Best current Test XI - draft selection

[H_T 3,032]

Best XI participants were locked away, the draft pick order was determined by numbers out of a bowl (unfortunately there was no official to witness the draw; so you will have to take me on trust ), here is the draft order as follows for the first round: -

Tall Defence - drew pick no.6

45HG16 - drew pick no.3

Rogue - drew pick no.1

H_T - drew pick no.7

Macca - drew pick no.5

Biffen - drew pick no.4

titan_uranus - drew pick no.8

thepassenger - drew pick no.2

So the order is as follows for Round 1:

1 - Rogue

2 - thepassenger

3 - 45HG16

4 - Biffen

5 - Macca

6 - Tall Defence

7 - H_T

8 - titan_uranus

There will be 88 picks all up (11 per team).

*Each round the order will reverse. ie. Round 2 will commence with pick 9 - titan_uranus and so on, and will reverse back to original order in Round 3. And so on.

You must have one player from each of the Test cricketing nations in no particular order including: -

England

Australia

South Africa

India

Pakistan

New Zealand

West Indies

Sri Lanka

So there is 8 players in your team. Finalise your team with three other Test players - these players can come from any of the above nations, although the maximum players from one country in your team must be two. Select in any order.

Please post next to your selection the country he represents in brackets. Every now and then I'll post a summary of selections - I'll try and do one post for each round or one every page of the thread. To make it easier for everyone to see rather than clicking on previous pages, etc.

Ok, so Rogue off you go with pick no.1...

Round 1 - Pick no.1....

[Rogue 585]

Good stuff, HT.

Round 1 - Pick no.1

#1 - Kallis (SA).

I can't go past him. There are still plenty of stars you just can't say no to, but it'll be interesting to see who's left by the time my next pick comes around.

All yours, thepassenger.

[Little Richard 6,213]

Round 1 - pick no.2

Michael Clarke (Aust). Phenomenal year, and he'll keep doing it in India and England I think.

Edited January 11, 2013 by H_T
addition

[45HG 1,539]

Kumar Sangakarra (SL)

[Biffen 12,824]

David Warner (Australia)

[Macca 16,611]

Sorry this is a bit late - been on the AFL investigation thread ... it's a bit of a read ...

Round 1 - pick no.5

Hashim Amla (Sth Africa)

There's my Proteas pick gone

Cool idea this one, HT. There's a lot of tactics involved .

Edited January 11, 2013 by Macca

[H_T 3,032]

Tall Defence...you're up..

pick 6...

[MadAsHell 4,209]

Sorry for my delay everyone.

Round 1, Pick 6.

Alastair Cook (England)

http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/content/player/11728.html

Edit: Player bio

Edited January 23, 2013 by Tall Defence

[H_T 3,032]

Sorry for my delay everyone.

Pick 6 Round 1.

Alastair Cook (England)

Welcome back TD, well timed I must say, I was about to invite an emergency. Good pick too...

Round 1, pick no.7

Dale Steyn (Sth Africa)

[titan_uranus 24,597]

Pick 8 - Rangana Herath (SL)

And then...

Pick 9 - Shivnarine Chanderpaul (WI)

[H_T 3,032]

Ok. That concludes Round One and we've started Round 2. Thanks titan_uranus....Here's a summary of the picks to date: -

Round One

pick 1 - Jacques Kallis (Sth Africa) - Rogue

pick 2 - Michael Clarke (Aust) - thepassenger

pick 3 - Kumar Sangakkara (SL) - 45HG16

pick 4 - David Warner (Aust) - Biffen

pick 5 - Hashim Amla (Sth Africa) - Macca

pick 6 - Alistair Cook (England) - Tall Defence

pick 7 - Dale Steyn (Sth Africa) - H_T

pick 8 - Rangana Herath (SL) - titan_uranus

Round Two

pick 9 - Shivnarine Chanderpaul (WI) - titan_uranus

Round 2 pick no.10

pick 10 - AB de Villiers (Sth Africa)

[MadAsHell 4,209]

Ok. That concludes Round One and we've started Round 2. Thanks titan_uranus....Here's a summary of the picks to date: -

Round One

pick 1 - Jacques Kallis (Sth Africa) - Rogue

pick 2 - Michael Clarke (Aust) - thepassenger

pick 3 - Kumar Sangakkara (SL) - 45HG16

pick 4 - David Warner (Aust) - Biffen

pick 5 - Hashim Amla (Sth Africa) - Macca

pick 6 - Alistair Cook (England) - Tall Defence

pick 7 - Dale Steyn (Sth Africa) - H_T

pick 8 - Rangana Herath (SL) - titan_uranus

Round Two

pick 9 - Shivnarine Chanderpaul (WI) - titan_uranus

Round 2 pick no.10

pick 10 - AB de Villiers (Sth Africa)

Round 2, Pick 11

Morne Morkel. (RSA)

http://www.espncricinfo.com/southafrica/content/player/46538.html

H_T I thought you'd already used your South African pick in round 1 or have I misread the structure?

