Overall Pick #18: Jim Laker
Profile
Jim Laker became synonymous with just one match from his career, but what a match it was: in the fourth Test of the 1956 Ashes, he claimed the most memorable match figures in Test cricket history: 19 wickets for just 90 runs. Nobody else has ever come close. However, even if this incredible anomaly is excluded from his stats, his bowling average against the Australians for England would remain a still-healthy 22.56, and he would still be able to point to his other ten-for against the Australians that year (ten for 88 for Surrey) as a sign of his mastery over them. Whatever the Nathan Lyon meme brigade might have you believe, Jim Laker is still the greatest off-spinner in Ashes history by far.
Statistics
ASHES - 277 runs @ 14.57 (best 63) and 79 wickets @ 18.27 (5 5WI, best 10/53) in 15 matches
ALL TESTS - 676 runs @ 14.08 (best 63) and 193 wickets @ 21.24 (9 5WI, best 10/53) in 46 matches
FIRST-CLASS - 7,304 runs @ 16.60 (2 centuries, best 113) and 1,944 wickets @ 18.41 (127 5WI, best 10/53) in 450 matches
Overall Pick #19: Ben Stokes
ProfileRecency bias be damned, Ben Stokes' performance in the last two Tests has shown precisely why he will become an all-time Ashes great. At Lord's, all the headlines were about Jofra Archer going on a mad pace rampage, but it was still Stokes who, on the back of a promotion to number five in the batting order, he turned a precarious position of 64 for three into a potentially match-winning position of strength with a fluent unbeaten 115 that was more free and fluent than any other batsman in the match could manage. Fast forward to Headingley, where Australia had batted themselves to a lead of over 200 with seven wickets left, after England had been bowled out for 67. Stokes took the bowl and put together an unbroken (save for four balls by Archer) spell of 24.2 fast and hostile overs to drag the game back within reach almost in spite of his teammates. He then capped it off with that innings. There is plenty more of the Stokes story still to be written, but he has already proven to be the difference between 3-0 and 1-1 in what may yet become known as Stokes' Ashes.
Statistics
ASHES - 807 runs @ 40.35 (3 centuries, best 135*) and 34 wickets @ 34.00 (2 5WI, best 6/36) in 12 matches
ALL TESTS - 3,479 runs @ 35.86 (8 centuries, best 258) and 135 wickets @ 32.22 (4 5WI, best 6/22) in 55 matches
FIRST-CLASS - 7,269 runs @ 34.77 (16 centuries, best 258) and 304 wickets @ 29.65 (7 5WI, best 7/67) in 130 matches
Aislabie's XI so far:
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4. Steve Smith (Pick #8)
5. Steve Waugh (Pick #5)
6. Ben Stokes (Pick #19)
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9. Jim Laker (Pick #18)
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Next Pick:
@VC the slogger