15 for the World Cup

[schmo]

Been waiting to find a decent cricket forums since sportal shut down its forum.
Here is my 15 and why-

1. Gilchrist- Picks himself
2. Hayden- Has done enough recently to hold his place. Other contenders for this position were Watson, who isn't an opener, Katich who has fallen out of favour, and Jaques, who also has seemed to fall out of favour. I would also consider openeing with Hussey, as he and Gilchrist are both openers and have contrasting games.
3. Ponting- Picks himself
4. Clarke- Very god player in the colours
5. Symonds- Even though he is injures, he still should play the back half and important half of the cup.
6. Hussey- What hasn't been said about this man, he should be up the order I think, maybe have him floating up and down the order a bit. He is being wasted at 6.
7- White- I know he didn't do a great deal during the CB series, but he didn't really get a chance either. I pick him ahead of Hogg because of his finishing power, his batting has really taken off in the past few years.
8- Lee- Great white ball bowler. Picks himself.
9- Johnson- Only rival I see he has is Clark, and Clark I dont think has performed well enough in the colours. Sure, he is in my test team, but not in the ODI team.
10- Bracken- Has a S/R only a bit worse that Lee, and has a great deal of variety on his bowling which will be needed on the slower West Indian pitches.
11- McGrath- You have to take the Pidge. A great bowler with an unheard of economy rate.

12- Hogg- Hogg deserves his place, and can take the place of White on the tracks that are going to turn a fair bit.
13- Haddin- Haddin has to go, if Gilchrist was injured, Australia would be in a bit of trouble, with Hussey the next in line to grab the gloves. Play him as just a batsman if one of the top 6 are injured, he will do a good job im sure.
14- Hilfenhaus- Hilfenhaus had to go for me, i knew he wouldn't but I still hoped. Think about it, you already have the pace provided by Lee, the great accuracy care of McGrath, the constant variation Bracken taken care of, and Johnson fills a bit of all three roles. What are we missing? a genuine swing bowler. Hilfy bowls at around 14 and a bit faster and swings it well. I was that as the missing link in the bowling lineup. The selectors chose Tait, and good luck to him, but I'm just not convinced Tait and Lee in the same team is a good thing.
15- Hopes- He has been having a great season for the Bulls woth bat and ball, and I pick him ahead of Watson because Watson I think is too injury prone. He seems to get better, and then gets another injury, and you can't afford that in a team of only 15. Hopes can bat anywherein the order, and his medium pacers get plenty of wickets for the bulls. A really underestimated player.

Feel free to tell me where i have gone and why, but this is the team I would have taken.

Schmo

[darksideofthemoon]

1 Gilchrist
2 Hayden
3 Ponting
4 Clarke
5 Symonds
6 Hussey
7 White
8 Lee
9 Bracken
10 Johnson
11 Hilfenhaus

12 Hodge 13 Tait 14 Voges 15 Ronchi
I have seen what White can do to bowling attacks in county cricket and wouldn't even bother using him as a bowler.

[Nostromo]

IMO, the only real error in the final Aussie 15 for the World Cup was the inclusion of Mitchell Johnson. His ODI record has not been impressive and with McGrath, Lee, Bracken,Tait and Watson in the team, Johnson is a bit superfluous. OK, Watson's bowling also has not been much to write about, but then he has his batting to fall back on. With 5 pace bowlers already in, I think Cameron White should have been given a chance in place of Johnson.

I know that White is yet to show his big-hitting ability at ODI level, but the World Cup might have been the place to do it. Unlike major ODI tournaments, big teams at the World Cup have a couple of games against minnows and talented but hitherto underachieving players have that chance to perform well and gain confidence by using such games as launchng pads.

[Quagmire]

Johnson has been the best find since Bracken has come back into the one day scene, he has been more sucessful with the ball than Clark & Tait. In his 17 matches he has taken 23 wickets at 28.00 which is good enough for a player starting out in international cricket.

[darksideofthemoon]

Originally Posted by Quagmire

Johnson has been the best find since Bracken has come back into the one day scene, he has been more sucessful with the ball than Clark & Tait. In his 17 matches he has taken 23 wickets at 28.00 which is good enough for a player starting out in international cricket.

I agree completely.

[Nostromo]

Originally Posted by Quagmire

Johnson has been the best find since Bracken has come back into the one day scene, he has been more sucessful with the ball than Clark & Tait. In his 17 matches he has taken 23 wickets at 28.00 which is good enough for a player starting out in international cricket.

OK but even so, don't you think the Oz team is a bit "bottom heavy" with McGrath, Lee, Bracken, Watson, Tait and Johnson? My reasoning was based on recent form. I guess that they had to take McGrath & Lee for seniority and experience; Bracken has been bowling well in ODIs for the past year; Watson had to be encouraged for his all-round abilities at both forms of the game. That left Tait & Johnson and I thought Tait was bowling better in recent months and his pace might be useful on some Caribbean pitches. I still feel that Cameron White has potential and should have been given a chance ahead of one of the 6 bowlers chosen, in this case Mitchell Johnson.

[Andy Mellon]

Originally Posted by schmo

2. Hayden- Has done enough recently to hold his place. Other contenders for this position were Watson, who isn't an opener, Katich who has fallen out of favour, and Jaques, who also has seemed to fall out of favour. I would also consider openeing with Hussey, as he and Gilchrist are both openers and have contrasting games.

Unfortunately, in another slice of bad luck for the Aussies, it sounds like Mark Gillespie has broken Hayden's big toe with a yorker in the last match of the Chappell Hadlee series. If true, surely there's not enough time for him to recover before the World Cup.

Phil Jaques to open? Or a bolter?