Benaud's side has in common with Ian Chappell's, noted above, that it actually got its best eleven onto the field, albeit only once.

It was at old Trafford in 1961. One of the greatest of Ashes Test matches and one of the finest final days, when Australia twice recovered from hopeless positions to win.

The team can't seriously be regarded as the best to represent Australia because the bowling attack, as in 1934, was too thin. In all other respects, though, it was a very fine team with great strength both in thetop six and in batting depth.

The team was:

Simpson, Lawry, Harvey, O'Neill, Burge, Booth, Davidson, Mackay, Benaud, Grout, McKenzie.

McKenzie was only 20 but full of potential and had already played a significant part in the Lords Test with bat as well as ball. His innings at Manchester similarly was integral to Australia's chances of victory.

We have one of Australia's best opening batting pair, with the desirable right/left handed combination. There's much quality also from 3 to 6, whilst it must be one of Australia's strongest tails - much better than either the 1948 or mid 70's teams.

Davidson and Benaud were great bowling all rounders and Grout is high on the short list of great Australian keepers.

Ken Mackay was a cricketer of immense character, who bowled lttle wobbly medium pacers and batted as obdurately as anyone ever has done. Not a bad No 8.

If anyone gives a hoot, here is what is probably the finest ever New Zealand team, took to the field in Brisbane vs. Australia in late 1985:

Edgar
Wright
Reid
Crowe, M.
Coney
Crowe, J.
Brown
Hadlee
Smith
Snedden
Chatfield

Nah, right era but wrong line-up. 3rd test vs Australia 85/86:

Wright, Edgar, Reid, M.Crowe, Coney(c), J.Crowe, Hadlee, Smith(k), Bracewell, Cairns, Chatfield.

Done some analysis. According to the results, the strongest line up ever to take the field is as follows. This is based on rolling averages of 5 years around the date of the match, working out how many runs a team is likely to score compared against how many they are likely to concede:

Australia, 2002-2003 Pakistan v Australia - 1st Test P Saravanamuttu Stadium (03/10/2002)
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J L Langer [batting: 4360 runs @ 49.55]
M L Hayden [batting: 3275 runs @ 58.48]
R T Ponting [batting: 3813 runs @ 56.91]
M E Waugh [batting: 2810 runs @ 40.14]
S R Waugh (c) [batting: 3884 runs @ 53.94]
D R Martyn [batting: 1683 runs @ 52.59]
A C Gilchrist (k) [batting: 3703 runs @ 50.73]
S K Warne [batting: 1008 runs @ 20.16], [bowling: 178 wkts @ 27.35]
B Lee [batting: 593 runs @ 19.77], [bowling: 139 wkts @ 31.67]
J N Gillespie [batting: 432 runs @ 14.90], [bowling: 142 wkts @ 25.52]
G D McGrath [batting: 303 runs @ 7.97], [bowling: 260 wkts @ 20.50]

Captain Bonus: 15
Keeper Bonus: 15

Totals: Batting: 425 Bowling: 251, BALANCE: +174

And 2nd is this Windies team of 84/85:

West Indies, 1984-1985 Australia v West Indies - 5th Test Sydney Cricket Ground (30/12/1984)
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C G Greenidge [batting: 2604 runs @ 55.40]
D L Haynes [batting: 2198 runs @ 38.56]
R B Richardson [batting: 2261 runs @ 41.87]
H A Gomes [batting: 2047 runs @ 48.74]
I V A Richards [batting: 2392 runs @ 47.84]
C H Lloyd (c) [batting: 2368 runs @ 60.72]
P J L Dujon (k) [batting: 1876 runs @ 38.29]
M D Marshall [batting: 692 runs @ 21.63], [bowling: 158 wkts @ 20.14]
M A Holding [batting: 462 runs @ 14.00], [bowling: 135 wkts @ 21.33]
J Garner [batting: 315 runs @ 13.70], [bowling: 122 wkts @ 23.34]
C A Walsh [batting: 277 runs @ 10.26], [bowling: 122 wkts @ 24.25]

Captain Bonus: 15
Keeper Bonus: 10

Totals: Batting: 391 Bowling: 223, BALANCE: +168

Though, as people have pointed out, the 69/70 SA team that beat the Aussies 4-0 in an unofficial test series was stronger than either fof these (based on career first class averages, since there aren't enough test appearances to qualify):

South Africa, 1969-1970 South Africa v Australia - 3rd Test New Wanderers Stadium (19/02/1970)
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B A Richards [batting: 54.74]
T L Goddard [batting: 40.60], [bowling: 21.65]
A A Bacher (c) [batting: 39.07]
R G Pollock [batting: 54.67]
E J Barlow [batting: 39.16], [bowling: 24.14]
B L Irvine [batting: 40.48]
H R Lance [batting: 34.87], [bowling: 25.65]
D T Lindsay (k) [batting: 35.54]
M J Procter [batting: 36.01], [bowling: 19.53]
P M Pollock [batting: 22.58], [bowling: 21.89]
A J Traicos [batting: 11.40], [bowling: 36.40]

Captain Bonus: 10
Keeper Bonus: 10

Totals: Batting: 409 Bowling: 200, BALANCE: +209

quote:

Originally posted by Gary_86:
I have no idea who Zahid Fazal is, and looking at his stats he was probably pretty pants, but if you ignore him then this team takes some beating:

Shoaib Mohammad
Rameez Raja
Zahid Fazal
Javed Miandad
Saleem Malik
Imran Khan*
Saleem Yousuf+
Wasim Akram
Mushtaq Ahmed
Abdul Qadir
Waqar Younis

In this match they beat the Windies - Greenidge, Marshall, Ambrose, etc. pretty comfortably and even some of the great Australian teams mentioned would struggle to beat them in home conditions in Pakistan. Abroad on bouncier wickets some of the batsmen might struggle but the bowling attack would still be very effective.

