Best England Cricket XI - 1978 to 2020

[Tredman]

Anderson
Harmison
Gough
Jones
Broad

 

[Tredman]

Anderson
Gough
Flintoff
Broad
Hoggard

Hamrison and Jones missing out as both couldn't do it consistently through mental or physical breakdown. Both more talented than Broad, Hoggard and Flintoff. I was never a fan of Fraser or Caddick even though they would tie up an end, they never had enough to get them to being an out and out threat like McGrath.

Piffle to your mental and physical breakdown. They were both excellent bowlers in having them in.

 

[Johnny75]

Piffle to your mental and physical breakdown. They were both excellent bowlers in having them in.

Simon Jones is up there with the best bowlers of all time for talent, genuine pace and could swing the ball in and out at will. Sadly too often broken.

 

[Tredman]

Simon Jones is up there with the best bowlers of all time for talent, genuine pace and could swing the ball in and out at will. Sadly too often broken.

Yes. I wanted to have him at 2, but he sadly wasn’t around enough.

 

[Trips]

Anderson
Broad
Gough
Hoggard
Harmison

Would loved to have had Simon Jones in here but didnt play near enough, such a shame

 

[Nando]

Anderson

Broad

Jones

Flintoff

Hoggard

 

[Sniffer]

Anderson
Gough
Flintoff
Broad
Hoggard

Hamrison and Jones missing out as both couldn't do it consistently through mental or physical breakdown. Both more talented than Broad, Hoggard and Flintoff. I was never a fan of Fraser or Caddick even though they would tie up an end, they never had enough to get them to being an out and out threat like McGrath.

I'm with you there Johnny. Not sure how he didn't get in the all rounders slot with a test batting average of 40 and bowling average of 14. As he only played 4 tests I'm not sure if I can include him either.:icon_cry:

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Anderson
Broad
Botham
Willis
Jones the bowl - brilliant when he wasn't completely fucked up.

3 of those alongside Stokes who is already in is a pretty tasty pace attack.

 

[Parkins left foot]

Anderson
Willis
Botham
Broad
Jones (even though he was mostly broken he was superb when he wasn't)


Almost put Devon Malcolm in for fun factor as you never knew what you were going to get- 1st ball was 3 yards outside leg stump, 2nd up at your throat, 3rd was far slower & the 4th took your off stump at 100 mph

 

[Deleted Cyber]

Botham
Willis
Anderson
Broad
Hoggard

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Harmison frustrated me far too often post-2005 and I always had a lot more time for Hoggard. Still absolutely disgraceful how Vaughan treated him in New Zealand and picking Darren Pattinson ahead of him at Headingley was one of the all time selection blunders.

Would have liked to had Jones in, but I can't pick someone who didn't even manage 20 Tests.

Mismanagement means that Steven Finn's career never developed as it should have, he's 31 now and unlikely to play for England again. When really he should be sitting on 300+ Test wickets.

 

[Sniffer]

Harmison frustrated me far too often post-2005 and I always had a lot more time for Hoggard. Still absolutely disgraceful how Vaughan treated him in New Zealand and picking Darren Pattinson ahead of him at Headingley was one of the all time selection blunders.

Would have liked to had Jones in, but I can't pick someone who didn't even manage 20 Tests.

Mismanagement means that Steven Finn's career never developed as it should have, he's 31 now and unlikely to play for England again. When really he should be sitting on 300+ Test wickets.

Hoggard was excellent for England and not a one trick pony like Philander who took the new ball and wasn't interested for the rest of the innings. As a swing bowler you would think that home conditions would suit him best but his record on the sub continent (Combined India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh) , South Africa and the West Indies was better than in England. It was only in Australia that his record wasn't good but the same can be said for most English bowlers for the last 30 odd years.

 

[Sniffer]

You can see why the England bowling team tried to make changes to Steven Finn's run up etc but bowling is such a unnatural thing to do a small change can do more harm than good. At his best he'd run into the wickets, fall over, get clobbered but produce a few beauties to take wickets.

I liked Harmison but he was a confidence bowler and if it didn't start well for him then then his head would drop. Looking at his figures again you are right that he was distinctly average after 2005 and his overall stats would look far worse if it wasn't for two good series against Bangladesh and his career high point in the Windies.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Jones the bowl was superlative. How his career would have been different if he just left that outfield ball alone in Oz (think it was at the Gabba).

 

[Tony Towner]

You can see why the England bowling team tried to make changes to Steven Finn's run up etc but bowling is such a unnatural thing to do a small change can do more harm than good. At his best he'd run into the wickets, fall over, get clobbered but produce a few beauties to take wickets.

They did the same with Jimmy based on him not looking at the stumps at the point of delivery. That's the down couple of years on his career.

I always thought Finn was just too nice, no mongrel in him

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

The thing is Trent Boult is a really nice bloke and he's brilliant.

You look at the natural gifts Finn had and we definitely squandered them.

 

[darlowolf64]

Hmmm, how many Middlesex bowlers can I squeeze in here out of Gus Fraser, Phil Edmonds, John Embury, Steven Finn and Toby Rowland-Jones... My six are

Anderson
Broad
Botham
Flintoff
Willis


Boo, only five picks

 

[Sniffer]

Hmmm, how many Middlesex bowlers can I squeeze in here out of Gus Fraser, Phil Edmonds, John Embury, Steven Finn and Toby Rowland-Jones... My six are

Anderson
Broad
Botham
Flintoff
Willis
Fraser
Gough

Seven names there Darlo so I'll take off the top two and have your picks as Botham, Flintoff, Willis, Fraser, Gough?

 

[darlowolf64]

Seven names there Darlo so I'll take off the top two and have your picks as Botham, Flintoff, Willis, Fraser, Gough?

I had nine and was eliminating them as I went but forgot to remove the last two

 

[Sniffer]

We look like we are going to be omitting the English bowler who has the best overall stats for the period - Bob Willis