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[WalkingWicket37]

what about a...

Worst Current World Test XI?

who makes that team?

thoughts?

Burns
Warner
Khawaja   
Smith*
Voges
Ferguson
Nevill+
Mennie   
Starc   
Hazlewood
Lyon

[tate035]

Yes agree completely, Jimmy's clearly still got it but on recent evidence he doesn't have the ability to come straight back firing after an injury anymore. I'd much rather give him a longer recovery spell than strictly necessary than rush him back for a couple of test matches below his best followed by another injury.

Shame they can't get him.a practice game whilst test is on.. My biggest worry is that he breaks down again. Would rather he stayed back in sunny Lancashire and get really fit to have one last glorious summer in 2017...

[Felix Tito]

Cheers for that.  although Edgy came up with some good stats there about Jimmy. Personally thought no Steyn or Jimmy for me.
Believe someone called Stokes swings the ball a long way...

TBH if they are all gone get into a hissy over Steyn, I'd pick Rabada, Starc and Woakes...

[smilley792]

And Amla
He hasn't scored a bean recently, but gets in because be averages over 50.
On that logic Gary Ballance should still make a World XI too...

Amla had to quit the captaincy to buy a run against the English.


Speaking of, the South Africans who fielded 5 of the apparent best xi in the world, lost that series(at home) to an English side that dont have a single player worthy of being picked for said best xi.

[tate035]

TBH if they are all gone get into a hissy over Steyn, I'd pick Rabada, Starc and Woakes...

Woakes...  this guy deserves everything he gets. One of the most improved cricketers since I 1st saw Steve Smith ( being honest)..
When I saw both guys for the 1st time I really thought   they wouldn't make it but both went away and have made themselves into excellent cricketers.
Both, however behind stokes on my current team sheet... Lol

[felix]

Welcome back Gerry/aus. Didn't take long.......... how sad life must be having to re-sign up to a forum over and over again pretending to be someone else.

...and hijacking my forum name  How did I deserve that?

[Number4]

Steve Smith can't bowl and no where near as good a fielder. Now that is "case closed " my confused friend. Also can u look at his average when not playing on flat tracks...  Probably about 19... The same amount of 1st class wickets he has taken.

I love the banter with you Felix but sometimes you just need to admit your not a good judge of a world Xl
Simples...

Steve Smith Averages:

West Indies 2015 - 141.50
England 2015 - 56.44
NZ 2015/16 - 131.00
Sri Lanka 2016 - 41.16

[tate035]

Steve Smith Averages:

West Indies 2015 - 141.50
England 2015 - 56.44
NZ 2015/16 - 131.00
Sri Lanka 2016 - 41.16

Lol.. Great try but you keep missing the "flat tracks" part of the equation. Also the poor (very poor) West Indian attack. Infact take his double century out of the equation in England and his average is about 20 on that tour...
I have all admiration for how he has turned his batting around but in a current World Xl for me I would have an all rounder at 6. Steve Smith just isn't good enough on "proper test " wickets with either bat or ball compared to others.
Like I said, it's all about opinions BUT if people are going to quote stats then please can we have them in.the right context...

[WalkingWicket37]

As I can't really do this at work, and am out on the piss "at a networking event" tonight would someone else please put a side together, based purely on test stats from the start of 2016?

Lets go for a generic lineup of:
Top 5 are specialist batsman
All rounder at 6
Keeper at 7
numbers 8 to 11 bowlers

Would be interesting to see how that side looks compared to what those of us who actually watch cricket said... 

[Number4]

Lol.. Great try but you keep missing the "flat tracks" part of the equation. Also the poor (very poor) West Indian attack. Infact take his double century out of the equation in England and his average is about 20 on that tour...
I have all admiration for how he has turned his batting around but in a current World Xl for me I would have an all rounder at 6. Steve Smith just isn't good enough on "proper test " wickets with either bat or ball compared to others.
Like I said, it's all about opinions BUT if people are going to quote stats then please can we have them in.the right context...

So series averages don't count? Or do we go back to 2013 average in a series of 38.33 or maybe 2010 average of 31.80

Would you like to narrow down pitches played on... My god we could do that for practically any player.

Let's face it over his career on ALL tracks he averages 57.69

Let's look at wonder boy Joe Roots figures.... Some interesting reading there over a few series.

And you can look at stats and watch matches as well as actually play cricket. It's called backing up facts with figures

[tate035]

So series averages don't count? Or do we go back to 2013 average in a series of 38.33 or maybe 2010 average of 31.80

Would you like to narrow down pitches played on... My god we could do that for practically any player.

Let's face it over his career on ALL tracks he averages 57.69

Let's look at wonder boy Joe Roots figures.... Some interesting reading there over a few series.

And you can look at stats and watch matches as well as actually play cricket. It's called backing up facts with figures

And the facts are backed up by the figures. Steve Smith makes runs on mainly flat tracks.. Simple.

As for Root? I haven't mentioned him.. And yes it does matter what pitch it is played on. So what if it has to be done for every player.. It's possible with the amount of stats out there..
Why are you being so lazy by just trundling out the same boring stat based on mainly flat tracks and against poor bowling line ups??

