My Dream XI: Sussex batsman Luke Wells

Ed Joyce

One of the most consistent batsmen I’ve ever played with. I learnt a lot from him. He’s probably one of the best around off stump I’ve ever seen and an extremely graceful player as well.

Stiaan van Zyl

I played with him for the first time last season. He came into the Sussex team and got 1,000 runs in his first year in county cricket which is a phenomenal effort. Very consistent player, he just churns runs out. Stiaan can bowl a few seamers as well.

Murray Goodwin

His record speaks for itself and the fact he was still churning them out at over 40 is testament to the skill and desire of the man to score runs.

Ross Taylor

Obviously, he’s an international, world- class player. We had him as an overseas player for the past two seasons and he did phenomenally in the T20.

Matt Prior

One of the best wicketkeeper-batsmen England have ever had. He was just a fine performer and is another international-class player coming in high up. Matt turned himself into a very effective keeper, too.

Luke Wright

Whenever he scores runs, he scores them at such a rate that he can take a game away from the opposition very, very quickly, so he’s a great person to have coming in at six. I don’t know if he’d bowl or not, but I’ve got him in there.

Ben Brown

He and Matt Prior will have to organise who keeps between them. Browny’s record at number six and seven has gone fairly unnoticed but he is right up there with the best batting keepers. I think both he and Matt are fantastic but Browny was perhaps a bit more natural to start with.

Jofra Archer

He’s blown me away. Some of the spells I’ve seen him bowl have been out of this world, and he’s right up there with one of the best bowlers I’ve ever seen. He’s coming in at eight because he’s more than handy with the willow as well. He’s off to the IPL soon for his big million-dollar contract so hopefully he’ll go well in that and come back and take loads of wickets for us.

Rana Naved-ul-Hasan

I managed to play with him at the beginning of my career at Sussex, one of the deadliest wicket-takers around if he had a reversing ball or if he felt the rhythm. When he sniffed an opportunity, I saw him blast teams away with incredible skills – yorkers, slower balls, pace, conventional swing, reverse swing, flat wickets. As a seamer, he had it all, and bowled unplayable spells at times.

Steve Magoffin

Ever-reliable, he has churned out 60 wickets a season for Worcestershire consistently for five or six years. He’s just relentlessly accurate, Glenn McGrath-like, and when he was absolutely on song, his pace was up and he could still hit people in the head. He bowled the batsmen absolutely no freebies, always testing your technique. A nightmare to face.

Monty Panesar

When he was on fire for us, he was one of the best spinners I’ve ever seen. It didn’t matter if it was the first game of the year in April on a green seamer, once the openers had finished their spell, then-captain Michael Yardy would happily plonk him up the hill as first change and he’d just bowl and bowl. He held the bowling unit together. With the pace he bowled and the revolutions he got, he was unplayable when conditions suited him, and went at two an over when they didn’t. A great player.