What's new

Why doesn't Imran Khan feature in any All Time XIs?

sharon javed

Debutant
Joined
May 1, 2017
Runs
73
I just notices that Imran khan didnot feature in any all time eleven announced by different players, even Trent Boult features in the list but one of the greatest All Rounders in Tests did not feature in any team?:salute
 
A lot of the all-time XIs are heavily biased due to personal favorites and friendships with former teammates. Also, a lot of people pick specialist batsmen and bowlers which is why Imran loses out to bowlers like Marshall, McGrath, Lillee, Hadlee, Wasim etc. In addition, if they do pick an all-rounder, Sobers is the first name that comes to mind because he is universally regarded as the greatest all-rounder of all time.
 
Main reasons :

1) People often pick Wasim over him because of left arm variety. But it's absolutely stupid because Imran was a superior bowler, let alone his batting and captaincy.

2) Lots of lists are honestly done with the amateurish mindset of " only one all rounder" in the team
Which is the dumbest thing ever. Why would you not have another all rounder, especially if he's as good a bowler as anyone not named Marshall.

Imran is one of the 3-4 GOAT cricketers. Top shelf.
 
Last edited:
He made it into Richie Benuad's 'World XI'. Also, Geoff Boycott's 'World XI'.
 
Any world XI would have five batters, a keeper, an allrounder, three fast bowlers and a spinner/or two fast bowlers and two spinners.
Now is IK one of the best five batters of all time : No. (Bradman, Lara, Tendulkar, Viv, Gavaskar, Hobbs etc)
Is he the best keeper: No. (Gilchrist, Knott, Sanga)
Is he the best allrounder of all time : No. Gary Sobers
Is he one of the three greatest fast bowlers of all time : No. (Lillee, Marshall, McGrath, Akram) Akram makes most world XI as he adds variation being a left armer
Best spinner : no. Murali, Warne

So sorry no place for him in world XI. Simple.
 
Geoff Armstrong has worked as a writer, editor and publisher on more than 70 books on sport—over 30 of them on cricket alone. Between 1993 and 2005, he collaborated with Steve Waugh on each of Steve’s 12 best-selling books, including Steve’s autobiography Out of My Comfort Zone.

Geoff is the author of A Century of Summers, the centenary history of the Sheffield Shield and ESPN’s Legends of Cricket which profiles 25 of the game’s greatest players. He has worked on books with Mike Whitney, David Boon, Merv Hughes, Justin Langer, Ian Healy, Michael Slater, Bob Simpson, Neil Marks, Michael Bevan and Geoff Lawson. Geoff is also the co-author of Phar Lap the definitive biography of the legendary racehorse.

This debatable book The 100 Greatest Cricketers was released in 2007 where he come up with a list of the best players of all time, places them in nine teams, and then nominated his favorite all-time player Doug Walters as the '100th man'.


The 1st XI: WG Grace, Jack Hobbs, Don Bradman, Sachin Tendulkar, Graeme Pollock, Garry Sobers, Adam Gilchrist, Imran Khan, Malcolm Marshall, Shane Warne and Sydney Barnes.


The 2nd XI: Len Hutton, Victor Trumper, Viv Richards, Wally Hammond, Brian Lara, Ian Botham, Alan Knott, Richard Hadlee, Dennis Lillee, Fred Spofforth, and Muttiah Muralitharan.


The 3rd XI: Sunil Gavaskar, Herbert Sutcliffe, George Headley, Greg Chappell, Frank Worrell, Kapil Dev, Wasim Akram, Jack Blackham, George Lohmann, Bill O'Reilly and Glenn McGrath.


The 4rth XI: Archie MacLaren, Clyde Walcott, Everton Weekes, Allan Border, Steve Waugh, Keith Miller, Wilfred Rhodes, Alan Davidson, Jim Laker, Godfrey Evans and Curtly Ambrose.


The 5th XI: Barry Richards, Arthur Shrewsbury, Ricky Ponting, KS Ranjitsinhji, Denis Compton, Frank Woolley, Richie Benaud, Syed Kirmani, Ray Lindwall, Fred Trueman and Alec Bedser.


The 6th XI: Virender Sehwag, Geoff Boycott, Rahul Dravid, Charlie Macartney, Javed Miandad, Mike Procter, Les Ames, Harold Larwood, Joel Garner, Bishan Bedi and Bhagwat Chandrasekhar.