It's easier to admit that Australia currently do not have a "top class " TEST MATCH batsman and haven't since the glory days  (ponting, s.Waugh, hayden etc)

[six and out]

As I can't really do this at work, and am out on the piss "at a networking event" tonight would someone else please put a side together, based purely on test stats from the start of 2016?

Lets go for a generic lineup of:
Top 5 are specialist batsman
All rounder at 6
Keeper at 7
numbers 8 to 11 bowlers

Would be interesting to see how that side looks compared to what those of us who actually watch cricket said... 

All done according to Cricinfo Stats 2016 Tests - No. of Runs or Wickets (in brackets no.of innings/overs) - i have done runs and wickets as if you do average then there are a few people at the top who have only played a couple of tests etc...

This is purely the stats so batting order and type of bowlers etc... not thought about

1. Root - 1114 (24)
2. Cook - 1052 (25)
3. Mo Ali - 812 (21)
4. Kohli - 785 (13)
5. Azhar Ali - 769 (14)
6. Stokes - 716 (13) / 26 (205)
7. YJB - 1164 (21)
8. Herath - 54 (367)
9. Ashwin - 47 (347)
10. Broad - 42 (417)
11. Shah - 40 (430)

[Rob580]

I had a look at this the other week and came up with:

Williamson
Azhar Ali
Pujara
Kohli
Smith
Stokes
Bairstow
Starc
Herath
Anderson
Rabada

I took the 10 highest run scorers & 8 highest wicket takers of the year (double the required amount for this) then sorted them by average, giving the above Bowlers and Batsmen.

To be honest for Keeper & allrounder, there's not much competition. Stokes is up there on both tables, and YJB has scored the most runs of anyone this year and taken almost double the dismissals of the next keeper.

So pretty much a statistical team with consideration for Runs scored & averages. Seeing as England players have played load more matches, so therefore are going to have scored more highly than possibly better players from other countries.

[Mr_Orange]

As I can't really do this at work, and am out on the piss "at a networking event" tonight would someone else please put a side together, based purely on test stats from the start of 2016?

Lets go for a generic lineup of:
Top 5 are specialist batsman
All rounder at 6
Keeper at 7
numbers 8 to 11 bowlers

Would be interesting to see how that side looks compared to what those of us who actually watch cricket said... 

Ok... I've looked at runs scored and also averages (min 4 innings) since 1 Jan 2016 (not including the 2nd Ind v Eng test) the top 10 are:

Bairstow 1164   |1|  De Kock 80.00
Root 1114       |2|  Gunaratne 75.00
Cook 1052       |3|  Kohli 71.18
Moeen Ali 814   |4|  Pujara 69.60
Kohli 778       |5|  Tharanga 69.00
Azhar Ali 769   |6|  Rahane 68.44
Stokes 716      |7|  Bairstow 64.66
Pujara 696      |8|  Azhar Ali 64.08
Williamson 633  |9|  De Silva 61.11
Smith 622       |10| Stokes 59.66

Bairstow, Root, Cook and Moeen have all played 14 games.
The Sri Lankans have 4 innings each. Most of the rest are between 7-9 games.

Rahane comes in at 11 in runs scored (618 @ 61.66) and Bavuma at 11 (465 @ 58.12) in the averages

Take the common players in Bairstow, Kohli, Pujara, Stokes, Azhar Ali and that's a good start if you take De Kock as a keeper.
But we need an all rounder in Stokes based on the format above and another opener.
Based on that, the top 7 I think would end up as

Cook, Azhar Ali, Pujara, Kohli, Bairstow, Stokes, De Kock

Now bowlers (same format, wickets and average but min 15 wickets):

Herath 54    ||  Mehedi 15.63
Ashwin 47    ||  Herath 17.53
Broad 42     ||  Starc 19.62
Shah 40      ||  Anderson 20.48
Anderson 39  ||  Rabada 21.07
Rabada 39    ||  Wagner 21.87
Woakes 39    ||  Woakes 22.07
Starc 32     ||  Stokes 23.07
Wagner 32    ||  Ashwin 23.48
Lyon 31      ||  Perera 24.56

Ali comes in 11 (30 @ 49.83) in the total wickets and Jadeja at 11 for average (20 @ 25.85).
Stokes comes in with 26 wickets FYI.

Obviously this choice is subjective to the conditions here with spinners taking the top spots.
To keep it even, and with stokes in the side I'll pick 2 seamers, 1 spinner and a subjective spot

So, the common players are Herath, Ashwin, Anderson, Rabada, Woakes, Starc and Wagner.

So that gives me Herath and Ashwin for the spinner spots and Anderson, Rabada and Starc for the seamers.

Based on this, my final XI of 2016 so far would be:

Cook
Azhar Ali
Pujara
Kohli
Bairstow
Stokes
De Kock
Ashwin/Rabada
Starc
Herath
Anderson

Starc over Rabada purely for the left arm option. Ashwin comes in if it's played in Asia. Woakes would be in the squad based on the numbers, it was tight between him, Starc and Rabada for 2 spots.
Edit: If we were to play Bairstow as the keeper then I'd bring in Rahane at 5 based on his figures for the year above and not the way he's playing against England at the mo!

Obviously this is what I'd pick based on the information I have, and it can be stretched either way but it's one answer to the question!

[Number4]

Due to players all playing different amount of games it would probably be more accurate going on averages as opposed to total runs scored.

I think Mr Orange has it most accurate