Cricket-Match-Special ... A forum for discussion

A frequent discussion point on 606 used to be worst England sides, containing misfire selections from recent decades. There was probably no need to have one of these in the noughties, as selection was generally good, but especially in the last couple of years, there has been a glut of unsuccessful selections. Consider these who have played since the beginning of 2015:

Lyth/Jennings/Duckett/Westley/Vince/Ballance/Buttler/Ansari/Dawson/Jordan/Ball.

There's Wood, Rashid and Batty averaging over 40 (so far) too, with the ball.

That's a lot of ephemeral, unrewarded picks in such a short period, and probably competitive with any similar period I can remember (it remains to be seen what happens to Stoneman and Malan (and Westley).

This is a side from the whole of the noughties.

Smith/Knight/Maddy/Ward/Adams/Ufzaal/Ambrose/Blackwell/Schofield/Amir Khan/Ormond.

Which is actually quite competitive.

Competitively poor i mean.

hmm harsh on buttler and ball..

I only have two keepers to call on, but Buttler qualifies at least, by being selected as a specialist bat at seven, in terms of maverick decision making. Don't forget he was selected after (more or less) not playing a first class innings in a year.

Ball averages over 100, so is an obvious pick given the options, even if he will probably improve that given the chance. But if he doesn't get the chance, he will be in the book as averaging over 100.

Borthwick will be gutted that he didn't get a mention

Scott doesn't fit into the timeframe of the post 2015 side. Might be in with a shout of the 2010s side, but he'll struggle to get past Ansari given Borthwick has a Test bowling average of 20.

of course

doesn't seem that long ago. How time flies

Arthur Crabtree wrote:This is a side from the whole of the noughties.

Smith/Knight/Maddy/Ward/Adams/Ufzaal/Ambrose/Blackwell/Schofield/Amir Khan/Ormond.

Which is actually quite competitive.

Did Maddy or Adams make the 2000s? Adams only series was in SA in 1999, and Maddy surely didnt play after the disastrous NZ series at home in 1999?

did Maddy not make the T20 WC in the noughties?

For what its worth... 2000s

Ed Smith
Ian Ward
Mark Ramprakash
Usman Afzaal
James Foster
Ian Blackwell
Richard Dawson
Darren Pattinson
Ajmad Khan
Chris Silverwood
Gareth Batty

Durhamfootman wrote:did Maddy not make the T20 WC in the noughties?

Yes he did, actually. His record of 28 runs per innings at 141SR, and 3 wickets at 8 runs each, actually make for surprisingly excellent reading. If this is all round skill, and not just tests, then Maddy's successful 2007 T20 WC might just have saved him from the list.

He also played in a test just after New Year, like Adams, so both played one test in the new millenium.

To do a worst 90s team, id need to employ a team of 15 data analysts to trawl through the endless dross we had.

Maddy and Adams both played after new year on that tour, in Jan 2000. I know that you can argue that the year 2000 is actually the last year of the nineties, but conventionally that would be the noughties.

They both played in the leather jacket Test in Centurion.

Chris Silverwood had a reputation for unusual pace, but tended to be a bit gun barrel. And was often injured. I prefer the famously unhealthy James Ormond in a head to head. Pretty contrasting personalities.