Greatest All-Time Second XI

People are saying part of England's success is due to having such good reserves to their First XI. A notional Second XI at the start of the series being Carberry, Lyth, Bopara, Hildreth, Morgan, Rashid, Davies, Bresnan, Shahzad, Tremlett, Panesar.

But what is the greatest Second XI of all time? The Test team that were most spoiled for choice that their Second XI could in all probability smash seven bells of sh!t out of all other Test teams? Three contenders that I can think of below. Two things to remember - first pick the 'First XI' of that era and check none of these players are in it. Second, its not always picking a great player because his first class career was ongoing at that time. If he was 19 or 40 and a lesser player was at their peak then they would get the nod instead. So the three contenders I have. Please feel free to add more.

Australia 1999
(First XI = Taylor, Slater, Langer, M Waugh, S Waugh, Ponting, Healy, Warne, Gillespie, Fleming, McGrath)

Matthew Hayden
Matthew Elliott
Greg Blewett / Simon Katich
Damien Martyn
Stuart Law / Michael Bevan
Darren Lehmann
Adam Gilchrist+
Paul Reiffel / Brendan Julian
Colin Miller / Andy Bichel
Michael Kasprowicz
Stuart MacGill

West Indies 1981
(First XI = Greenidge, Haynes, Richards, Mattis, Lloyd, Gomes, Murray, Roberts, Holding, Croft, Garner)

Alvin Greenidge
Basil Williams / Richard Austin
Faoud Bacchus
Lawrence Rowe
Alvin Kallicharran
Gus Logie / Collis King
Jeff Dujon+
Malcolm Marshall
Norbert Phillip / Hartley Alleyne / Spinner (choose from Padmore, Harper, Parry, Butts, Jumadeen etc)
Sylvester Clarke
Wayne Daniel


England 1955
(First XI = Hutton, Edrich, May, Cowdrey, Compton, Bailey, Evans, Wardle, Tyson, Statham, Appleyard)

Cyril Washbrook
Peter Richardson
Tom Graveney
David Sheppard / Vic Wilson
Raman Subba Row / Doug Insole
Willie Watson / Kenny Barrington
Dick Spooner+
Peter Loader / Tony Lock / Fred Titmus
Fred Trueman
Alec Bedser / Derek Shackleton
Jim Laker

phurt Hodge should be in

all good teams tho

man i dont have time for this

I mean it's hard enough figuring out the GREATEST 11(even that seems a waste of time) and now you want to compare the 2nd greatest 11s....

Why not talk about fast bowling or something cool like that?

What about the second-best post in this thread?


Well researched Gaz! WAY too much research. :

PlanetPakistan wrote:man i dont have time for this

I mean it's hard enough figuring out the GREATEST 11(even that seems a waste of time) and now you want to compare the 2nd greatest 11s....

Why not talk about fast bowling or something cool like that?

Marshall, Clarke and Daniel playing against Trueman and Loader. Not fast enough for you?

Shoaib can't even throw it as fast as these boys used to bowl.

PeterCS wrote:Well researched Gaz! WAY too much research. :

Sage

That Australian team is terrifying, I'm a bit too young to know much about the other teams though.

That Australian second XI would probably still be number one in the world.

Gary 111 wrote:

PlanetPakistan wrote:man i dont have time for this

I mean it's hard enough figuring out the GREATEST 11(even that seems a waste of time) and now you want to compare the 2nd greatest 11s....

Why not talk about fast bowling or something cool like that?

Marshall, Clarke and Daniel playing against Trueman and Loader. Not fast enough for you?

Shoaib can't even throw it as fast as these boys used to bowl.

Justin Langer would like to speak to you about this issue
http://www.flamingbails.com/t7729-quickest-over-of-all-time-justin-langer-speaks?highlight=langer+speaks

Yeah that's definitive. Langer played plenty against Marshall, Clarke, Daniel, Trueman and Loader.