One thing in Mehidy's favour is that good offies are really rare now. I'd suggested to a few people they pick an offie Round 12 to complement their leggie/SLA main spinner if they had to play on a bunsen, and now realise that's going to be pretty hard to pull off. Jadeja/Mehidy is a good pairing that would've been very hard to replicate now if he'd left his offie pick until later, even if Bilal might've been a better call.
Morgie we should just make both of our grounds rank turners then pick 11 batsmen away and play off in the final on a bunsen, thoughts?
Yeah given my balance if Mehidy flops it shouldn't hurt much (given Jadeja + having Stevens as a bowling all-rounder) and if he succeds it could be deadly. Worth noting that Bilal was taken before me....(though I'll freely admit that w/o hindsight I would've gone Mehidy first) Really though the pick I'm kicking myself on is Tim Paine. He'll likely still be good, but there's at least two and quite possibly three keepers picked after him I'd have over him.
morgie your drafting is fine, stop listening to athlai, a man who rates mitchell santner as test standard. younis khan was a good snipe. had him on the list but preffered to stick with my bois.
I picked him off recent performances. He is a talented batting all-rounder that struggled initially, but last 2 seasons came really good batting at 4 for the Cobras. Chance of seeing him in the LO team next 12 months.
Would usually wait until everyone's picked but given Dhokchau's had a while to do so I'll go now: Round 11 1. Boobidy - Matt Renshaw (722303) Tough to gague; 12 months ago he'd likely go in the first four rounds but his last 18 months have been truly awful. Like very lucky to not be dropped from the Queensland team awful. He might prove OK if he wakes up as I think his lack of form is the blip rather than his 16-18 form but yeah it's a bit of a risk. 2. StephenZA - Mohammad Nabi (25913) Questionable going for him a pick after Smith given he's probably not quite good enough to be in a sides best 4 bowlers or best 5/6 batsmen, but on paper I quite like it for Rd 11. Think he's a better spinner than some of those selected as the main spinner (and would be an ideal second spinner) and would probably hold #7 quite easily. 3. spark!ptz - Imad Wasim (227758) Another one that's hard to gague. He hasn't played much FC cricket recently, his ODI bowling isn't too great but he does have a gun ODI batting record. Only problem is that the sort of role he plays in ODI's isn't really one that is going to fit FC cricket well. Still something > nothing and his overall FC batting record remains solid. Decent pick. 4. jimmy_c8 - Marcus Stoinis (325012) Has been pretty ordinary with the bat at FC level for a long time and his ODI runs were ages ago now too. Bowling has been better but I think he'll definitely be a bit of a no-rounder at this level. He still deserved to be picked but probably not as a first XI player. 5. Skippos - Daniel Worrall (557298) Very nice pick. Very comparable bowler in ability to Boland and Mennie who went a couple of rounds earlier and has more virtues than those two. 6. Dhokchau - 7. Chewie - Jason Roy (298438) Good pick. His domestic record is actually pretty decent when he was last regularly playing county cricket + his ODI record is of course class. Should do well though maybe shouldn't be opening. 8. Hunter - Sunil Ambris (348054) I find him tricky to rate - average FC record but in a very tricky comp for batting, poor Test record, awesome ODI record but with a small sample size and a lot of it coming against weaker attacks. It's the sort of pick that could have a lot of variance in performance. Might come off nicely but probably a bit riskier than I'd hope. 9. morgieb - Kyle Jarvis (332996) I admit there's quite a bit of risk attached as Zimbabwe don't play much proper cricket anymore, but he's one of the few options left that isn't a generic domestic medium-pacer and his record wherever he's bowled in recent years is good (even his ODI form where he's traditionally struggled before he went to county cricket). Definitely made sense IMO. 10. Howe and Dan - Ankit Bawne (327123) The key thing here is that his A-team record is really good, his overall FC record recently otherwise isn't that special. I still think he could've easily gone a couple of rounds back, so a very nice pick. 11. Number 11 - Daniel Hughes Long been rock solid in a pretty tough domestic competition. A good option at this point. 