is a test match I like the stability that my 1-3 bring me which is why I've left David Warner out. I'm honestly not a fan of his and his performances in the test series vs Sri Lanka annoyed me. Sure, if I have him in the team it's fun to be 0-100 after 15 overs but it's equally annoying being 1-25 after 3 overs. Hashim Amla rarely plays as an opener but honestly he could be batting at the crease on the second ball of a test so that makes no difference batting at 2 or 3.

Steve Smith in at 4 with Joe Root, Virat Kohli and Younis Khan missing out just because I can only have so many batsmen. I actually would have had Younis Khan in the team next if I could squeeze the extra batsman in and I found it difficult to leave him out. I don't rate Ross Taylor so he was never in the conversation.

Misbah in at 5 because I'm a big fan of having mentally strong warriors at 5, very reminiscent of the days of Waugh and Border and I feel that he looks like a quality leader who has done great with Pakistan.

AB as the wicketkeeper is cheating a little bit but with 5 bowlers I really had to pick him to beef up the batting.

For the bowling, I like the variety of my seamers and I feel they pick themselves. Left arm swing at pace (Starc) right arm swing at a reasonable pace (Anderson) right arm everything at pace (Steyn) it's just quality. Ashwin picks himself really but Rangana Herath was very unlucky to miss out but I went for Yasir Shah as I like the off break and leg break variety and when a leg spinner is on-song they can destroy a batting line up, just like Yasir Shah did at Lord's and The Oval. If we were playing on a dust bowl then Herath comes in for Anderson. Tim Southee possibly the next quick bowler in line.
 
:saf::saf:ODI-
Jos Butler:eng:
David Warner:aus:
Virat Kohli:ind::c:
Joe Root:eng:
Ab De Villiers:saf:
Sarfraz Ahmed:pak:
glenn maxwell:aus:
Ashwin:ind:
Trent Boult:nz:
Mitchell Starc:aus:
Mohammad Amir:pak:

T20-
Chris Gayle:wi:
Quinton De Kock:saf:
Virat Kohli:ind::c:
Joe Root:eng:
Ab De Villiers:saf:
Glenn Maxwell:aus:
Jos Butler:eng:
Sarfraz Ahmed:pak:
James Faulkner:aus:
Mohammad Amir:pak:
Mitchell Starc:aus:

Test-
Cook:eng:
Azhar Ali:pak:
Virat Kohli:ind:
Kane Williamson:nz:
Joe Root:eng:
Misbah Ul-Haq:pak::c:
Steven Smith:aus:
Younis Khan:pak:
Yasir shah:pak:
Mitchell Starc:aus:
Mohammad Amir:pak:

Are you a Pakistani/Amir fan by any chance?
 
Nice three-man Test attack there. Not saying you've not picked good players, just not perhaps quite the usual balance to the team.

It would boss a Test simmed in Cricksim though!
 
Are you a Pakistani/Amir fan by any chance?
Ayy mate I am an Amir fan. I think he has great potential to be one of the best bowlers in a few years.
Nice three-man Test attack there. Not saying you've not picked good players, just not perhaps quite the usual balance to the team.

It would boss a Test simmed in Cricksim though!
Well, I wanted a team that could score runs so I had batsmen. So I had to have three dangerous bowlers and a part timer in Joe Root to get wickets of course.
 
Well to me a combination of Yasir and Ashwin along with Aamir and Starc will be a delight to watch in Test matches.
 
Well to me a combination of Yasir and Ashwin along with Aamir and Starc will be a delight to watch in Test matches.
What say of having a Test Match in DBC14?
 
