Team Interval
Batting
1. Sunny Gavaskar -
Avg: 51 with 10K runs best opener in the draft... amongst the best batsmen ever.. A notch above anyone he has
2. M. Atapattu: Avg 39 with 5.5K runs and 16 hundreds a bit of a plod but an very resilient
3. Brian Lara: Avg 53 with 12K runs better than anyone he has
4. Inzamam Ul-Haq:
Avg 50 with 9K runs - best Pakistani batsmen along with Maindad
5. Mike Hussey:
Avg 52 with 6K runs - Amongst the most solid players around
6. Misbah Ul Haq: Avg 47 with 5K runs - amazing at saving a collapsing innings.. can shepherd tailenders since that's all he did with Pakistan
7. Brad Haddin: Avg 33 with 3.3K runs - Can be of great annoyance
Bowling
1/2. James Anderson & Stuart Broad-
Avg: 27 and 29 and 500/400 wkts a piece Best quickies hunt in packs and together they have picked up more than 850 wickets together... Amongst the most consistent opening pairs of the modern era with the game tilting towards batsmen. Jimmy averages below 22 in the last 4years
3 BS Chandrasekhar: Avg 39 with 5.5K runs and 16 hundreds Anil Kumble before Kumble was. Polio ridden hand and has
Viv Richards as his bunny
4. Trent Boult/Stuart MacGill : Avg 29 both and ~200 wikets a piece Trent will bowl in the pace pitch and will be instructed to bowl fast; MacGill on the other 2 surfaces - has the best strike rate of any spinner in modern cricket!
How will I win
At the outset, I think this is a difficult opposition. Mani has hell of a team with an amazing fast bowling pair.
Win the batting paradise and spin track. Play out the pacers track though if it is swinging, Jimmy can wreak havoc
The idea is to play out Ambrose and Akram. Sunil will bore the shit out of them as will Atapattu. LEave every ball outside offstump. Then lay into Zaheer/ Saqlain/ Matthews. Our bowlers will target the weakness in their middle order through swing and spin running havoc. I know he'll try and hype Ian Chappel up but the man has 5.5K runs with 14 hundreds at 42 avg... those are Atapattu numbers
BUT I do think I'm head and shoulders above him in batting (my middle order is a level above his and Sunny is a better opener than anything he has). His middle order, bar Clive lloyd consists of largely avg to slightly above avg bats of Ian Chappel (the lesser of the two Chappel bros), Angelo MAtthews and Graham Thorpe.
Spinners are better - Chandra is better than anything he has. Saqlain wasn't the same entity in tests.. Him and MacGill have the same wickets in the same nos of innings and MacGill has a better strike rate despite primarily operating in Australia!
Quickies - Yeah, his is much better but Zaheer is a bit meh in tests. My striking pair are used to hunt together