James Anderson has unveiled his all-time Ashes XI, with a few selections certainly raising eyebrows – some in amusement and others in wonder.
Given the task by TNT Sports, Anderson proceeds to pick his openers. He begins by listing Don Bradman, who “averaged 99.9 or something” as his first opener. It is a selection least expected, for the greatest batter having never opened in a career of 52 Tests. Bradman batted at No.3 in 40 matches, where he scored 5,078 runs, but Anderson has him padding up alongside Alastair Cook, perhaps banking on the idea that if Bradman is capable of everything else, he might as well take first strike too.
Cook, at least, is in a position he knows well, having carried England through an entire Australian summer in 2010/11. He also won two Ashes series as skipper, in 2013 and 2015.
Ricky Ponting slots in at No.3, but more on him later. Anderson has Joe Root pencilled in at No.4 – perfectly reasonable – except it comes at the expense of Steve Smith, who just happens to be the third-highest run-scorer in Ashes history, behind Bradman and Jack Hobbs.
Kevin Pietersen gets the No.5 slot in his list. Pietersen was the breakout star in the historic 2005 series, where he ended as the highest run-getter with 473 runs. Pietersen also has a double ton in Adelaide, becoming one of seven England batters with the score in Australia.
Ian Botham and Ben Stokes occupy the Nos.6 and 7 positions, because “he’s greedy and wants two all-rounders in there.”
Warne, naturally, is the lone spinner, because if you’re only picking one, you pick the one with 195 Ashes wickets. The pace attack consists of Bob Willis, Glenn McGrath and Stuart Broad, with Anderson omitting himself from the XI.
But the most delightful twist comes right at the end. Upon realising that he forgets to pick a wicketkeeper, Anderson quips without a second thought: “I’ll give the gloves to Ricky Ponting”, except that it is a role he never once took up in professional cricket! Overall, Ponting kept in just four games back in the mid-nineties, in club cricket.
The surprises keep coming, for Stokes has also been named captain, ahead of Ponting, the most successful skipper in the format, with a win percentage of 62.33 per cent. To be fair to him this time, though, Ponting did lose three Ashes series as captain. Still, he gets the raw end of the deal, you’d think. Bradman, too, led in four Ashes series and won in every single one of them.
James Anderson’s all-time Ashes XI:
Don Bradman, Alastair Cook, Ricky Ponting (wk), Joe Root, Kevin Pietersen, Ian Botham, Ben Stokes (c), Shane Warne, Bob Willis, Glenn McGrath, Stuart Broad.
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