Australia's all-time World Cup XI

The Kangaroos have undoubtedly been the most successful team in World Cup history, having won the tournament four times - in 1987, 1999, 2003 and 2007. Naturally then, every team aspired to be like them, win games like them, and play with the same spirit that the Aussies brought to their game.They boasted of some great names too, which included the greatest spinner the world has ever seen in Shane Warne, one of the game’s top batsmen in Ricky Ponting, an outstanding seam bowler, Glenn McGrath and the world’s best wicket-keeper batsman in Adam Gilchrist. Having all the talent they had in their ranks, it was really going to be tough to deny them the supremacy that they enjoyed all along.Here is Australia’s all-time World Cup XI:

#1 Mark Waugh

The stylish opener from New South Wales featured in three WC editions from 1992 to 1999 and played 22 games. He scored 1004 runs at 52.84 in that period, that included 4 hundreds and as many fifties.

He was the kind of player who gave a steady start to the innings, and as it goes for this all-time XI side, Matthew Hayden at the other end could take care of the acceleration while he himself could just hold the fort and try & stick around for a major part of the innings.

#2 Matthew Hayden

He played a total of 22 games in the 2003 and 2007 editions of the tournament and hit 987 runs at 51.94, with 3 hundreds and 2 fifties to his name.

He defined what ruthless power hitting was. Few other batsmen displayed less respect for bowlers than he did. No matter who was bowling, he always had an answer ready and with him at the crease, no target seemed big enough to chase. He never hesitated to take on the bowling in his own fashion, and he had his own way of doing things, which manifested themselves in surprises like the use of a mongoose bat.

#3 Ricky Ponting (Captain)

The greatest World Cup captain of all-time after Clive Lloyd, Ricky Ponting won the trophy in 1999 as a player alone and in 2003 and 2007 as the skipper. He is also up there with Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar as the top 3 batsmen of recent times.

He has played 46 World Cup games for Australia, which is a tournament record. He normally came in to bat at no. 3, and owned the spot with 1743 runs under his belt at an average of 45.86, that included 5 hundreds and 6 fifties. He led by example as skipper and never looked like letting his captaincy affect his batting, which is why he can be called one of the complete skippers and batsmen of all-time.

#4 Michael Clarke

A hugely dependable batsman and a reliable finisher, Michael Clarke is one of the safest bets as a batsman who you could have finishing the game for you.

He has a very impressive average of 83.62 and has 669 World Cup runs under his belt in 18 games, which includes 6 half-centuries. He was one of the reasons the Aussies won the cup in 2007, and the coming World Cup will also demand a lot out of him both as skipper and batsman, if the Aussies are to pull off something great.

#5 Steve Waugh

Steve Waugh, who won the trophy in 1987 under the leadership of Allan Border and as skipper in 1999, was one of the most courageous batsmen going around during his playing career. One of the highlights of his career would undoubtedly be the knock of 120* he scored against South Africa at Headingley in a do-or-die encounter of the 1999 WC.

He scored 978 runs in 33 games at 48.90 overall, including one hundred and six fifties. He took 27 wickets with the ball too, which makes his contribution all the more massive.

#6 Adam Gilchrist (wk)

The wicket-keeper batsman is also the second-highest run-getter for Australia in World Cups with as many as 1085 runs in 31 appearances at 36.16, which has a hundred and 8 fifties to go with it.

As far as his number of dismissals as wicket-keeper is concerned, he has 52 of them to his name, which is more than double of what the second-best, Ian Healy, has.

These numbers just go on to show what an irreplaceable asset Gilly was to his team in all the three editions (1999, 2003, 2007) that he was a part of. Another thing that stood out about Gilchrist was that he was one of the most gentlemanly players of the game, illustrated by the fact that he always walked if he had edged the ball.

#7 Andrew Symonds

Andrew Symonds boasts of the highest World Cup average among all Aussie batsmen who have featured in more than 10 games – 103.00 – and given his batting position, it gives an idea of how effective he can be as a finisher down the order. He was not out on eight out of the thirteen times he batted in the tournaments he was a part of, 2003 and 2007, both of which Australia won.

One striking thing about Symonds was that he could shift gears according to the situation. He could bat slowly if the scenario demanded, and he could do the power hitting for you if you needed the quick runs. He had a total of 515 runs against his name, which included a hundred and 3 fifties.

#8 Brad Hogg

He will be one of the two regular spin options along with Shane Warne in Australia’s all-time XI.

The chinaman bowler had an impressive World Cup record with 34 wickets from just 21 games at an average of 19.23 and a brilliant economy of just 4.12. He was the star performer for the Aussies in 2003 and 2007 as far as slow bowling was concerned, which was commendable considering the fact that he didn’t have Warne for company during any of those two World Cups.

#9 Shane Warne

Arguably the greatest spinner of all-time, Shane Warne showed his skills at the World Cup stage as well. He took part in the 1996 and the 1999 editions, and scalped 32 wickets from 17 games at an average of 19.50, with an astoundingly low economy rate of 3.83 for ODI cricket.

He made almost every batsman struggle against his turn and variation. He would be the guy to call up whenever the skipper needed a partnership broken or a cap on the run rate. He would just run through his overs without the batting side having time to read him properly and adjust to his deliveries.

#10 Brett Lee

One thing that was very obvious when you saw Brett Lee bowl was the dedication that he put in. He used to run in every ball, jump up and try to get the most out of each ball. It just looked like he was trying to better himself with each delivery. He used to clock speeds of above 150 regularly and was one of the most unplayable bowlers of his time. He was particularly good at death bowling, with his deadly yorkers directed at leg stump not giving batsmen any space to free their arms.

He took 35 wickets from 17 World Cup games at an excellent average of 17.97.

#11 Glenn McGrath

He is Australia’s best seam bowler of all-time, World Cup and otherwise. The perfect person to open the bowling for a captain, McGrath rarely went wicketless. He had an astounding amount of control over his line and length and few people used the variation of the wicket as well as he did.

He notched up a total of 71 World Cup wickets in four tournaments from 1996-2007 at an average of 18.19 and an economy of 3.96 – figures which are nothing short of mind-blowing. Brett Lee, who comes second in the list of wicket-takers, does not have half as many as McGrath does.

#12 Allan Border

The World Cup winning skipper of 1987 was no doubt one of the greats of Australian cricket, but he finds a place only as the 12^th man here because of the fact that almost all others were World Cup winners twice if not more times. Border represented his country in 4 editions from 1979 to 1992 and was captain for the last two.

He has a total of 452 runs from 25 WC games. He also has 9 wickets to his name.