The 7th XI: Bob Simpson, Matthew Hayden, Rohan Kanhai, Neil Harvey, Ken Barrington, Monty Noble, Johnny Briggs, Wasim Bari, Andy Roberts, Michael Holding and Charlie Turner.


The 8th XI: Graham Gooch, Billy Murdoch, Clem Hill, Peter May, Dudley Nourse, Jacques Kallis, Ian Healy, Hugh Trumble, Fazal Mahmood, John Snow and Waqar Younis.


The 9th XI: Stan McCabe, Herbie Taylor, Vijay Hazare, Clive Lloyd, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Andy Flower, Andrew Flintoff, Bill Lockwood, Jeff Thomson, Tom Richardson and Arthur Mailey.
 
The greatest Test opener of all time in third XI lol.
 
After Marshall, Lillee is the greatest fast bowler of all time. No way IK is better than him.

It is debatable, but Lillee is severely underrated on this forum. He was a revolutionary and fast bowling lethal and menacing again. Marshall, Lillee, Imran, McGrath and Hadlee are certainly the top 5 pacers of all time in no particular order.
 
Top 2 all rounders of all the time in same XI.

Yes, but it is an absurd list overall. A joke to see how much the English establishment overrate W. G. Grace, the biggest bully on the pitch ever. He would often refused to get dismissed because the crowd came to see him.
 
It is debatable, but Lillee is severely underrated on this forum. He was a revolutionary and fast bowling lethal and menacing again. Marshall, Lillee, Imran, McGrath and Hadlee are certainly the top 5 pacers of all time in no particular order.

Ambrose?
 
It is debatable, but Lillee is severely underrated on this forum. He was a revolutionary and fast bowling lethal and menacing again. Marshall, Lillee, Imran, McGrath and Hadlee are certainly the top 5 pacers of all time in no particular order.

Lillee was the Hero of Imran. The only thing that goes against both Lillee and Ambrose is they played very few matches in Asia.
 
Yes, but it is an absurd list overall. A joke to see how much the English establishment overrate W. G. Grace, the biggest bully on the pitch ever. He would often refused to get dismissed because the crowd came to see him.

True and i agree with your first post in this thread "A lot of the all-time XIs are heavily biased due to personal favorites and friendships with former teammates."

Imran himself overrate some of his team mates like Qadir.
 
True and i agree with your first post in this thread "A lot of the all-time XIs are heavily biased due to personal favorites and friendships with former teammates."

Imran himself overrate some of his team mates like Qadir.

Vettori named Dravid in his all-time Limited Overs team and made Kohli captain, who hasn't captained more than 10 matches in Limited Overs yet. :))
 
Sorry guys but Lillee was a beast. The greatest fast bowler of all time along with Marshall. IK does not even come close
 
Vettori named Dravid in his all-time Limited Overs team and made Kohli captain, who hasn't captained more than 10 matches in Limited Overs yet. :))

haha that's hilarious! but nothing can beat Miandad picking himself in All Time WorldCup 11 :)))
 
These lists are subjective. Moreover, they are influenced by commercial reasons.
 
Because Sobers is good enough for 5th bowling option and a lot of people do not rate Imran among the top 3 pacers of all time.
 
How did Wasim Akram not make that 1st XI, he usually gets selected by default much like the Don.
 
For an alrounder spot:

If you are NZer, you pick Hadlee over Imran.
If you are an English, you pick Botham.
If you are WIan, you can't go wrong with Sobers.
If you are Indian, you choose Kapil.
If you are SAan, you take Kallis.
If you are an Australian, Waugh or don't feature any alrouder.

+++
Now if you need a captain, you just give it to the best player in the XI.
 
May be Imran wasn't as good as we think !!!!

Your comment is true, but these XIs are also about putting a team together. Wasim is not among the top 3 test bowlers in my book , but most of the time I will pick him in my all time XI due to variety and him not being that much below than other names. It doesn't men that Wasim is top 11 cricketers or IK is not among the top XI cricketers.
 
