If we were to take this team (Mohan’s World XI), and take out the Indians place head to head with the Indian team, it’s interesting to see the result. I’ve put a star in front of who I think is better head-to-head. An (extra) star is given to the player who contributes well with bowling/ batting.
01. *Chris Gayle vs. *Saurav Ganguly (Ganguly better Batsman, but Gayle better bowler)
02. **Sanath Jayasuriya vs *Virender Sewhag (Sehwag’s contribution equal with the ball)
03. *Ricky Ponting vs Uttappa
04. *Jacques Kallis vs **Sachin Tendulkar (Tendulkar’s contribution equal with the ball)
05. *Mike Hussey vs *Rahul Dravid (both are equal in effectiveness, though they express it in different ways)
06. *Andrew Flintoff (b/c Symonds still injured) vs *Yuvraj Singh (better batsman, though Flintoff better bowler)
07. Kumar Sangakkara (wicketkeeper) vs **Dhoni (better keeper and batsman)
08. **Shaun Pollock vs Agarkar (If only Agarkar could bat better…)
09. *Shane Bond vs Zaheer Khan (Bond is clearly the best fast bowler this world cup… though Zak’s not bad)
10. *Makhaya Ntini vs Munaf Patel (if only Munaf rises to the occasion…)
11. Daniel Vettori vs *Harbhajan (Vettori is not bad, Bhajji is better)
Mohan’s World XI gets 11 stars while Indian XI gets 9 stars.
On the surface calculations, World XI would probably win because of the better bowling attack (especially since this world cup will be determined very importantly by those who bowl better.)
Filed under: Article Watch, Cricket, India, World Cup
