Greatest England ODI XI of all time

#2 Bowlers

Darren Gough is unarguably England's greatest ODI bowler

Surprisingly, only one spinner finds a place in the list of top ten wicket-takers in England's ODI history. With Test cricket taking precedence during his stint at the highest level, Graeme Swann played only 79 ODIs. He picked 104 wickets at an average of 27.76 and economy-rate of 4.54 with a career-best haul of 5/28. The classical off-spinner reached the top of the ODI bowling rankings during July 2011.

During the mid to late 1990s, Darren Gough was probably the only England cricketer to come to terms with the evolving white-ball game. With his lively pace and penchant for finding the block hole in the end overs, the stockily-built fast bowler carried his team's bowling fortunes almost singlehandedly. Before calling it quits in 2006, he played 159 ODIs and collected 235 wickets at an impressive average of 26.42 and stellar economy-rate of 4.39.

With a combined tally of 810 international scalps thus far, James Anderson is England's all time leading wicket-taker in both Tests and ODIs. 269 of those came in the 50-over format. At the peak of his powers, an immaculate control of swing made him a lethal new-ball bowler. An economy-rate of 4.92 is quite reasonable for a bowler of his ilk in the modern era. It seems highly unlikely that he will get an opportunity to add to his 194 appearances in ODIs.