For an alrounder spot:

If you are NZer, you pick Hadlee over Imran.
If you are an English, you pick Botham.
If you are WIan, you can't go wrong with Sobers.
If you are Indian, you choose Kapil.
If you are SAan, you take Kallis.
If you are an Australian, Waugh or don't feature any alrouder.

+++
Now if you need a captain, you just give it to the best player in the XI.

I don't think you will see all those names, no matter who is picking the team. Sobers is pretty much there in 70-80% of list. Kallis has started making entry in some as well, but not huge percentage.
 
Any world XI would have five batters, a keeper, an allrounder, three fast bowlers and a spinner/or two fast bowlers and two spinners.
Now is IK one of the best five batters of all time : No. (Bradman, Lara, Tendulkar, Viv, Gavaskar, Hobbs etc)
Is he the best keeper: No. (Gilchrist, Knott, Sanga)
Is he the best allrounder of all time : No. Gary Sobers
Is he one of the three greatest fast bowlers of all time : No. (Lillee, Marshall, McGrath, Akram) Akram makes most world XI as he adds variation being a left armer
Best spinner : no. Murali, Warne

So sorry no place for him in world XI. Simple.

It kind of depends on the team composition.

1. You could potentially select the 5 batsmen, 1 WK batsman, and 2 ARs (Imran for pace and Sobers for spin) and 2 more pacers and 1 spinner.

2. You could select 4 batsmen, 1 WK, 2 ARs (again both Sobers and IK) and 2 pacers and 2 spinners.

IK, along with Sobers, Bradman and Tendlya would generally be always on my team sheet on the all time test XI.
 
Because Sobers is good enough for 5th bowling option and a lot of people do not rate Imran among the top 3 pacers of all time.

Imran Khan is the greatest bowling all-rounder of all time.... He isn't much worse than Marshall, Ambrose etc... but he is a much better batsman..... A

When putting a world XI... with access to everyone who ever lived... you'll pick the best bowling all-rounders first....


Gavaskar
Viv Richards
Tendulkar
Kallis
Bradman
Sobers
Kapil Dev
Pollock
Imran Khan
Wasim Akram
Warne

=Will beat any time which has Marshall & co in their bowling line-up and only Sobers as all-rounder..... FACT.
 
For an alrounder spot:

If you are NZer, you pick Hadlee over Imran.
If you are an English, you pick Botham.
If you are WIan, you can't go wrong with Sobers.
If you are Indian, you choose Kapil.
If you are SAan, you take Kallis.
If you are an Australian, Waugh or don't feature any alrouder.

+++
Now if you need a captain, you just give it to the best player in the XI.


No... If you have a batting all-rounder in your team, you pick Sobers... Then Kallis... If you have a bowling all-rounder, you pick Imran Khan.... Simple. These are the three tier 1 all-rounders.... Nobody who is honest can pick Kapil, Botham, Waugh, Hadlee or anyone else without Imran Khan.... It's like having a world XI without Tendulkar, Bradman AND Richards....

There is no argument to this.... You can't argue Kapil, Botham, Waugh, Hadlee are first XI material.... They are tier 2....
 
Last edited:
Imran Khan is the greatest bowling all-rounder of all time.... He isn't much worse than Marshall, Ambrose etc... but he is a much better batsman..... A

When putting a world XI... with access to everyone who ever lived... you'll pick the best bowling all-rounders first....


Gavaskar
Viv Richards
Tendulkar
Kallis
Bradman
Sobers
Kapil Dev
Pollock
Imran Khan
Wasim Akram
Warne

=Will beat any time which has Marshall & co in their bowling line-up and only Sobers as all-rounder..... FACT.

Sangakkara, not Kapil.
 
Imran Khan is the greatest bowling all-rounder of all time.... He isn't much worse than Marshall, Ambrose etc... but he is a much better batsman..... A

When putting a world XI... with access to everyone who ever lived... you'll pick the best bowling all-rounders first....


Gavaskar
Viv Richards
Tendulkar
Kallis
Bradman
Sobers
Kapil Dev
Pollock
Imran Khan
Wasim Akram
Warne

=Will beat any time which has Marshall & co in their bowling line-up and only Sobers as all-rounder..... FACT.

If you pick 3 ATG fast bowlers and 1 GOAT spinner, the 5th bowler does not have to be Imran's level of bowler. A lot of people will pick a batting all rounder like Sobers.
 
