Cricket Unplugged

Top Batsmen & Bowlers based on current series'

2005-11-18T15:11:00.000-08:00

Three series' going on concurrently these days. Here are my rankings of the top 10 batsmen and top 10 bowlers so far from Australia, Pakistan, West Indies, England, India & South Africa. I've taken into account the level of opposition and also based them on importance of runs scored or wickets taken rather than just on the basis of average.

Top 10 Batsmen as of 11/18/2005

Ricky Ponting
Mathew Hayden
Salman Butt
Yuvraj Singh
Marcus Tresothik
Michael Hussey
Inzamam
Jacques Kallis
Chris Gayle
Justin Kemp

Top 10 Bowlers as of 11/18/2005

Glenn Mcgrath
Andy Flintoff
Brett Lee
Danesh Kaneria
Corey Collymore
Shaun Pollock
Makhaya Ntini
Shoaib Akhtar
Ajit Agarkar
Steve Harmison

Fantasy World XI (bases on the above rankings) as of 11/18/2005

Marcus Trescothik
Mathew Hayden
Ricky Ponting
Inzamam
Jacques Kallis
Andrew Flintoff
Adam Gilchrist
Brett Lee
Steve Harmison
Danesh Kaneria
Glenn McGrath

Trescothik - staying or leaving?

2005-11-18T14:56:00.000-08:00

His father-in-law fell off a ladder so he's going to leave? Are you f**king kidding me! Now I know he's not going anymore but to even think about leaving coz someone fell off a ladder is crazy. What good would he have done if he went back.

In other news, there's a big conspiracy theory going on in India where all the bangali's want ganguly back in the team. Now, ganguly was never anything special as a test batsmen but somehow he did captain well. I don't know if that was because of him or inspite of him. One thing's for sure - he was an in-your-face type of leader and opposing teams never liked him. I remember the natwest final in England where he ripped off his shirt ala Hulk Hogan. Haha.

Great comeback by India in the first ODI to come back and set a target of 250. I can never get why great ODI batsmen (Yuvraj) don't do as well in tests. It has to be more than the short pitched ball.

Pakistan England Round 2

2005-11-18T09:30:00.000-08:00

This post focuses on what changes, if any, both sides should make to their test team.

Let's start with England.

Collingwood has come under much criticism, most of it justified. However, if Vaughn can not make it back, I do not think dropping c'wood and replacing him with a completely untested player is the best idea. Collingwood does have talent and experience and has the ability to be part of a large partnership.

As far as bowling options go England's current pace attack is in my opinion the best in the world. They have the perfect balance. Pace with Harmison, Nip with Freddie & Swing with Hoggard. ALL batsmen in the world are susceptible to atleast one of these three skills. On the other hand, England have not had a quality spinner in decades. Ashley Giles is no matchwinner and Udal is a joke (why was he selected at age 36?) Is that the best England has available.

In fact, England as no bench strength at all. This is why they will never dominate test cricket for a long period of time as the aussies and west indies have done in the past.

Lets focus on Pakistan now. Shoaib Malik is not a test opener. He struggles early on and if he survives manages to make 30 odd. Not what you want from a test opener. Anyone know what other opening options we have out there? Pakistan has tried several opening batsmen - Taufeeq Umar was probably the best of the bunch but he cant play the seaming ball. I dont know what other prospects are out there - let me know if anyone has any players that come to mind. Maybe they could open with Asim Kamal. Other than that I would leave the batting alone.