28 July 2009

A near impossible selection decision

Cricinfo are currently asking you to vote for the two openers you would select in an all-time England XI. It's made more tricky given the fact that no-one has watched all the players bat, but I think of myself as a half-decent student of the game and I found it near impossible. Whatever combination you go with, you leave out one truly great player (as I believe there are 3 that stand above the rest in this list from Cricinfo).

Who would you pick?

6 comments:

GoodCricketWicket said...

I went with Hobbs and Hutton. Could just as easily have been Hobbs and Sutcliffe though.

And why was WG Grace not included on this list?

Muttley said...

Hutton and Boycott for me, though Gooch and Hobbs have to feel unlucky. Was quite surprised they described a man with over 40,000 first class runs - the majority in England - as having a weakness against swing bowling.

Mark Davis said...

Hobbs and Sutcliffe for me. Surprised to see Brearley in the shortlist (despite being a huge fan) on the grounds that he's a good captain.So I could go for Hutton because he died in the same hospitral as my twins were born in.
Also smacks of England style selection - dropping a bowler because the batsman have failed.

Ed said...

WG averaged early 30s and only played Tests v Australia so is difficult to evaluate....I guess they thought he wasn't good enough to make the shortlist but Brearley made it....

Anonymous said...

I'm guessing uour 3 that stand out are Hobbs, Sutcliffe and Hutton?

Ed said...

Yes, the 3 stand outs are Hobbs, Sutcliffe and Hutton I reckon - went for Hobbs and Sutcliffe.