All time test draft R1 - Prath vs Skills

Who will win the 3 match test series?

  • Total voters
    33
  • Poll closed .

Varun

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Welcome to the sixth game of the Test Cricket Draft game between @prath92 and @Skills . These teams will be involved in 3 game series in

1. A flat track
2. A green track aiding swing
3. A slow track aiding spin

Teams-

Prath:

Starting XI
  1. John Wright
  2. Gary Kirsten
  3. David Gower
  4. Greg Chappell
  5. VVS Laxman
  6. Nathan Astle
  7. Imran Khan (c)
  8. Jeff Dujon (*)
  9. Garth McKenzie
  10. Paul Reiffel
  11. Andy Roberts
  12. Harbhajan Singh
Harbhajan Singh will replace Paul reiffel in the slow pitch

Skills:

1. Graeme Smith (C)
2. David Boon
3. Hashim Amla
4. Mark Waugh
5. Andy Flower (WK)
6. Johnny Bairstow
7. Ben Stokes
8. Malcolm Marshall
9. Graeme Swann
10. Ian Bishop
11. Mohammad Asif
 
Prath write up:

Starting XI
  1. John Wright
  2. Gary Kirsten
  3. David Gower
  4. Greg Chappell
  5. VVS Laxman
  6. Nathan Astle
  7. Imran Khan (c)
  8. Jeff Dujon (*)
  9. Garth McKenzie
  10. Paul Reiffel
  11. Andy Roberts
  12. Harbhajan Singh
Harbhajan Singh will replace Paul reiffel in the slow pitch

Batting

John wright (avg 37.4 runs 5334)
Gary Kirsten (avg 45.29 runs 7289)
David Gower (avg 44.25 runs 8231)
Greg Chappell (avg 53.86 runs 7110)
V.V.S. Laxman (avg 45.97 runs 8781)
Nathan Astle (avg 37.02 runs 4702)
Imran Khan (avg 37.69 runs 3807)
Jeff Dujon (avg 31.94 runs 3322)
Paul Reiffel (avg 26.55 runs 955)
Harbhajan Singh (avg 20 runs 2224)

Bowling

Imran Khan (avg 22.81 wickets 362)
Andy Roberts (avg 25.61 wickets 201)
Graham McKenzie (avg 29.78 wickets 246)
Paul Reiffel (avg 26.96 wickets 104)
Harbhajan Singh (avg 32.46 wickets 417)

Greg Chappell (avg 40.7 wickets 47)
Nathan Astle (avg 42.01 wickets 51)

Why we will win

Skills has some excellent batsmen like Flower David boon Graeme smith etc. but we have some excellent bowlers who can make the difference. Imran Khan, Andy Roberts and Graham McKenzie were extremely fast and hard to face and add the variations in imran’s Arsenal will make life very difficult. Paul reiffel is again a bowler who keeps things simple and will support the frontliners well with at least 2-3 wickets here and there. Nathan Astle and Greg Chappell will share the fifth bowler responsibilities, both with more than 50 test wickets over their careers.

In the slow pitches, Bhajji will replace Paul reiffel. He is quite used to win games on his own in such pitches (Australia 2001 comes to mind).

Batting

We have a deep batting line up with no.8 Jeff dujon having a test batting average of 31 and Paul reiffel himself has a batting average of 26. We have a solid middle order with David Gower Greg Chappell V.V.S. Laxman Nathan Astle and Imran Khan. They are solid and dependable. Opening pair of Wright and Gary Kirsten May not be the best in the business (wright mainly) but they get the job done.
 
Skills write up-

1. Graeme Smith (C)
2. David Boon
3. Hashim Amla
4. Mark Waugh
5. Andy Flower (WK)
6. Johnny Bairstow
7. Ben Stokes
8. Malcolm Marshall
9. Graeme Swann
10. Ian Bishop
11. Mohammad Asif

How will I win?
Don't give a shit. Feck off and vote for who you want.
 
I think if not for Imran I would have voted for skills by now. He has given me a pause. Even without him prath has a slight edge in batting but he elevates it further and bowling wise Skills looks stronger on first glance but again Imran with Roberts is a deadly duo. Marshall is the best pacer on the park though.
 
crappycraperson said:
I think if not for Imran I would have voted for skills by now. He has given me a pause. Even without him prath has a slight edge in batting but he elevates it further and bowling wise Skills looks stronger on first glance but again Imran with Roberts is a deadly duo. Marshall is the best pacer on the park though.
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Graham McKenzie was a very lethal bowler of the 60s. He took 29 wickets in 5 tests in 1964. He took 34 wickets in India in 8 matches (avg of 19). He took 100 wickets by the age of 23 (debut at 20)
 
Fast bowlers like to hunt in pairs,so Imran and Andy Roberts is a great opening combo.. But then Malcom Marshall on the other team!!
 