A ton of ancients on there as is the case with a lot of these lists :))

Apart from the Don and Sobers I find it tough to rate any of those pre 70s players. It was a totally different ball game back then.
 
When I say rate I mean rating them ahead of modern-day ATGs.
 
what are you talking about?

Imran Khan is in plenty of people's all time 11
 
Imran is an ATG player but he doesn't fit any of the roles necessary. There's better right arm quicks, better allrounder and better batsmen than Imran. However not being in a World XI doesn't take away anything, Imran is a champion and better than 95% of all cricketers ever
 
If you pick 3 ATG fast bowlers and 1 GOAT spinner, the 5th bowler does not have to be Imran's level of bowler. A lot of people will pick a batting all rounder like Sobers.

I already have Sobers in my team.... You don't gain anything by replace Imran by Marshall or McGrath in my team.... Warne/Wasim/Imran/Pollock/Sobers/Kallis is a great bowling line-up and most of them can bat.... Against a weak team, they'd bat once and win.... Against a bowling attack of Marshall/McGrath/Murali/Ambrose/Steyn, they bat deep....

Leave alone Imran, I'd rather have Pollock than Marshall in my team....
 
It is debatable, but Lillee is severely underrated on this forum. He was a revolutionary and fast bowling lethal and menacing again. Marshall, Lillee, Imran, McGrath and Hadlee are certainly the top 5 pacers of all time in no particular order.

Akram was better than McGrath and Hadlee.
Marshall, Lillee, Barnes, Akram, Imran for me
 
Akram was better than McGrath and Hadlee.
Marshall, Lillee, Barnes, Akram, Imran for me

Akram eas a better ODI bowler but he underachieved in Tests that's a.fact. Imran was the best Test pacer to come out of Asia.
 
Because all rounders aren't of great importance to great teams which are studded with specialist geniuses. Although Imran as a bowler alone is a great one but people tend to pick Marshal, Lillee and even Wasim over him for some reasons. As a batsman he's not even among top 100.

Same would be the case with Kallis, great batsman but will never displace top 6 on an ATG list.
 
Imran doesn't have the stats of a great fast bowler, or a great allrounder... he is somewhere in between in both tiers.

He is a raylukata compared to the rest...
 
Another thing that might go against Imran is that he was an ATG bowler and a really good batsman at different times. He didn't have too many series where he scored 60+ runs a test and took 4+ wickets a test. IIRC there were only a couple of series in England where he was the brilliant in both disciplines at the same time.

Possibly Sobers was excellent at both times? I know people rave about Botham being a great bat and a bowler in the same series multiple times.
 
Most people prefer Jacques Kallis over him as a complete all rounder. I've been following the Lord cricket ground fb page and it features test XIs by a host of cricketers. I don't remember any one having IK in his list. Even Mushy avoided his name.
 
Last edited:
If I was making a World Test XI, I'm pretty sure Imran Khan would be the first name on my list only after Don Bradman. Gary Sobers would be the 3rd name on that list. Imran Khan & Gary Sobers together give you the most value any two cricketers can ever give. Third best is Jacques Kallis, but we all know that Kallis almost never won games on his bowling alone, unlike Sobers with the ball & Imran with the bat.

To go with that, Sobers was a Tier-1 fielder, and Imran was a Tier-1 captain.
 
Imran doesn't have the stats of a great fast bowler, or a great allrounder... he is somewhere in between in both tiers.

He is a raylukata compared to the rest...

yes he doesnt have stats of a great fast bowler.... [MENTION=131701]Mamoon[/MENTION], thoughts?
 
yes he doesnt have stats of a great fast bowler.... [MENTION=131701]Mamoon[/MENTION], thoughts?

Honestly don't know what to say. :))

Imran doesn't have stats of a great bowler, playing in the Caribbean today is the same as playing in the Caribbean in the 80's, Senanayake helped Sri Lanka beat England in 2014 etc.
 
Akram was better than McGrath and Hadlee.
Marshall, Lillee, Barnes, Akram, Imran for me

Skill-wise, Wasim is unrivaled. At his best, he will make any bowler look ordinary. However, the others were more reliable and consistent performers in Test cricket. He didn't have the control on line and length like Marshall, McGrath, Imran, Ambrose etc., but that is probably because he had so many variations.
 
