CRICKET: Mike Selvey picks a World XI to beat the Australians (or at least give them a match).
Michael Vaughan (England) Test statistics: Batting matches 26, innings 45, not out 3, runs 2004, highest score 197, average 47.71. Catches 17 Bowling overs 90, maidens 16, runs 310, wickets 4, average 77.50. With a run of five centuries in 14 Test innings Vaughan has established himself during the past six months as the world's premier opening batsman outside Australia. His 177 in the second Test at Adelaide was one of the innings of the series so far.
Gary Kirsten (South Africa) Batting 87-153-12-6,058-275 42.96. Catches 77 Bowling 56.1-18-141-2 70.50. The left-hander edges out his colleague Herschelle Gibbs. Stickability is the watchword here. Kirsten enjoys occupation of the crease. To beat the Australians, first-innings dominance is essential, and here is a player, with 16 Test hundreds, around whom the other batsmen can play.
Brian Lara (West Indies) Batting 90-157-4-7, 572-375-49.49. Catches 116. A genius at three. Lara announced himself to the Australian public a decade ago with 277 wonderful runs in Sydney and has been scoring heavily against them since with one third of his 18 Test hundreds coming against them in a quarter of his matches.
Sachin Tendulkar (India) Batting103-165-16-8,711-217 58.46 Catches 67 Bowling 381-62-1,220-27 45.18 Genius at four, too. Criticism suggests that, unlike Lara, he is not a genuine match-winner and, strangely, only two of his 31 Test hundreds have been doubles, and against weak opposition at that. But he averages 54 against the world's best side with six hundreds, half of them in Australia, and no one plays Shane Warne better.
V V S Laxman (India) Batting 42-68-7 -2,660-28 43.60. Catches 50 Bowling 42-10-100-1 100.00. "I thought," said Shane Warne after India's historic win in Calcutta two years ago, "that there were only so many times that someone could come down the pitch and hit me out of the rough against the spin." He was wrong and famously so. Laxman's 277 then ranks as one of the great Test match innings of all time.
Jacques Kallis (South Africa) Batting 64-105-18-4,350-189* 50.00. Catches 61 Bowling 1424.3-409-3,798-134 28.34 The leading all-rounder in the world at present, batting with real authority and bowling a bat-jarring heavy ball with a muscular action.
Andy Flower (Zimbabwe) Batting 63-112-19-4,794-232* 51.54. Catches 151.Stumpings 9. This is no Adam Gilchrist and Flower has played only one match against Australia, with modest success, but for a period two years ago he was rated the best batsman in the world, to which a Test average of 51 would testify.
Shaun Pollock (South Africa) Batting 66-94-22-2,385-111 33.12. Catches 43 Bowling 2,451.3-765-5,630-270 20.85. The one pace bowler outside Australia who can apply consistent pressure in the way that Glenn McGrath does and has been ranked above him. Bowls from close to the stumps and seams the ball away from an aggressive length, with good bounce.
Daniel Vettori (New Zealand) Batting 42-62-10-851-90 16.36. Catches 22 Bowling 1,774-469-4,707-139 33.86 Who to spin? Muttiah Muralitharan? Harbhajan Singh? Saqlain Mushtaq? Nope. No mystery balls, zooters, shooters or whatever, just the best orthodox left-arm spin there is from the oldest 23-year-old in the business.
Shoaib Akhtar (Pakistan) Batting 25-37-10-229-37 8.48. Catches 7 Bowling 711.4-126-2,392-88 27.18 The best sides carry the extremes of pace, spin and accuracy in their attacks and there is no faster bowler, nor finer sight in full flight, than the Rawalpindi Express.
Shane Bond (New Zealand) Batting 6-6-2-40-17 10.00. Catches 4 Bowling 186.2-35-655-26 25.19. There has to be a wild card and it comes with the 27-year-old Kiwi who announced himself to Australia last season. This is a genuinely quick bowler - 90mph plus - and aggressive with it.
- Guardian Service
