Headlines the other day read “Is this England’s greatest ever cricket team?” That had me thinking, as England have had some great teams over the years.
2004/05 immediately springs to mind, and before that the period of 1985-87, or 1970/71, and before that, the twin teams of 1953 and 1956, and again 1928/29 and 1932/33. Or back further to 1911/12.
Picking a recent best composite XI from 2010/11, I came up with the following:
Andrew Strauss (c), Nigel Cook, Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell, Paul Collingwood, Matt Prior (wk), Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann, James Anderson.
Having watched Test cricket first-hand since 1967/68, this is the best other XI I came up with from that time:
Graham Gooch (c), Geoff Boycott, John Edrich, David Gower, Ken Barrington, Ian Botham, Alan Knott (wk), Fred Titmus, John Snow, Derek Underwood, Bob Willis.
I should point out I only just caught the tail-end of Barrington’s and Titmus’ careers in 1967/68, although Titmus toured Australia in 1974/75 playing three more Tests.
Anyway, if I combined the best players from both these groups, it would give me the best possible England XI of the past 40-odd years. But this is where it gets tricky.
I have this suspicion that today’s batting averages (all countries) are horribly inflated, anywhere from about three to five in many cases. Against current India, for example, England’s batsmen have thrived against an attack with the intensity of a wet paper bag. It’s very ordinary, in capital letters.
It was much the same against a diabolical Australian bowling attack. Cook is good, but I suspect not that good! And on it goes.
Strauss’ average may be below Cook’s, and even Gooch’s. But he is a tough cricketer, and I would have him open with Boycott as well as captain the team.
Trott is still in the formative stages of his career, but you can’t argue against a current batting average of 57.79. Throw in Pietersen, Barrington and Botham as the all-rounder, and that’s your top 6.
Prior is a better batsman than Knott, but Knott was an infinitely better all-round keeper, so Knott gets the gig.
With Botham there as first-change paceman, this allows me to pick two other specialist fast men and two spinners. The choices are dead easy – Snow and Willis to open the bowling, and Underwood and Swann as the spinners.
So in batting order, this is the best England XI of 1967-present:
Andrew Strauss (c), Geoff Boycott, Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen, Ken Barrington, Ian Botham, Alan Knott (wk), Graeme Swann, John Snow, Derek Underwood, Bob Willis.
And how would the second-best England XI of 1967-present look?
Graham Gooch (c), Nigel Cook, John Edrich, David Gower, Ian Bell, Tony Greig, Matt Prior (wk), Fred Titmus, Darren Gough, Andy Caddick, James Anderson.
So, of the recent England XI of 2010/11, four four players are among the best English of the past 40-odd years, while another four are in the second best XI.
That’s pretty impressive. But how it compares to other England XIs of bygone eras will require further research. What do other Roarers think?
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