Skippos AB de Villiers - this is an interesting one. He's easily worth a Top 5 pick, but when Philander was still available? A big mistake. This pick says a lot about your side IMO. -2 Mahela Jayawardene - very lucky pick. At the time of selection he had been in a long slump, but he woke up with a gun series against Pakistan, which given how good he had been in the past probably would make him a good pick now. 0 Abdur Rehman - similar to the Ojha pick I suppose in that neither players are first-choice spinners for their nation but do well when picked. Good pick for mine. +1 Chris Morris - if nothing else, his record is very interesting - a specialist bowler at first division cricket but an all-rounder at second division cricket. As far as his record goes, it's a good pick on paper but there's not much depth towards his record and he isn't that young. 0 Jim Allenby - great pick. Averaging over 40 with the bat and in the mid to high 20's with the ball in a strong competition is a sign of a very good player. +2 Will Gidman - how he isn't in the frame for further selection (like A-team, ODI callups) I don't know. Not only does Skippos get a really good FC bowler, Gidman can also bat #7 easily. Very good selection here. +2 Ahmed Shehzad - not sure here. Possibly early, but the pick is far from a shocker, and he has a lot of potential for improvement. 0 Ehsan Adil - probably early on paper, but is still pretty young and the fact that he actually has played Tests makes him a good selection in practice. 0 Asad Shafiq - great pick. He's been pretty solid at Tests, which is far more than what you could say for 90% of picks at this stage, despite an ordinary domestic record lately. +3 Nasir Hossain - another cracking pick, one of the best in the draft. Strong Test record, and adds a solid bowling option. +4 Lokesh Rahul - he's coming off a class season at the domestic level, he's still young and can apparently keep. Good pick although picks in Asian domestic are naturally iffy. 0 Robin Peterson - not a Peterson fan, but the fact that he had recent international exposure and wasn't terrible doing so makes him a fairly solid pick for R12. 0 Thilina Kandamby - pretty damn good pick - his recent form has been absolutely insane, and his career stats compare very favourably to most Sri Lankan batsman of his vintage. +1 Saliya Saman - poor pick, and a classic case of people not understanding Sri Lankan cricket IMO. His average isn't that good by the standards of his countrymen, his wickets and overs per match are pretty low and while he adds something with the bat he never should have been picked at all. -3 Sam Whiteman - one for the future. Likely to be in the frame for national selection post-Haddin and is coming off a good season domestically. Still a little raw but a solid selection. 0 Tendai Chatara - Zimbabwean picks are inherently risky as their future is murky for various reasons, but this guy has a good start to his Test career and has (yeah yeah I know) good stats in Zimbabwean domestics. Time will tell the true value of this pick but I think it's a good one for now. +1 Shamsur Rahman - interesting one. I can't imagine his domestic comp being worth much, and his Test career has only just started. Still he does have some potential to be a Test-standard player, which most late picks would not. 0 Jehan Mubarak - a major whipping boy for Sri Lanka due to his dire international performances, but he is coming off an absolutely insane season. I think this was a pretty good selection given how many players who fall under the "I've never heard of them but they've had good stats in the last 3 years!" category went before him, and Mubarak at least has some international exposure. +1 Overall: Overlooking Philander really hurts this bowling IMO. While the bowling on paper has some good players, the lack of a strike quick will hurt. That batting should be pretty good though - the presence of Allenby and Gidman should make the batting fairly deep, and the Shafiq/Hossain combo means that the starting XI shouldn't have many liabilities. Probably one of the logjam of mid-table sides, could challenge for high honours in the right conditions. Overall Rating: +10
He isn't, I was comparing him with heaps of others that went before him (mostly Indian), and said Skippos did well to pick him up in R18 given a lot of the carnage around R11-16.
Think I'll just set a massively seam friendly pitch with no spin assistance and run with 1. Shehzad 2. Rahul/Shamsur 3. Jayawardene 4. De-Villiers 5. Shafiq 6. Hossain 7. Mubarak 8. Allenby 9. Gidman 10. Morris 11. Adil at home. Batting will be so deep they might survive pretty well and Allenby's good enough as a 4th bowler anyway.
Skippos with one of the most frustrating teams by far. Will just be jammy as and win because of dat batting depth despite getting tonked in the first innings.
Yeah and while he's a gun I reckon excluding him might actually benefit the strengths of my team at home.
Might have a better #10/11 but would you have 7 genuine batsmen, 6 of whom would make nearly every team's 11, a bloke at 8 who could bat middle order for most sides and a bloke at 9 who wouldn't be out of place at 7? yet again woakes/jadeja essentially act, like allenby, as bowlers and batsmen so perhaps you ccould
Agreed. There would be no pitch conditions that would make me intentionally leave him out of the XI if I were in charge of your selection.
