Cricket Dream teams

My favorite teams in Cricket. Methodology – for each position the best player in terms of runs & average, and overall team balance

All time ODI XI

 

Sachin Tendulkar

Desmond Haynes

Viv Richards

Brian Lara

Gilchrist (wk)

Michael Bevan

Imran Khan ©

Wasim Akram

Allan Donald

Joel Garner

Muralidharan

Shane Warne (12th man)

Jayasurya had to omitted as opener because Haynes & Sachin are better batsman than him, Ponting is not here as Richards & Lara are better middle order batsman, Beavan is the most consistent at 6, Imran & Wasim are the all rounders. On pacy tracks, Garner, Donald, Wasim and Imran can decimate any order. On spinning tracks Warne in place of Donald could be lethal supporting Murali. Batting extends till No. 8.

All time Test best XI

 

Gavaskar

Sehwag

Don Bradman ©

Sachin Tendulkar

Viv Richards

Richard Hadlee

Gilchrist (wk)

Dennis Lillee

Shane Warne

Malcolm Marshall

Muralidharan

Wasim Akram (12th man)

Since No.3 is where most of best players play - Ponting, Dravid, Sobers, Hammond had to be unfortunately excluded in favor of the Don. Sehwag’s inclusion here will be controversial, but he is the only opener in the history with two triple centuries and overall batted with much better average & strike rate than Hayden & other openers.

Sachin – the greatest (by impacting 4 decades)

Sachin had made a mark in 80s, by being one of the youngest cricketer and playing the Pakistan series with a lot of spirit & courage. He is unarguably the greatest batsman of 90s, and among the  top 3 in 2000s, and will probably be a great batsman in 10s & probably retire by 2013. How many sportsmen (cricketer or otherwise) can impact their sport for 4 decades? His records will be hard to beat for a long time to come (unless ridiculously made batting pitches become the norm).