Australia’s best Test side since 1970

Spotlight moments in life often happen during conversations with drinking buddies in pubs and lounge rooms.  One happened recently following the second Test in Adelaide.  Four men at a Christmas party selected Australia’s best Test side at the bar then argued about it.  The conversation was knowledgeable. 

One of those men, Russ, sought council on his team during a phone call with an independent man, a person who wasn’t privy to the bar-side machinations of four men at a Christmas party.  Russ offered his best ever team then posed a question, who is your best Australian Test side.

 

It is an interesting question, one made narrow by birth.  Russ, who was born in 1970, had Don Bradman in his team.  Bradman is a guaranteed selection in anybody’s team of champions, but he doesn’t represent the years Russ has been alive.  Bradman was the only player Russ selected who played prior to 1970, which meant he’d been selected on deeds and reputation, a fair point, but he’d been selected blindly, because Russ never saw Bradman play.

Before I discussed my team, I suggested the parameters had to be narrowed.  It wasn’t fair to pick players I’d never seen play, so Bradman was out.  Russ and I would choose our teams from Australia’s best cricketers who played during or after 1970. 

We talked it over.  The team would be tough to select, which shows how strong Australian cricket has been in the past forty years.  To simplify things, I have selected 23 players from which to choose from.

The batsmen are listed below. 

	Tests	runs	fifties	centuries	average
Mark Taylor	104	7525	40	19	43.49
Matt Hayden	103	8625	30	29	50.73
Justin Langer	105	7696	23	30	45.27
Ian Chappell	75	5345	26	14	42.42
David Boon	107	7422	32	21	43.65
Ricky Ponting	151	12,333	56	39	53.85
Doug Walters	74	5357	33	15	48.26
Mark Waugh	128	8029	47	20	41.81
Michael Hussey	57	4597	24	13	52.83
Greg Chappell	87	7110	31	24	53.86
Allan Border	156	11,174	63	27	50.56
Steve Waugh	168	10,927	50	32	51.06

 

Clearly, as you’ll see from the following list, it is much easier to achieve longevity in cricket as a batsman than a bowler.  I’ve picked eight bowlers as opposed to 12 batsmen, which shows it is much harder to be a bowler instead of a batsman.  As a benchmark, I picked bowlers who have taken 200 or more Test wickets.  And before you choose from the men below, consider injury.

Denis Lillee was stricken with stress fractures in his back on a tour of the West Indies and missed eighteen months of cricket.  During a match against India, Jeff Thompson dislocated his shoulder in a collision with Allan Turner and had a shoulder reconstruction.

Shane Warne had major surgery to repair the rotor cuff in his right shoulder, and endured an operation on his middle finger. Merv Hughes and Craig McDermott underwent numerous knee operations. 

Jason Gillespie suffered a stress fracture in his back during his debut Test.  Brett Lee had elbow surgery early in his Test career and was never the same.

Bowling is a tougher occupation than batting, so don’t let longevity fool your bowling selections.  I’ve only nominated one spinner, for obvious reasons.

The bowlers:

	Tests	wickets	runs	average	best	5w	10w
Denis Lillee	70	355	8493	23.92	7-83	23	7
Jeff Thompson	51	200	5601	28.00	6-46	8	0
Glenn McGrath	124	563	12186	21.64	8-24	29	3
Shane Warne	145	708	17995	25.41	8-71	37	10
Merv Hughes	53	212	6017	28.38	8-87	7	1
Craig McDermott	71	291	8332	28.63	8-97	14	2
Jason Gillespie	71	259	6770	26.13	7-37	8	0
Brett Lee	76	310	9554	30.81	5-30	17	10

 

There are three schools of thought among cricket lovers, those who rate Rod Marsh as Australia’s best keeper, those who rate Ian Healy as Australia’s best keeper and those who rate Adam Gilchrist as Australia’s best keeper.

Before making your selection, think of the bowlers they kept too, and the bowlers they faced.  Marsh kept to Lillee, Thompson, Len Pascoe, Geoff Lawson and Terry Alderman.  Australia didn’t have a great spinner when Marsh played.  Healy and Gilchrist kept to Warne, McGrath, Lee, Gillespie and Stuart McGill. 

In terms of dismissals, they’re very similar.

	Tests	dismissals	catches	stumping	runs	average	fifties	centuries
Ian Healy	119	395	366	29	4356	27.39	22	4
Adam Gilchrist	96	416	379	37	5570	47.60	26	17
Rodney Marsh	96	355	343	12	3633	26.51	16	3

 

I’ll announce my fantasy team next year.  Certainly there might be guaranteed selections, but there are intangibles.  Some of the men listed above will miss out.  I will explain why, and  I’d like you all to select your own team.

To select your team, you can pick a player at the peak of his form, decide on grace over grit, reason against rhyme.  Longevity and average don’t matter.  You can pick your players based on captaincy, aggression and match-winning ability.  You must pick four or more bowlers, only one from the list of keepers, and put your batsmen in order.

Also, I’d like a few short sentences on each of your selections.  He’s a legend will suffice, if you can’t think of anything else to write.

Email your teams to theramble@bigpond.com and I will upload them.

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