0Best England XI of the last 20 years

Reg­u­lar read­ers of my wit­ter­ings will know that Test Crick­et holds sway for me. It’s what makes crick­et great.

So the Cham­pi­ons Trophy cur­rently being played in Eng­land has got me thinking…what is the best XI for Eng­land in recent times?

The first ques­tion, ਜ਼ਰੂਰ, ਤੁਹਾਨੂੰ ਪਰਿਭਾਸ਼ਤ ਕਰਦੇ ਹੈ 'ਹਾਲ ਹੀ'? Well for the pur­poses of this art­icle I have decided on the debut test of middle order left handed bats­man Gra­ham Thorpe.

ਥੋਰਪੇ ਦੀ ਖਿੱਚਿਆ ਤੀਜੇ ਏਸ਼ੇਜ਼ ਟੈਸਟ ਵਿਚ ਉਸ ਦੀ ਸ਼ੁਰੂਆਤ ਕੀਤੀ 1993 ਵਿਚਕਾਰ ਹੋਈ 1 ਅਤੇ 6 July. ਥੋਰਪੇ ਦੀ ਸ਼ੁਰੂਆਤ 'ਤੇ ਇੱਕ ਟਨ ਕੀਤੀ. ਚੰਗਾ ਬੱਚਾ ਹੈ.

ਇਸ ਲਈ, ਹੈ, ਜੋ ਕਿ ਟੈਸਟ ਦੇ ਲਈ ਉਸ ਦੀ ਟੀਮ ਸਾਥੀ ਨੂੰ ਲੈਣ ਲਈ:

The Eng­land open­ers for that test were Mark Lath­well and Mike Ather­ton. Lath­well only ended up play­ing two tests so can be eas­ily put to one side. I will revis­it ‘Ath­ers’ later.

ਮੱਧ ਕ੍ਰਮ ਰੋਬਿਨ ਸਮਿੱਥ ਦੀ ਬਣਾਇਆ ਗਿਆ ਸੀ, wick­et-keep­er bats­man Alec Stew­ar as well as Gra­ham Gooch, Thorpe and lastly Nas­s­er Hussain.

Robin Smith and Gra­ham Gooch were bril­liant play­ers but were com­ing to the end of their careers in this test so I’ve left them out. ਥੋਰਪੇ, Nas­s­er and Stew­art make the short­l­ist. All three were excel­lent ser­vants for their coun­try, scor­ing in excess of 25,000 ਟੈਸਟ ਨੂੰ ਵਿਚਕਾਰ ਚੱਲਦਾ ਹੈ. ਮਹਾਨ ਜਤਨ.

Fast medi­um pace bowl­er Andy Cad­dick who took 234 wick­ets for Eng­land led the attack. ਉਸ ਨੇ ਮੰਨਿਆ ਜਾਣਾ ਚਾਹੀਦਾ ਹੈ.

But the oth­er three bowl­ing spots were occu­pied by Mark Ilott, Peter Such and Mar­tin McCague and they only played 19 ਨੂੰ ਵਿਚਕਾਰ ਟੈਸਟ.

So out of Thorpe’s debut test we have a short­l­ist of Ather­ton, Stew­art, Hus­sain, ਥੋਰਪੇ ਅਤੇ Caddick.

Mov­ing for­ward and bats­men to con­sider are, in the open­ing pos­i­tion, ਅੰਦ੍ਰਿਯਾਸ Stauss, Mar­cus Trescothick, ਮਾਈਕਲ ਵਾਨ, cur­rent cap­tain Alastair Cook and Mark Butcher. I’m con­sid­er­ing Stew­art as a middle order keeper/batsman. It’s a dif­fi­cult choice – six qual­ity bats­men but only two places. ਮੈਨੂੰ ਲੱਗਦਾ ਹੈ ਕਿ ਕੁੱਕ ਵਿਚ ਉਥੇ ਹੋਣਾ ਚਾਹੀਦਾ ਹੈ. He is pure qual­ity and has delivered the goods time and time again for Eng­land and seems to rev­el in the role as cap­tain. The one remain­ing spot goes to Michael Vaughan. He was an incred­ibly classy play­er and brings a use­ful back up spin option to the side. He is also my cap­tain. ਟ੍ਰੈਸਕੋ 'ਤੇ ਬਹੁਤ ਸਖ਼ਤ, ਸਟ੍ਰਾਸ ਅਤੇ Butch ਪਰ ਸਖ਼ਤ ਫ਼ੈਸਲੇ ਦੀ ਲੋੜ!

