[Cricket] ICC Cricket World Cup 2023- Final- India v Australia

[Sid and the Sharknados]

Fair approach. I'm looking at something along these lines:

R Sharma
T Head
Q de Kock
V Kohli
R Ravindra
D Mitchell
R Jadeja
P Cummins (c) [or Madushanka w/ Sharma (c)]
J Bumrah
A Zampa
M Shami

As a "team of the world cup" rather than a team anybody would actually pick for a match, Mitchell over Maxwell makes complete sense.
On a similar basis though, I struggle to justify picking Cummins over a number of other players (including Madushanka), who took noticeably more wickets at a noticeably lower average. Even if he'd be just about my first name down on a current World XI.
I'm sure there's all sort of arguments about taking important wickets at important times etc. but I'd like to share the love around different players where I can (except de Kock for some reason, but I'm sure he'll get over it).

 

[Audax]

As a "team of the world cup" rather than a team anybody would actually pick for a match, Mitchell over Maxwell makes complete sense.
On a similar basis though, I struggle to justify picking Cummins over a number of other players (including Madushanka), who took noticeably more wickets at a noticeably lower average. Even if he'd be just about my first name down on a current World XI.
I'm sure there's all sort of arguments about taking important wickets at important times etc. but I'd like to share the love around different players where I can (except de Kock for some reason, but I'm sure he'll get over it).

Yeah, hence why I split that slot. I was semi-convinced that Cummins gets picked on captaincy reasons, but was he really that much better than Sharma that you need to pick a "specialist captain" into the side?

As far as Maxwell is concerned - he's first pick for my Aussies-only team, because of the X-factor he brings. The current Aussie side needs that. Without him, we lose the games vs Afg and Ned and don't make the semis. For a World XI (or World Cup XI), the X-factor is no longer as compelling. I feel like the top 5 have the quality to negate needing him at 6, so I therefore went with "not as much destructive potential, but more reliable".

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

Yeah, hence why I split that slot. I was semi-convinced that Cummins gets picked on captaincy reasons, but was he really that much better than Sharma that you need to pick a "specialist captain" into the side?

As far as Maxwell is concerned - he's first pick for my Aussies-only team, because of the X-factor he brings. The current Aussie side needs that. Without him, we lose the games vs Afg and Ned and don't make the semis. For a World XI (or World Cup XI), the X-factor is no longer as compelling. I feel like the top 5 have the quality to negate needing him at 6, so I therefore went with "not as much destructive potential, but more reliable".

As I wasn't paying much attention for most of it (work tended to get in the way, so I'd nip down and turn on the tele if a match seemed to be getting interesting, and then give up 5min later when England immediately lost 3 wickets ), this is a genuine question, was Cummins' captaincy that good or notable to justify getting in the team? I'm not suggesting he was bad by any means, but I'd need somebody to be around the level of McCullum in 2015 for it to bother me that much.
Agree about Maxwell, I had him in my XI over Mitchell because I like to make some attempt to balance these things, otherwise it ends up like those nonsense "Teams of the Week" in football, with about 7 attacking midfielders and only 1 legitimate defender.
Out of interest, which state do you support/are you from?

 

[Audax]

Out of interest, which state do you support/are you from?

To be honest, I never followed the Sheffield Shield as much as I should have as a kid (wasn't easy access on TV), and not very much at all now I'm in the UK. But ... did most of my my growing up near Sydney, so New South Wales. Born in Canberra, though, so do take a degree of interest every now and then if the ACT gets a chance to play the odd game or two.

I played a *lot* of indoor cricket (proper Australian style) in the ACT through my 20's. Had the opportunity to train with the ACT rep team a couple of times (late 90's, early 00's period), and I know a guy who eventually got picked who had very similar stats to mine in the local tournaments we were playing in (I know because we played in the same team and I was compiling the team stats every week ).

 

[PeterT]

To be honest, I never followed the Sheffield Shield as much as I should have as a kid (wasn't easy access on TV), and not very much at all now I'm in the UK. But ... did most of my my growing up near Sydney, so New South Wales. Born in Canberra, though, so do take a degree of interest every now and then if the ACT gets a chance to play the odd game or two.