TEST
Alastair Cook *
Hashim Amla
Joe Root
AB de Villiers
Younus Khan
Ajinkya Rahane
Sarfraz Ahmed +
Ravichandran Ashwin
Stuart Broad
Dale Steyn
James Anderson

ODI
Hashim Amla
Rohit Sharma
Virat Kohli
AB de Villiers +
Joe Root
Kane Williamson *
Angelo Mathews/Shakib-Al-Hasan
Mitchell Starc
Sunil Narine
Dale Steyn
Morne Morkel

T20
Chris Gayle
Aaron Finch
Virat Kohli
AB de Villiers +
Faf du Plessis
Kieron Pollard/Dwayne Bravo
James Faulkner
Mitchell Starc
Sunil Narine
Lasith Malinga *
Samuel Badree/Imran Tahir
 
TEST
Hashim Amla
Gautam Gambhir*
latest
 
IKR, Gambhir in current best generation test XI when he did not even feature for 2 years and his form was pathetic 2 years back for 6 months or so. So practically mentioning a player who has been out of form and team since 2 and half years is a joke.
 
It's been about a year since we did this thread, and I think it's probably time for a bit of a revival.

Test Cricket
:aus: :bat: David Warner
:eng: :bat: Alastair Cook :c:
:nzf: :bat: Kane Williamson
:eng: :bat: Joe Root
:aus: :bat: Steven Smith
:pak: :wkb: Sarfraz Ahmed
:ind: :ar: Ravi Ashwin
:aus: :bwl: Mitchell Starc
:saf: :bwl: Dale Steyn
:sri: :bwl: Rangana Herath
:eng: :bwl: James Anderson

A couple of tricky spots to fill, but in the end they were filled by Cook and Anderson respectively. It's not easy to leave out AB de Villiers from this side, but as it's Test cricket I've just gone for those who have been most reliable of late. Saying that, Anderson may be on his way out given how many injuries he seems to be picking up. Only two spinners in this side, but they are very good spinners indeed.

:aus: :bat: David Warner
:saf: :bat: Dean Elgar
:ind: :bat: Cheteshwar Pujara
:aus: :bat: Steven Smith
:ind: :bat: Virat Kohli
:eng: :bat: Joe Root
:ind: :wk: Wriddhiman Saha
:ind: :ar: Ravi Jadeja
:saf: :bwl: Kagiso Rabada
:aus: :bwl: Nathan Lyon
:eng: :bwl: James Anderson

A fair few changes from last year's team: Alastair Cook loses his place at the top of the order to South Africa's Dean Elgar, who has hit five Test centuries this year: more than anyone else. Cheteshwar Pujara's return to form means that he is a natural number three in place of Williamson, who misses out more because NZC refuse to play Tests. The team is also one quick bowler short, but it doesn't matter because the ICC is basically the BCCI so let's just say this side is playing in Nagpur. After Rabada and Anderson, there hasn't really been a third outstanding seamer this year; maybe Morne Morkel at a push?

ODI Cricket
:saf: :wkb: Quinton de Kock
:eng: :bat: Joe Root
:ind: :bat: Virat Kohli
:aus: :bat: Steven Smith
:saf: :bat: AB de Villiers :c:
:ban: :ar: Shakib Al Hasan
:ind: :ar: Ravi Ashwin
:afg: :bwl: Rashid Khan
:aus: :bwl: Mitchell Starc
:saf: :bwl: Dale Steyn
:ban: :bwl: Mustafizur Rahman

It's not a perfectly balanced team, what with Root being a bit out of position and such like, but I don't think there's another outstanding ODI opener at the moment besides QDK. I also felt a little reluctant to pick Steyn for this format, which admittedly isn't his best, but he's just such a good bowler that he had to have a place in the end. Oh, and it was a straight choice between Mustafizur Rahman and Matt Henry, so I went for the one I'd less like to face.