Edit: Player bio

Edited January 23, 2013 by Tall Defence

[H_T 3,032]

Round 2, Pick 11

Morne Morkel. (RSA)

H_T I thought you'd already used your South African pick in round 1 or have I misread the structure?

Your side must contain one player from each of the Test nations giving you 8 players. To make up your Best XI you get an additional 3 players from any country - but you can only have a maximum of 2 from one country.

So I cannot select another Sth African.

Hope this clears it up.

[Macca 16,611]

So you can you use any of the 'other' 3 picks anytime, as long as you don't exceed 2 players from any one nation ?

There's 5 Proteas gone already !

Round 2 Pick 12

Saeed Ajmal (Pakistan)

[H_T 3,032]

That's right Macca, any order you wish, bowler, batsman, keeper, spinner, country etc.

Apologies TD if it wasn't clear enough.

Biffen is up...

[Biffen 12,824]

Mahela Jayawardene. (Ceylon)

[MadAsHell 4,209]

That's right Macca, any order you wish, bowler, batsman, keeper, spinner, country etc.

Apologies TD if it wasn't clear enough.

Biffen is up...

Thanks for the clarification. I thought we might not get to pick our 2nd player from a nation until Round 9.

Cheers.

[45HG 1,539]

Philander(er?)

[Little Richard 6,213]

Jimmy Anderson

[Rogue 585]

Round 2 - Pick 16: Swann (Eng)

Round 3 - Pick 17: Siddle (Aus)

Swann probably isn't the 16th best cricketer in the world, but I'm not sure there are too many top-class spinners left.

PS. Sorry about the delay, I didn't expect we'd move so quickly.

[Little Richard 6,213]

Mahendra Singh Dhoni

[H_T 3,032]

UPDATE:

Round One

pick 1 - Jacques Kallis (RSA) - Rogue

pick 2 - Michael Clarke (Aust) - thepassenger

pick 3 - Kumar Sangakkara (SL) - 45HG16

pick 4 - David Warner (Aust) - Biffen

pick 5 - Hashim Amla (RSA) - Macca

pick 6 - Alistair Cook (England) - Tall Defence

pick 7 - Dale Steyn (RSA) - H_T

pick 8 - Rangana Herath (SL) - titan_uranus

Round Two

pick 9 - Shivnarine Chanderpaul (WI) - titan_uranus

pick 10 - AB de Villiers (RSA) - H_T

pick 11 - Morne Morkel (RSA) - Tall Defence

pick 12 - Saeed Ajmal (Pak) - Macca

pick 13 - Mahela Jayawardene - (SL) - Biffen

pick 14 - Vernon Philander (RSA) - 45HG16

pick 15 - Jimmy Anderson (Eng) - thepassenger

pick 16 - Graeme Swann (Eng) - Rogue

Round Three

pick 17 - Peter Siddle (Aust) - Rogue

pick 18 - MS Dhoni (Ind) - thepassenger

pick 19 -

pick 20 -

pick 21 -

pick 23 -

pick 24 -

pick 25 -

You're up 45....

[MadAsHell 4,209]

UPDATE:

Round One

pick 1 - Jacques Kallis (RSA) - Rogue

pick 2 - Michael Clarke (Aust) - thepassenger

pick 3 - Kumar Sangakkara (SL) - 45HG16

pick 4 - David Warner (Aust) - Biffen

pick 5 - Hashim Amla (RSA) - Macca

pick 6 - Alistair Cook (England) - Tall Defence

pick 7 - Dale Steyn (RSA) - H_T

pick 8 - Rangana Herath (SL) - titan_uranus

Round Two

pick 9 - Shivnarine Chanderpaul (WI) - titan_uranus

pick 10 - AB de Villiers (RSA) - H_T

pick 11 - Morne Morkel (RSA) - Tall Defence

pick 12 - Saeed Ajmal (Pak) - Macca

pick 13 - Mahela Jayawardene - (SL) - Biffen

pick 14 - Vernon Philander (RSA) - 45HG16

pick 15 - Jimmy Anderson (Eng) - thepassenger

pick 16 - Graeme Swann (Eng) - Rogue

Round Three

pick 17 - Peter Siddle (Aust) - Rogue

pick 18 - MS Dhoni (Ind) - thepassenger

pick 19 -

pick 20 -

pick 21 -

pick 23 -

pick 24 -

pick 25 -

You're up 45....

Looks like everyone may be taking a similar approach with 1 batsman and 1 bowler in their first 2 picks. Apart from Biffen who may be building a really strong batting line up first???

[45HG 1,539]

Kevin Pietersen (SA...no...no... England)

[Rogue 585]

Kevin Pietersen (SA...no...no... England)

Hah, nice.