I played a *lot* of indoor cricket (proper Australian style) in the ACT through my 20's. Had the opportunity to train with the ACT rep team a couple of times (late 90's, early 00's period), and I know a guy who eventually got picked who had very similar stats to mine in the local tournaments we were playing in (I know because we played in the same team and I was compiling the team stats every week ).

If you were compiling the stats, a bit of a schoolboy error for your stats not to have been just that bit better than everyone else’s!

 

[Audax]

If you were compiling the stats, a bit of a schoolboy error for your stats not to have been just that bit better than everyone else’s!

Heh. I was doing it for personal interest, not for anything else. Think I was the only one who ever saw them. And if I'm honest, the other guy was a better fielder than me and would have got the nod anyway. My hopes of playing state rep level were dashed when I slipped a disc in my lower back. Played two games in one night, had the tiniest little twinge in my back in first over of the first game, then all was fine for the rest of that game, came out, got asked if I had time to fill in for another team, played that game, bowled my 2 (eight ball) overs, came out of the net and sat down ... and knew I was in trouble. Woke up the next morning (Good Friday, no chance of seeing a Dr) barely able to get up to go and get breakfast, spent the weekend immobile on the sofa. Couldn't play at all for over a year, and was then off-and-on for a couple of years before moving over here and discovering that indoor cricket isn't a thing really.

I play a little club cricket here in Uckfield now (outdoors) and even now, over 20 years on from that injury, I had to miss a few games end of the 2022 season because of warning signs in my lower back.

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

As an aside, I just walked past Jonny Bairstow in Leeds Station.
Taller than you might imagine.

 

[PeterT]

Heh. I was doing it for personal interest, not for anything else. Think I was the only one who ever saw them. And if I'm honest, the other guy was a better fielder than me and would have got the nod anyway. My hopes of playing state rep level were dashed when I slipped a disc in my lower back. Played two games in one night, had the tiniest little twinge in my back in first over of the first game, then all was fine for the rest of that game, came out, got asked if I had time to fill in for another team, played that game, bowled my 2 (eight ball) overs, came out of the net and sat down ... and knew I was in trouble. Woke up the next morning (Good Friday, no chance of seeing a Dr) barely able to get up to go and get breakfast, spent the weekend immobile on the sofa. Couldn't play at all for over a year, and was then off-and-on for a couple of years before moving over here and discovering that indoor cricket isn't a thing really.

I play a little club cricket here in Uckfield now (outdoors) and even now, over 20 years on from that injury, I had to miss a few games end of the 2022 season because of warning signs in my lower back.

Oh, sorry to hear that. I had a prolapsed disc in 2014 and it was the most painful thing I have ever had in my life by a distance. I had to have immediate surgery and we had to delay my Dad’s funeral so I could attend after the operation, not a good time in my life.

The surgery was broadly successful though there’s always a weakness there. I stopped playing cricket in my 30s though always felt I could go back and play for a village team one day, probably not fielding in the covers any more!

 

[PeterT]

As an aside, I just walked past Jonny Bairstow in Leeds Station.
Taller than you might imagine.

Hopefully he didn’t pick you up and lift you off the platform?

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

Hopefully he didn’t pick you up and lift you off the platform?

Headlines tomorrow: "Jonny Bairstow in Fracas at Leeds Station"
No, he just walked past towards the west exit (so maybe the taxi rank / car park).

 

[Audax]

Oh, sorry to hear that. I had a prolapsed disc in 2014 and it was the most painful thing I have ever had in my life by a distance. I had to have immediate surgery and we had to delay my Dad’s funeral so I could attend after the operation, not a good time in my life.

Thankfully mine hadn't completely gone. Was able to walk to the Dr's (only had a motorcycle licence at the time, no way was I going to try that!) once they were open after the Easter weekend, was determined to only be a minor slip and would (with time) self-heal. But yeah, much like you - always had a potential weakness there. Thankfully I can bowl again having not played at all for several years, just need to listen to my body - any twinge at all in my back and that's me telling the captain I can only play as a batter/fielder for a few weeks.

And if I'm honest I'm now at a point where my playing time has been curtailed by other issues ... frozen shoulders a few years back (right, then left the following season), and then last year I had a frozen hip (left), that has now settled down into arthritis (loooong family history of early onset osteo ).