12. HeathDavisSpeed - Daryl Mitchell (381743) A lot probably depends on how his season holds, before this season I would think this was a pretty average pick but his 70-odd in the Test should help. Not many outstanding options left over though so should be good. 13. GoodAreasShane - Sami Aslam Hard to say, I do like him as batsman but his actual record is fairly meh. Is coming off a very good season though I guess and didn't do too badly at Test level. I think it's a fair pick. 14. Alex - Tom Curran Having done well in the ODI's he played makes this pick a lot more justifiable. Without it I think it'd be a bit of a weak pick as he hasn't played all that much FC cricket recently (and wasn't great when doing so) but overall you can see why it happened. 15. Baxter - Ben Foakes Coming off a poor county season makes it tricky to gauge, but his record before that was largely very good, and he is arguably the best keeper worldwide. Very good pick this late. 16. Magrat Garlick - Imran Farhat Has declined quite a lot in recent times. Also you already had a few openers in the squad. Don't think all that much of the selection, though I wouldn't say it's horrible. 17. Gazza - Shadman Islam His FC record is really nothing special when comparing it to other Bangladeshis (though it has improved in recent times), and his Test record isn't much to write home about either. Not all that great of a pick I think. 18. MrPrez - Mohammad Shahzad Hard to assess fairly because Afghanistan play a lot of associates and their FC competition can't be of too high quality, but I think should be a decent option right now. Especially given he can keep. 19. Benny - Yuzvendra Chahal Actually pretty decent now I think about it. His FC record doesn't look great on paper but it has improved in recent times, and obviously he maintains a quality white ball record. I'm not convinced he's really any good of a red ball bowler but the way the system works should make him effective. 20. Captain - Mosaddek Hossain Interesting one in that his recent FC form has actually been kinda bad even though his overall record remains great. Still, should probably be a good option in this. 21. Athlai - Aaron Finch A lot probably depends on how ODI's scale him up, but his recent Shield performances have actually been pretty decent. And even his Test record isn't the disaster that people think it is. So should be good. 22. Julian - Gautam Gambhir Picking a BJP politican? For shame. But more seriously, a pretty fair pick at this point, even if the Test runs he scored is ancient history. 23. Phlegm - Hamish Rutherford Pretty decent pick. Has improved a lot at FC cricket recently. 24. Cabinet96 - Gurkeerat Singh Mann (537124) Yeah, don't really think a lot of this pick. FC record nothing special given the quality of Indian domestics, and while he can bowl I guess I'm not sure whether another 6th bowling option was needed. Best pick: Again no real steals/sliders. A lot will depend on how ODI/associate cricket is scaled, but I think I like Nabi the most at this point. Bawne probably the safest. Worst pick: Three picks I don't like too much, though I don't think any of them are truly terrible. Gonna say Gurkeerat.
Just ftr Farhat has basically migrated to the middle order more recently. This season just gone he batted 4, captained the team and averaged 55.
It's worth mentioning that they overhauled that comp a lot this season too. It was only a six team, ten round comp so the overall quality should've been similar to the Plunket or Sheffield Shields if you assume similar standard Test sides. It was a batting paradise so 55 wasn't as gun as an average as it may seem given that, but it did suddenly turn itself into a competition worth paying a fair bit of attention to.
Yeah ordinarily a 55 average would've worth paying attention to for that reason, but the fact that it was full of roads hurts a little bit. Not completely convinced it helps the pick that much. I'm still not saying it's an awful pick though! Didn't realise he had moved to 4 though.
I'm sure everyone has tickets on their own team, but I reckon a few ppl are sitting on me a little. Oshada was my worst pick, but was only picked a round ahead of some other Sri Lankan nuffies except he led the runs in their FC stuff last year and has a good start to his test career. I reckon I've Chewied the draft that aside - Marnus (1) apparently a bad pick but now good??, Roach (2) best opening bowler available, Rashid (3) top 5 spinner, Shafiq (4) reliable test middle order bat, Dhananjaya (5) see Shafiq but can open and bowl, Higgins (7) dubious, but averaging 35/21 over a career and 59/22 last season means at worst, good role player, Saha (8) best keeper left, Dowrich (9) best keeper (and near best bat) left, Bilal (10) best spinner left, Worrall (11) hard to go past a bloke averaging 25 odd in shield cricket with the pill. My picks haven't been 'sexy' per se, but I reckon Oshada excepted have been relatively astute. I'm hoping I can surprise big time.