May be Imran wasn't as good as we think !!!! What a shame !!!!

In his last 10 years of international cricket he played 51 Tests, averaging a sensational 50 with the bat and 19 with the ball. He gave no quarter during some memorable battles with West Indies - Pakistan drew three series with them at a time when everybody else was being bounced out of sight - Source: cricinfo..
 
The big reason Imran doesn't feature in most All time XI is because of certain Gary Sobers who gets AR slot. At batting average of 57.78 (8000+runs), Sobers makes its as batsman alone. With 2 wickets per test makes him a decent backup option when needed. Ability bowl both spin and pace are added bonus.
Most All time XI seems to have following players as default.
Bradman , Tendulkar , Sobers , Marshall , Warne.
 
Skill-wise, Wasim is unrivaled. At his best, he will make any bowler look ordinary. However, the others were more reliable and consistent performers in Test cricket. He didn't have the control on line and length like Marshall, McGrath, Imran, Ambrose etc., but that is probably because he had so many variations.

Akram was a complete bowler. New ball, old ball, bouncy wickets, green tops or dead tracks he was handy on all tracks. Only Marshall comes close in that regard. Ambrose, McGrath with old ball, dead tracks not good enough
 
Akram was a complete bowler. New ball, old ball, bouncy wickets, green tops or dead tracks he was handy on all tracks. Only Marshall comes close in that regard. Ambrose, McGrath with old ball, dead tracks not good enough

Nah, Ambrose was deadly no matter what the pitch was like.
 
Last edited:
Because people are insecure? Imran is the greatest cricketer after Bradman. The greatest captain of all time. It's just absurd to not see him in all time XIs. He, Gilchrist, Wasim, and Warne should be the first names and walk into any all time XI.
 
Geoff Armstrong has worked as a writer, editor and publisher on more than 70 books on sport—over 30 of them on cricket alone. Between 1993 and 2005, he collaborated with Steve Waugh on each of Steve’s 12 best-selling books, including Steve’s autobiography Out of My Comfort Zone.

Geoff is the author of A Century of Summers, the centenary history of the Sheffield Shield and ESPN’s Legends of Cricket which profiles 25 of the game’s greatest players. He has worked on books with Mike Whitney, David Boon, Merv Hughes, Justin Langer, Ian Healy, Michael Slater, Bob Simpson, Neil Marks, Michael Bevan and Geoff Lawson. Geoff is also the co-author of Phar Lap the definitive biography of the legendary racehorse.

This debatable book The 100 Greatest Cricketers was released in 2007 where he come up with a list of the best players of all time, places them in nine teams, and then nominated his favorite all-time player Doug Walters as the '100th man'.


The 1st XI: WG Grace, Jack Hobbs, Don Bradman, Sachin Tendulkar, Graeme Pollock, Garry Sobers, Adam Gilchrist, Imran Khan, Malcolm Marshall, Shane Warne and Sydney Barnes.


The 2nd XI: Len Hutton, Victor Trumper, Viv Richards, Wally Hammond, Brian Lara, Ian Botham, Alan Knott, Richard Hadlee, Dennis Lillee, Fred Spofforth, and Muttiah Muralitharan.


The 3rd XI: Sunil Gavaskar, Herbert Sutcliffe, George Headley, Greg Chappell, Frank Worrell, Kapil Dev, Wasim Akram, Jack Blackham, George Lohmann, Bill O'Reilly and Glenn McGrath.


The 4rth XI: Archie MacLaren, Clyde Walcott, Everton Weekes, Allan Border, Steve Waugh, Keith Miller, Wilfred Rhodes, Alan Davidson, Jim Laker, Godfrey Evans and Curtly Ambrose.


The 5th XI: Barry Richards, Arthur Shrewsbury, Ricky Ponting, KS Ranjitsinhji, Denis Compton, Frank Woolley, Richie Benaud, Syed Kirmani, Ray Lindwall, Fred Trueman and Alec Bedser.


The 6th XI: Virender Sehwag, Geoff Boycott, Rahul Dravid, Charlie Macartney, Javed Miandad, Mike Procter, Les Ames, Harold Larwood, Joel Garner, Bishan Bedi and Bhagwat Chandrasekhar.