Great team but you have to remember that Imran was basically playing as a pure batsman and Mushy was just starting his career.
Similarly with the Indian team of 1978 their 3 spinners were well past their prime.

Quite right, I've done my analysis on that team, and it scores +100 (with Mushy being credited with a pretty poor average at that stage of his career):

Pakistan, 1990-1991 Pakistan v West Indies - 1st Test National Stadium (15/11/1990)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shoaib Mohammad [batting: 2094 runs @ 53.69]
Ramiz Raja [batting: 1324 runs @ 30.79]
Zahid Fazal [batting: 288 runs @ 18.00]
Javed Miandad [batting: 2555 runs @ 56.78]
Salim Malik [batting: 1699 runs @ 42.48]
Imran Khan (c) [batting: 1453 runs @ 58.12], [bowling: 86 wkts @ 25.28]
Salim Yousuf (k) [batting: 906 runs @ 28.31]
Wasim Akram [batting: 651 runs @ 22.45], [bowling: 106 wkts @ 23.86]
Mushtaq Ahmed [batting: 163 runs @ 8.15], [bowling: 44 wkts @ 36.48]
Abdul Qadir [batting: 389 runs @ 17.68], [bowling: 96 wkts @ 31.43]
Waqar Younis [batting: 312 runs @ 8.91], [bowling: 190 wkts @ 19.16]

Captain Bonus: 10
Keeper Bonus: 0

Totals: Batting: 345 Bowling: 245, BALANCE: +100

Better is this Pakistan team of 81/82, with Imran in his prime:

Pakistan, 1981-1982 Pakistan v Sri Lanka - 3rd Test Gadaffi Stadium (22/03/1982)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mudassar Nazar [batting: 1794 runs @ 42.71], [bowling: 25 wkts @ 33.52]
Mohsin Khan [batting: 1472 runs @ 49.07]
Majid Khan [batting: 1280 runs @ 32.82]
Javed Miandad (c) [batting: 3075 runs @ 54.91]
Zaheer Abbas [batting: 2490 runs @ 60.73]
Wasim Raja [batting: 1280 runs @ 34.59], [bowling: 23 wkts @ 39.48]
Imran Khan [batting: 1350 runs @ 35.53], [bowling: 170 wkts @ 19.25]
Ashraf Ali (k) [batting: 206 runs @ 103.00]
Tahir Naqqash [batting: 300 runs @ 21.43], [bowling: 34 wkts @ 41.12]
Iqbal Qasim [batting: 240 runs @ 10.91], [bowling: 92 wkts @ 28.91]
Tausif Ahmed [batting: 51 runs @ 17.00], [bowling: 29 wkts @ 31.86]

Captain Bonus: 10
Keeper Bonus: 0

Totals: Batting: 410 Bowling: 285, BALANCE: +125

India's best seems to be this team of 2001. Strong batting line up but they've always been struggling to find a world class bowling line up.

India, 2001-2002 India v England - 3rd Test M.Chinnaswamy Stadium (19/12/2001)
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S S Das [batting: 1326 runs @ 34.89]
D Dasgupta (k) [batting: 344 runs @ 28.67]
V V S Laxman [batting: 2398 runs @ 44.41]
S R Tendulkar [batting: 4705 runs @ 63.58], [bowling: 23 wkts @ 42.22]
R Dravid [batting: 4194 runs @ 53.77]
S C Ganguly (c) [batting: 2748 runs @ 36.16]
V Sehwag [batting: 4066 runs @ 52.13]
A Kumble [batting: 636 runs @ 16.74], [bowling: 175 wkts @ 26.21]
Harbhajan Singh [batting: 513 runs @ 13.15], [bowling: 144 wkts @ 26.60]
Sarandeep Singh [batting: 43 runs @ 43.00], [bowling: 10 wkts @ 34.00]
J Srinath [batting: 540 runs @ 12.86], [bowling: 135 wkts @ 29.34]

Captain Bonus: 10
Keeper Bonus: 0

Totals: Batting: 399 Bowling: 299, BALANCE: +100

Incidentally, my process applies some qualification to batting and bowling before they are fully credited with the achieved average, eg. Ahraf Ali isn't credited with 103 runs per innings in the Pakistan team I posted, since this is based on only 2 completed innings. A player needs 20 completed innings and 40 wickets within the rolling 5 year period to have their average fully credited.

Calculation of runs normally conceded is quite complex too, crediting teams with a 5th bowling option rather than assuming just 4 bowlers can always achieve their average. And it applies captain and keeper bonuses to bring down the total based on the assumption that these skills are utilised when the team is fielding!

Hey come on, it's quite good really

Yeah, it's alright. Not sure it's been critically analsyed yet and accredited by the coreect sanctioning bodies.

Hehe no probably not, but its fun to work with and produces some interesting and pretty realistic results. I'm working on getting the strongest ever batting line up and strongest ever bowling line up separately now too...