Varun said:
Because of the time it started. Guys based in UK or thereabouts would miss the 2nd half pretty much as they'd be in bed during the entirety of it.
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because skills clearly intends to discuss this game at length :lol:
 
Really like the Imran/Roberts tandem. Roberts was a mean, moody, bastard who could make a batsman's life miserable when he had the mind. He was the first bowler I ever saw who bowled a bouncer that would follow you if you tried to sway away from it. In the West Indies tour of England in 1976 he and Michael Holding bowled some of the best spells I've ever seen with the famous "the bowler's Holding, the batsman's Willey" supposedly being uttered by Brian Johnston during the final test. On the other side, Malcolm Marshall was a beast who could bowl a ball that almost seemed to skid off the turf. Very unpredictable, and deadly at the same time. On the batting side I don't think there's a lot between them so I'm going to have to go with my first instinct which is the Imran/Roberts duo. So Prath it is.
 
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This is a tough one, both teams look balanced and full of personal favourites.
 
Legitimately looked at this for 20 minutes and couldn't pick these teams apart.
 
KM said:
Do you see the irony in your post?
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thatsthejoke.jpg
 
This draft was always hugely favoured towards the top half. I was massively disadvantaged.
 
Skills said:
This draft was always hugely favoured towards the top half. I was massively disadvantaged.
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I agree. Cricket pool is not as wide as football to compensate for steep drop after GOATs are accounted for. Moving to second round and having snake order in reverse order would help address the balance a little but you do end up with some casualties in first round.
 
It doesn’t really matter. Maybe you will miss out on guys like sachin and viv because you are towards the bottom but overall quality of teams will be more or less the same.
 
Moby said:
Picking Andy Flower as the 22nd overall pick doesn't help much either.
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All the all rounders were gone into the first round, had to pick a 50 averaging wicket keeper.

Nobodys got a hope of winning this draft without one of the top all rounders IMO.
 
prath92 said:
It doesn’t really matter. Maybe you will miss out on guys like sachin and viv because you are towards the bottom but overall quality of teams will be more or less the same.
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I wasnt entirely serious but the teams at the top are obviously better. Second round of drafting might swing it big time towards the other end though.
 
Skills said:
All the all rounders were gone into the first round, had to pick a 50 averaging wicket keeper.

Nobodys got a hope of winning this draft without one of the top all rounders IMO.
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But Flower is hardly a vote swinger. You could have had another ATG ball and made a fearsome pair like Mani for example. Picking a keeper not named Gilchrist (and even he wouldnt come close to an ATG bat or ball in terms of votes) is plain suicidal. We've all seen in previous drafts that 6+4 works like a charm.
 
crappycraperson said:
I agree. Cricket pool is not as wide as football to compensate for steep drop after GOATs are accounted for. Moving to second round and having snake order in reverse order would help address the balance a little but you do end up with some casualties in first round.
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As I suggestion, I would waive the 15 test rule for all the South African players who were banned from representing their country because of the apartheid ban. That would broaden the pool a little.
 
charlton66 said:
As I suggestion, I would waive the 15 test rule for all the South African players who were banned from representing their country because of the apartheid ban. That would broaden the pool a little.
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Damn straight.

The pool is incomplete without proper legends like Barry Richards and Mike Procter!
 
charlton66 said:
As I suggestion, I would waive the 15 test rule for all the South African players who were banned from representing their country because of the apartheid ban. That would broaden the pool a little.
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Could work but it becomes iffy to judge players with limited international appearances. For normal draft pools, I think switching snakes are the way to go. As in 1-16,16-1 and then 16-1,1-16 and so on.
 
Mani said:
This.
Pool would have been much wider.
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The problem you're going to have there is that unless you are an old fart like me much of the information that you are going to be using to make a judgement on a player's relative worth may be somewhat apocryphal.
 
Don't know how difficult it would be but you could have groups of 8 with their own pools in which the picks are separate from the other group.

i.e. 2 teams will end up with Viv Richards or Ian Botham etc.
 
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