I was praying de Villiers would somehow get to me as round 2 was going on but it was always unlikely.
Round 3 1. Chewie - Dale Steyn (47492) Hard to gauge. On paper getting Steyn this late given he only retired a few months back is a dream. Problem is post the 2015 World Cup (which is nearly 5 years ago now!) he was injured 75% of the time and when he was playing he was hardly lighting up trees. At least injury proneness isn't coded into the sim but a riskier pick than what I would've desired given there were several other options available. 2. GoodAreasShane - Travis Head (530011) Early, for mine. Though in fairness the batting depth did fall away quite dramatically looking at some of the other picks in the round. But yeah, wouldn't have considered him for another round at least. 3. morgieb - Babar Azam (348144) This pick has some risk attached, but he's still a better batsman then a couple of others picked before him (in before some smartarse argues that of course he's better than Bumrah or Anderson) right now, and in terms of potential I can genuinely see him getting to ATG levels even in Tests. Already he looks like improving a lot before the database is released. Hopefully he can tap into his h4x ODI record to some degree 4. Athlai - Mushfiqur Rahim (56029) Hard to say. I think there's a couple of better options left over, but he's a real favourite of Athlai's so hard to really care and he doesn't look out of place as a Rd 3 pick. 5. Benny - Rishabh Pant (931581) Again possibly a bit early especially given he's not a good keeper, but on potential could be a hell of a player. Maybe a couple of picks too early but hard to complain too much about this one. 6. Julian - Mayank Agarwal (398438) His Test record is insane. There's admittedly not much depth to it and he's not that proven outside of India but it's a good pick for R3 and someone who may well get a lot more valuable quickly. 7. HeathDavisSpeed - Peter Siddle (7898) Early given his recent Test performances have not been good. A real favourite of Heef's though so will keep him engaged etc, and probably would've gone before his next pick so meh. 8. Magrat Garlick - Joe Burns (326632) Not a massive fan of this pick, definitely a couple of better openers left over. It's hardly a stinker and he probably deserved to go around R3 but probably not ahead of some of the blokes he did. 9. Alex - Alastair Cook (11728) Hmmm....his Test form before retiring was bad but he still managed some decent innings. Has done well at county level without lighting up trees in recent times. Possibly a bit early but it's hardly a stinker. 10. Gazza - Jos Buttler (308967) Ehh....a few better options leftover I think. He can keep but I still think there were better batsmen-keepers left over anyway. Not a terrible pick but a bit early. 11. StephenZA - Zubayr Hamza (550187) Again early. Favourite pick admittedly but I think there was a still a decent chance he'd be on the board in R4. He has little Test exposure in him and his FC record in proper cricket doesn't have a lot of depth to it. 12. spark!ptz - Hanuma Vihari (452044) Given he can bowl a bit, a pretty decent pick. Has also done well at Test cricket thus far. 13. Phlegm - Morne Morkel (46538) Would be an excellent pick twelve months ago, but his pretty average county season might hurt a bit. Still a very fine selection this late. 14. Howe and Dan - Keshav Maharaj (267724) Comfortably the best spinner left. Excellent pick given the other world-class spinners went Round 1 or early Round 2. 15. Baxter - Ollie Pope (887207) A reach, I think. Still a pretty small sample size in his FC record and he hasn't done it batting Top 4 either, which is a bit of a concern given this is quite a bit of a step up from county cricket. He does have a lot of upside though. 16. Skippos - Rashid Khan (793463) The classic sort of player who the new rules are gonna help a lot. Without it this would be a pretty meh pick, but right now I like it. 17. Captain - Kyle Abbott (297583) Strong pick. Arguably the best bowler left over. 18. Boobidy - Mohammad Amir (290948) Excellent pick. Definitely a better quick than a few that went before him and should be able to provide great impact to the team. 19. ElvisSpike - Steve O'Keefe (7069) Given that you already had a spinner, a strange call this early. Not even convinced he's the best spinner left let alone the best bowler. Ordinary pick. 20. Hunter - Dimuth Karunaratne (227772) Great pick. Definitely a better opener than a couple of others that went earlier. 21. jimmy_c8 - Dinesh Chandimal (300628) Though he hasn't played much Tests lately, he still provides excellent balance to a side given he can bat 4/5 and keep. Very good pick. 22. MrPrez - Faf du Plessis (44828) Very good pick this. Has a long and very solid Test record and is still in OK form in the format. 23. Cabinet96 - Duanne Olivier (486679) Another very fine pick. If he's not on Morkel's and Abbott's level, he's not that far off it. 24. Number 11 - Azhar Ali (39037) Worry is his somewhat questionable recent form which is probably why he slid, still he's proven Test quality so it's hard to argue with this pick much. Best pick: Gonna give this to Dimuth Karunaratne. World-class opener that went a long time after the others. Worst pick: Travis Head. Way too early given what was left on the board for an early Round 3 pick.
I'd like to point out how good the drafting has been so far. The top 32 batsmen have all been picked, and 34 out of the top 36 (and the whole top 19) bowlers have gone. I was going to go through and just subjectively rate the teams after Round 3 but they're all close together so I'd probably just unnecrssarily dishearten people. Good start from everyone.
i didn't really take his bowling or his test record into account when picking him tbh. the bloke averages 60 in fc cricket, that's enough for me.
Yeah other than the Kumar pick there's been zero shockers so far. Most of the "worst" picks are merely kinda meh. In fairness though the shit picks tend to start happening around Round 7 or so when the field is a shitload more dilluted.
Yeah the lack of stinkers hasn't surprised me as much as the lack of quality left on the table. Usually there are a couple of players people missed or my algorithm just overrates a bit after this many picks. No real steals to be had at this point unless someone guns it before the end of January and makes himself a steal.
fair comment on my pick. I should have gone for Maharaj, but convinced myself openers would be in short supply.
He used it twice too I remember morgie once used “as tight as a bulls penis” and everyone just went wtf
There have been 80 players picked, so at least 14 players aren't included in those top players - probably more given Jadejah4x. I'm guessing these would probably be keepers or openers or a couple of the favourites that have been picked.
