Boycott's Ashes XI

Paul Collingwood believes the current England side is the best he has played in, but how would it compare to its predecessors? Writing for the Telegraph, Geoff Boycott, king of the measured innings, selects his Ashes XI from a specific group of players picked only from the Ashes series in which he played...

Ray Illingworth went in with three openers to blunt the Australian new-ball attack, plus a posse of quick bowlers led by John Snow. So when Telegraph Sport asked me to pick my best English XI – composed only of team-mates from my eight Ashes series – I opted for the spine of that 1970-71 team: myself and John Edrich at the top, Alan Knott behind the stumps, and Snow spearheading the attack.

Openers

Some of you might ask why I haven’t opened with Graham Gooch. Now I’m a big fan of Graham’s, he was a fantastic player, but if you look at his record against Australia, it’s not that special. He had a horrible time in 1989, when Terry Alderman kept turning him round and smacking him on the pad. And Australia have got Alderman in their best XI. I’m going for Edrich instead, and myself of course. Between us, we have 14 hundreds against the Aussies — and that’s a decent record by any standard. John had one of the greatest temperaments I have ever seen: he could play and miss and it wouldn’t bother him one jot. As with Herbert Sutcliffe, it was impossible to fluster him.

Middle order

At No 3, you’ve got to have Ted Dexter. He was a fantastic player who stood up well to the quicks. Ted could easily get bored against medium-pace trundlers but he was stimulated by a real challenge — and Lillee and Thomson were always that.
Colin Cowdrey couldn’t help being a hail-fellow-well-met sort of person, chatting away to everybody and doing his bit for the entente cordiale.
But when he switched on he was a classy technician who had an answer for everything. I’ve also picked Ken Barrington, of whom Wally Grout famously said: “Whenever I saw Ken coming to the wicket, I thought the Union Jack was trailing behind him.”
To complete the middle order, I’ve gone for David Gower. We all know that David was capable of doing something daft at any time, but he was also a flair player with extraordinary timing: he could lean on the ball and it would disappear. A top six needs different elements, and as we’ve got dependable people like Barrington and Boycott, it’s worth having a couple of instinctive, intuitive players.

Wicketkeeper

This is the easiest selection of the lot. Alan Knott was a genius - ask Ian Chappell, who always rated him very highly. He hardly ever missed anything, and he made runs at the times when they were most needed. It gave our bowlers confidence to know they had such a magician behind the stumps.

Bowlers

Ian Botham was a great cricketer in anyone’s language. He had a big backside, big shoulders, and a narrow waist, and before his back injury he had this fantastic turn in his action which gave him real pace and swing.
Botham’s achievements tended to overshadow those of Bob Willis, but people forget what a good foil Willis was for him. You don’t take 325 wickets without a bit of talent. By the end of his career, the old boy’s joints were creaking, and he probably played on for a couple of years when he wasn’t at his best. But as a young fast bowler, he was sharp and he had bounce.
Snow at times was a great fast bowler. You needed to know how to handle him, because sometimes he needed a kick up the backside, and sometimes he needed to be left alone. But he had a knack for getting the ball up from just short of a length into the batsman’s ribs. In 1970-71, it was his bowling that did more than anything to win the series for England.
Derek Underwood was a lovely man but a mean bowler, who hated giving away every single run. When conditions were against him, he would just keep things quiet, but if he came across a spinning pitch, look out, because he would win the game for you.
You might have spotted that I haven’t picked Fred Trueman. I love Fred, but by the time I came into the England side in 1964, he was past his peak, so regrettably I’ve had to leave him out.
Captain
On pure batting and bowling talent, I’m not sure whether Illy himself would make my best XI. But without him, I can’t see a convincing captain in this team. So I’m picking Raymond to lead the side, and I’m going to let him make the decision of which batsman he’s going to drop to make room for himself!
Illy can bat at No 7, one place below Botham, with Knott at No 8, and Snow - who had a brief spell as an opening batsman at Sussex - at No 9.
That also gets around the fact that none of England’s specialist batsmen can contribute much with the ball, except perhaps Dexter with his occasional seamers. A five-man attack gives you the best opportunity to take control of a game, because it means you don’t have those awkward periods when all your bowlers are tired. And Illy, with his miserly off-spin, his canny batting and his catching at gully, will make a contribution in every part of the game.

England XII (from)

Geoff Boycott, John Edrich, Ted Dexter, Colin Cowdrey, David Gower, Ken Barrington, Ian Botham, Ray Illingworth (c) Alan Knott (wk), John Snow, Bob Willis, Derek Underwood.