In the middle order I have four spots avail­able. ਮੇਰੀ ਚੋਣ? ਨਾਲ ਨਾਲ, ਥੋਰਪੇ, Hus­sain and Stew­art are already short lis­ted. Add into the mix Kev­in Pieterson, Paul Colling­wood, ਜੋਨਾਥਨ ਟ੍ਰੌਟ, ਇਆਨ ਬੈੱਲ ਅਤੇ ਮਰਕੁਸ Ramprakash (only kid­ding) and I have some very dif­fi­cult choices to make. ਥੋਰਪੇ ਮੇਰੇ ਲਈ ਉਥੇ ਵਿੱਚ ਹੋਣਾ ਚਾਹੀਦਾ ਹੈ. ਮੈਨੂੰ ਇੱਕ ਵੱਡੇ ਪੱਖਾ ਰਿਹਾ. Kev­in Pieterson needs to be in there too – when on song there is no one bet­ter. I’m going to plumb for Trott as my anchor of the innings so one more spot.…I’m going to go for Alec Stew­art. Just. Hus­sain and Colling­wood were very gutsy play­ers with Colling­wood present­ing a use­ful backup bowl­ing option. He was also a word-class field­er. ਇਆਨ ਬੈੱਲ ਕਰੀਬ ਗੋਲ ਹੈ ਹੋ ਸਕਦਾ ਹੈ 6,000 test match runs but I’ve nev­er been 100% con­vinced he fully belongs. Stew­art ulti­mately gets the nod because he can keep wick­et, free­ing up anoth­er bowl­ing position.

So that means no place for Mat­tie Pri­or in the middle-order. That was an incred­ibly close call – there is so little to choose between Stew­art and Pri­or – both destruct­ive bats­men, both good keep­ers. On anoth­er day Pri­or could have eas­ily got the nod.

ਇਸ ਲਈ ਸਾਨੂੰ ਸਭ ਨੂੰ ਹਰਫਨਮੌਲਾ ਦੇ ਮੌਕੇ 'ਕਰਨ ਲਈ ਚਾਲੂ. That goes to Andrew ‘Fred­die’ Flintoff. No dis­cus­sion needed. He would have made it in as a bowl­er even if he couldn’t bat. But by good­ness could he bat as well when hit­ting bemused Aus­sies to all-corners of the ground. Mar­vel­lous stuff.

Because I have Stew­art as my keeper/batsmen I have room for five bowl­ers (includ­ing Fred). ਮੈਨੂੰ ਇੱਕ ਚਾਰ-ਧਾਰੀ ਤੇਜ਼ ਹਮਲੇ ਅਤੇ ਇੱਕ ਸਪਿਨ ਚੋਣ ਲਈ ਜਾ ਰਿਹਾ ਰਿਹਾ ਹੈ. ਫਰੈੱਡ ਪਹਿਲੇ ਸਥਾਨ 'ਹੈ. Cad­ddick has already been short­l­is­ted so those being added to that are Dar­ren ‘Dazzler’ Gough, Ashes her­oes Mat­thew Hog­gard, Simon Jones and Steve Harmis­on and then the cur­rent crop of quicks Jimmy Ander­son and Stu­art Broad. Domin­ic Cork can per­haps count him­self unlucky not to make the shortlist.

Gough­ie should be in there. A great bowl­er and a genu­ine char­ac­ter, ਉਹ ਬੱਲੇਬਾਜ਼ੀ ਕਰ ਸਕਦਾ ਇੱਕ ਛੋਟਾ ਜਿਹਾ ਬਿੱਟ ਨੂੰ ਵੀ.

His one-time York­shire team-mate Mat­thew Hog­gard gets a spot too. Per­haps it’s a little bit of my York­shire bias shin­ing through. But there’s an old say­ing in Eng­lish crick­et – when York­shire are strong, Eng­land are strong.

ਇਕ ਹੋਰ ਮੌਕੇ 'ਅਤੇ ਇਹ ਹੈ ਜੋ ਜਿੰਮੀ ਨੂੰ ਚਲਾ. His sheer weight of wick­ets gets him in.

As for the spin option – there can only be one bowl­er surely? Graeme Swann is in there head and shoulders above all oth­er con­tenders (Monty and Ash­ley Giles).

ਅਤੇ ਮੇਰੇ 12^th ਆਦਮੀ? ਕੋਰਸ ਦਾ ਸੁਪਰ-ਸਬ ਗੈਰੀ Pratt ਹੋਣਾ ਚਾਹੀਦਾ ਹੈ. Sorry Mr Pont­ing – I couldn’t resist!