ICC All Time Greatest Test Team

[AbhishekS]

Sehwag in the All Time Greatest Test XI is a joke. He just cant be there ahead of even Matthew Hayden who has been a far bigger and more destructive opener in test cricket. And there have been other greats in the past who are a lot more better than Sehwag when it comes to opening in tests.

Batting records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPN Cricinfo

There may have been many better openers in the past, many who would have scored runs against tougher bowlers, under difficult conditions and under pressure situations, but such stuff don't degrade Sehwag's greatness. The link which I have provided above shows the averages of test openers who have scored at least 3,000 runs.
Again the issue of Sehwag batting well on flat wickets may arise, but these kinds of wickets are the ones where he has to play majority of his matches as you will hardly find bowler-friendly wickets in India.

And mastering the art of performing at home is as important as performing away. Players naturally get habitual to home conditions. There are some players who score much freely in South African and Australian wickets but find it hard to score in the same way in the sub-continent.

And if you see the bowling department, bowlers struggle on flat wickets. Dale Steyn is a beast in South Africa but he doesn't manages to perform so well in India, possibly due to the flat wickets. But then on the other hand, there is Zaheer Khan who inspite of being a pace bowler can get the batsmen in trouble even on Indian wickets. But that doesn't mean that Steyn is not great, he is. You cannot say that Steyn is bad as he isn't too good in sub-continent, where swinging the ball is not too easy.

Batsmen are more harshly dealt with, especially the ones in the current era. Some may feel that I am defending Sehwag's selection in the all time XI, and even I agree to it but you need to realize that even if Sehwag is aggressive, careless, impatient and has nearly no footwork, he still is one of the greatest test openers you will ever see.

 

[shravi]

Nobody is saying Sehwag isn't very good, because he is. However, he isn't excellent. Don't let your fanboyism blind you. You can't have "very good" players in an All Time XI. You need the best of the best and the only reason Sehwag (and indeed Kapil Dev) is there is because there are so many Indians in the world. I guarantee you that if this team was selected by cricketing experts, he would not be in the team. The criticisms people make of Sehwag's batting are not just common holes that everyone has. There is a very noticeable difference in his batting when he travels to England, New Zealand or South Africa. Being an an average batsman against the moving ball is a fatal flaw.

 

[cricket_icon]

Good points about Sehwag, but the main flaw with the way the ICC is making this out is the restriction on what type of team we can pick (only one allrounder??? when in any other instance bot Sobers and Khan would walk into any world XI, come on!)

 

[WindieWeathers]

Why was Sehwag ahead of Haynes and Greenridge? Fools got no clue.

 

[Shoaib87]

My Greatest XI:

Jack Hobbs
Len Hutton
Don Bradman
Viv Richards
Brian Lara
+Andy Flower
*Imran Khan
Richad Hadlee
Wasim Akram
Malcom Marshall
Muttiah Muralitharan

 

[War]

Nobody is saying Sehwag isn't very good, because he is. However, he isn't excellent. Don't let your fanboyism blind you. You can't have "very good" players in an All Time XI. You need the best of the best and the only reason Sehwag (and indeed Kapil Dev) is there is because there are so many Indians in the world. I guarantee you that if this team was selected by cricketing experts, he would not be in the team. The criticisms people make of Sehwag's batting are not just common holes that everyone has. There is a very noticeable difference in his batting when he travels to England, New Zealand or South Africa. Being an an average batsman against the moving ball is a fatal flaw.

Key term that, and good to see an Indian saying this.

 

[Atharv]

Batting records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPN Cricinfo

There may have been many better openers in the past, many who would have scored runs against tougher bowlers, under difficult conditions and under pressure situations, but such stuff don't degrade Sehwag's greatness. The link which I have provided above shows the averages of test openers who have scored at least 3,000 runs.
Again the issue of Sehwag batting well on flat wickets may arise, but these kinds of wickets are the ones where he has to play majority of his matches as you will hardly find bowler-friendly wickets in India.

And mastering the art of performing at home is as important as performing away. Players naturally get habitual to home conditions. There are some players who score much freely in South African and Australian wickets but find it hard to score in the same way in the sub-continent.

And if you see the bowling department, bowlers struggle on flat wickets. Dale Steyn is a beast in South Africa but he doesn't manages to perform so well in India, possibly due to the flat wickets. But then on the other hand, there is Zaheer Khan who inspite of being a pace bowler can get the batsmen in trouble even on Indian wickets. But that doesn't mean that Steyn is not great, he is. You cannot say that Steyn is bad as he isn't too good in sub-continent, where swinging the ball is not too easy.

Batsmen are more harshly dealt with, especially the ones in the current era. Some may feel that I am defending Sehwag's selection in the all time XI, and even I agree to it but you need to realize that even if Sehwag is aggressive, careless, impatient and has nearly no footwork, he still is one of the greatest test openers you will ever see.

Yudi you posted this rude remark here . But I chose to ignore it though IMHO what I said about the Indian media and so called two penny experts was true .
This post of yours about Sehwag is quite amusing.
Boycott instead of Gavaskar . Even Boycott would not agree
Sobers instead of Kapil is Ok.

Nobody is saying Sehwag isn't very good, because he is. However, he isn't excellent. Don't let your fanboyism blind you. You can't have "very good" players in an All Time XI. You need the best of the best and the only reason Sehwag (and indeed Kapil Dev) is there is because there are so many Indians in the world. I guarantee you that if this team was selected by cricketing experts, he would not be in the team. The criticisms people make of Sehwag's batting are not just common holes that everyone has. There is a very noticeable difference in his batting when he travels to England, New Zealand or South Africa. Being an an average batsman against the moving ball is a fatal flaw.

I agree . You have summed up it up pretty neat.