Best all-time World XI to tour Australia in Test cricket?

[Harsh Thakor]

Ananth Narayana on cricinfo cordon blogs chose his best all time xi to tour Australia,South Africa and England.Here I am only selecting my all-time test xi for touring Australia.Ofcourse it would exclude Australian superstars like Bradman,Warne,Gilchrist and Mcgrath.

1st xi to tour Australia

1.Jack Hobbs
2.Barry Richards
3.Viv Richards
4.Brian Lara
5.Sachin Tendulkar
6.Gary Sobers
7.Imran Khan(captain)
8.Wasim Akram
9.Alan knott
10.Curtly Ambrose
11.Muthiah Murlitharan

2nd xi to tour Australia


1.Sunil Gavaskar
2.Len Hutton(captain)
3.Graeme Pollock
4.Walter Hammond
5.Rahul Dravid
6.Jacques Kallis
7.Kumar Sangakaara
8.Richard Hadlee
9.Malcolm Marshall
10.Sydney Barnes
11.Jim Laker

Ananth Narayan's team has Hobbs,Sutcliffe,Viv Richards,Tendulkar,Hammond,Faulkner,Knott,Hadlee,Robert Peel,Curtly Ambrose and Sydney Barnes.He chose Viv as the captain.I considered Imran to be an abler leader and a more suitable for selection for post of skipper than Viv.I preferred Imran to Hadlee because of his leadership qualities and felt Akram had superior talent to Barnes however mythical were his figures.Hammond was a true superstar but I doubt would have surpassed Lara's batting at his best.Tendulkar's record speaks for itself in addition to the pressure he faced.I think Sobers was morally on ahigher pdetsal than any all-rounder ever and was at his best in Australia like when taking 6.73 at Brisbane in 1967-68 and scoring 132 in the tied test in 1960-61 and 254 at Melbourne in 1972.Unanimously I would choose Viv Richards as I feel he was the best match-wining batsmen ever and at his best on the fast ,bouncy Australian pitches.No batsmen could turn the course of game as decisively as Viv who from 1976-81 was the best after Bradman.I chose Barry Richards instead of Hutton,Sutcliffe or Gavaskar as he was the equivalent of a Viv Richards as an opening batsmen.Preferred Ambrose to Marshall as in addition to being more accurate he could extract more bounce from the juicy Australian pitches.Ambrose has abetter record in Australia.Picked Wasim because his left-arm variety would be a boon to this team.No pace bowler ever could make a ball talk as much as Wasim whose wizardry was unequalled.Hadlee ,was a better bowler than Imran in Australian conditions but missed out purely because Imran was chosen as a captain.Imran wasthe best ever skipper amongst the great all-rounders.Infact Hadlee had abetter record than even Ambrose in Australia but I just felt Curtly was marginally more lethal.Really touch and go between Curtly and Richard.Instead of mere figures I have considered ability of cricketers.Thus Anantha Narayanan's team excludes 5 players I have chosen.In my 2nd xi I have chosen the likes of Hammond,Pollock,Gavaskar,Hutton,Dravid,Sangakkara,Marshall,Hadlee etc.

 

[Sub-Zero]

why not include Azhar Ali too? he scored 406 at an average of 81.20, nowadays performing like that outside Asia is wonderful for an Asian batsman

 

[Sachin136]

why not include Azhar Ali too? he scored 406 at an average of 81.20, nowadays performing like that outside Asia is wonderful for an Asian batsman

He did really well, but only had one 100+ score (which was 205*, so it significantly boosts his average) over 6 innings against bowlers much worse than Warne, McGrath, O'Reilly, Lillee etc.

 

[Sub-Zero]

He did really well, but only had one 100+ score (which was 205*, so it significantly boosts his average) over 6 innings against bowlers much worse than Warne, McGrath, O'Reilly, Lillee etc.

Hazlewood got almost the same stats as McGrath after the first 26 tests, and who can argue against Starc? he's world class and Hazlewood was better than him in the last series, both are likely gonna become Australian greats. Bird and Lyon were very good too.
The main thing is the home advantage, there's a huge difference between the conditions of UAE and Australia, so it's very hard for Pakistani batsmen to score consistently in Australia and vice versa.
Azhar proved difficult to get out, and was the 2nd highest scorer of the series, he played as an opener which is what makes it more impressive, couple of time the other batsman got Azhar out because of miscommunication when Azhar was set, otherwise he could've easily gotten another 100.

 

[Ankit007]

How can you not include vvs laxman in this list....

 

[Ab Fan]

SRT and VVS were best performers in Australia as far as Indian team is concerned.

And plz u can't have Murali in first XI if the touring team is Australia.

 

[Chrish]

Lot of names out of place

 

[Buffet]

Murali for Aus??

 

[soso_killer]

When picking a team to tour Australia wouldn't it be better to select players that actually won something there?
Imagine selecting a World Cup team full of players that actually never won the damn thing ahead of players who did.
The likes of B. Richards etc have no businesses touring Australia IMHO.