The 7th XI: Bob Simpson, Matthew Hayden, Rohan Kanhai, Neil Harvey, Ken Barrington, Monty Noble, Johnny Briggs, Wasim Bari, Andy Roberts, Michael Holding and Charlie Turner.


The 8th XI: Graham Gooch, Billy Murdoch, Clem Hill, Peter May, Dudley Nourse, Jacques Kallis, Ian Healy, Hugh Trumble, Fazal Mahmood, John Snow and Waqar Younis.


The 9th XI: Stan McCabe, Herbie Taylor, Vijay Hazare, Clive Lloyd, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Andy Flower, Andrew Flintoff, Bill Lockwood, Jeff Thomson, Tom Richardson and Arthur Mailey.

I like this way of doing things. I do not agree entirely but there are so many great players, would be great to divide them into different tier of teams. Although Graeme Pollock in the top tier? No.
 
Because people are insecure? Imran is the greatest cricketer after Bradman. The greatest captain of all time. It's just absurd to not see him in all time XIs. He, Gilchrist, Wasim, and Warne should be the first names and walk into any all time XI.

Nah, Bradman, Sobers and Sachin are ahead.
 
Ambrose. Reverse swing ????

I'm trying to remember if I can remember Ambrose utilising reverse swing and nothing comes to mind, the obvious counterpoint would be that he never needed it because he was so damn good anyway.

I definitely remember McGrath bowling reverse swing, I'm 100% certain of that.
 
Who is the third greatest test cricketer ever?
 
Nah, Ambrose was deadly no matter what the pitch was like.

Myth. Ambrose was not that good in Asia. He had one good tour of Pakistan and that's it. He simply bowled a tight line/length in Lanka without taking many wickets. He certainly was more pitch dependent than the McGrath's and Steyn's who were consistently brilliant in Asia.
 
I think it's because most teams prefer to play only 4 frontline bowlers and with one being Murali/Warne, it leaves only 3 spots for quicks - Marshall and McGrath take two spots and the 3rd spot usually goes to Wasim because he's a left armer. Even if we neglect Wasim, it would still be between Ambrose and Steyn who were slightly better than Imran was.
 
Who is the third greatest test cricketer ever?

Kallis, sachin, McGrath, warne, Imran, Richards, Marshall all of them worthy candidates I reckon. Answer will depend on your taste, nationality and of course bias!
 
I think it's because most teams prefer to play only 4 frontline bowlers and with one being Murali/Warne, it leaves only 3 spots for quicks - Marshall and McGrath take two spots and the 3rd spot usually goes to Wasim because he's a left armer. Even if we neglect Wasim, it would still be between Ambrose and Steyn who were slightly better than Imran was.

You are underrating Imran. He averaged 18 for an entire decade! If you exclude his stats when he was a medium fast trundler, Imran's numbers become even better. A career bowling average of 22 while playing for one of the worst fielding sides and on bowlers graveyards is a tremendous record.

I will only take Marshall, Lillee, Hadlee, McGrath, and Wasim (due to variety) over Imran.
 
I like this way of doing things. I do not agree entirely but there are so many great players, would be great to divide them into different tier of teams. Although Graeme Pollock in the top tier? No.

Greatest South African Batsman Ever....
 
Indians as usual doing their life long goal of bashing Imran, any XYZ Pakistani player...somehow trying to demean them so their players will look better (not sure if that really works but hey it has not stopped them from trying)!

Experts that understand the game know well that Imran only lose out due to being dropped for a like for like selection of Sobers but who is there to decide that only a true and true fast bowler should be picked for the remaining slots.

I would rather have two all rounders in the team and make my all time team even greater for that off day when the top order will fail miserably, no matter how many greats batters are in the playing XI.

My team:
Sunil Gavaskar
Gordon Greenidge
Viv Richards
Don Bradman
Greg Chappell
Garry Sobers
Adam Gilchrist
Imran Khan (C)
Malcolm Marshall
Shane Warne
Michael Holding
 
It's after all the fault of Indians that the great Imran Khan never featured in Bradman's World IX, or Cricinfo's World XI or WISDEN's World XI. It's all a conspiracy cooked up by the evil BCCI, backed up by the racist ICC that they refuse to give the greatest ever his due.
 
Back
Top