:ind: :bat: Rohit Sharma
:saf: :wkb: Quinton de Kock
:ind: :bat: Virat Kohli
:pak: :bat: Babar Azam
:saf: :bat: AB de Villiers
:ban: :ar: Shakib Al Hasan
:ind: :ar: Hardik Pandya
:afg: :bwl: Rashid Khan
:aus: :bwl: Mitchell Starc
:pak: :bwl: Hasan Ali
:saf: :bwl: Imran Tahir

Again, a fair few changes to this side. Rohit Sharma has forced his way in by scoring millions of centuries, much like young Babar Azam. Rashid Khan seems controversial, much as he might have last year, but he has 36 wickets at 10.11, with an economy of 3.9, a strike rate of 15, and a best of seven for 18. TL;DR - he's very very good. For me, the real surprise was finding that Chris Woakes is statistically one of the very best seamers of 2017, very nearly edging out Mitchell Starc.

T20 Cricket
:saf: :wkb: Quinton de Kock
:aus: :ar: Glenn Maxwell
:ind: :bat: Virat Kohli :c:
:saf: :bat: AB de Villiers
:eng: :wkb: Jos Buttler
:wi: :ar: Andre Russell
:ban: :ar: Shakib Al Hasan
:afg: :bwl: Rashid Khan
:aus: :bwl: Mitchell Starc
:ban: :bwl: Mustafizur Rahman
:wi: :bwl: Samuel Badree

As you might expect, there's quite a lot of cross-over from the ODI side. Again I've gone with quite a lot of spinners because that's just what works in Twenty20 cricket. Glenn Maxwell also keeps his newfound role at the top of the order because it turns out he's really seriously good at it. Chris Gayle no longer makes this eleven, but at the peak of his powers he would have done.

:wi: :bat: Evin Lewis
:nzf: :bat: Colin Munro
:saf: :bat: Hashim Amla
:ind: :bat: Virat Kohli
:saf: :bat: AB de Villiers
:afg: :wkb: Mohammad Shahzad
:wi: :ar: Sunil Narine
:afg: :bwl: Rashid Khan
:pak: :bwl: Hasan Ali
:ind: :bwl: Jasprit Bumrah
:wi: :bwl: Samuel Badree

I've sort of picked four openers here, so Hashim Amla slots in at number three while Shahzad moves down into the middle order. He makes the side because of his excellent record of creating wickets with nearly a stumping every game - many of them off Rashid Khan, who also features in the side. There are three spinners and quite a long tail, but with a top six like that it shouldn't really matter too much.
 
So my XI for the different formats are

Test XI

:aus:
David Warner
:ind: Murali Vijay
:ind: Cheteshwar Pujara
:aus: Steven Smith
:ind: Virat Kohli
:saf: Faf Du Plessis
:pak: Sarfaraz Ahmed
:eng: Ben Stokes
:aus: Nathan Lyon
:ind: Mohammad Shami
:aus: Mitchell Starc

ODI XI

:saf:
Qunton De Kock
:aus: David Warner
:ind: Virat Kohli
:eng: Joe Root
:pak: Babar Azam
:saf: AB de Villiers
:ban: Shakib Al Hasan
:ind: Hardik Pandya
:afg: Rashid Khan
:aus: Mitchell Starc
:pak: Hasan Ali
 
Test XI

:aus: David Warner
:saf: Dean Elgar
:pak: Azhar Ali
:aus: Steve Smith
:ind: Virat Kohli
:eng: Ben Stokes
:saf: Quinton de Kock :wkb:
:saf: Keshav Maharaj
:saf: Kagiso Rabada
:aus: Nathan Lyon
:eng: James Anderson

ODI XI

:aus:
David Warner
:saf: Quinton de Kock :wkb:
:ind: Virat Kohli
:pak: Babar Azam
:saf: AB de Villiers
:eng: Ben Stokes
:pak: Shadab Khan
:pak: Hasan Ali
:aus: Mitchell Starc
:saf: Kagiso Rabada
:saf: Imran Tahir

T20 XI

:wi:
Evin Lewis
:saf: Hashim Amla
:ind: Virat Kohli
:nzf: Colin Munro
:eng: Jos Buttler :wkb:
:wi: Sunil Narine
:wi: DJ Bravo
:pak: Shadab Khan
:pak: Hasan Ali
:afg: Rashid Khan
:ind: Jasprit Bumrah
 
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