Cricinfo has been picking the all time greatest Test XIs for all countries. And after an endless wait today they have started the process for picking the Indian Test XI. Here are my picks for the all time best Indian line-up for test matches.
1. Sunil Gavaskar
2. Virender Sehwag
3. Rahul Dravid
4. Sachin Tendulkar
5. Mohammed Azharuddin
6. Kapil Dev
7. Syed Kirmani
8. Anil Kumble
9. Javagal Srinath
10. Bishan Singh Bedi
11. B Chandrasekhar
This was a pretty easy selection. I guess most would agree with at least 9 spots. The only really debatable ones are Azhar & Bedi's spots.
And for the reserves (or the other shortlisted)
Openers - Vijay Merchant, Gautam Gambhir
Middle Order Batsmen - Gundappa Vishwanath, Saurav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, Mohinder Amarnath
Wicketkeeper - MS Dhoni, Farokh Engineer
Allounder - Manoj Prabhakar, Vinoo Mankad, Ravi Shastri
Fast Bowlers - Zaheer Khan, Venkatesh Prasad
Spinners - Harbhajan Singh, Venkatraghavan, Prasanna, Subhash Gupte
Now for the captain.
India's best captains Nawab Pataudi Jr. & Saurav Ganguly have missed out being selected in my lineup. 8 of the 11 have captained India in Test cricket. So just going in for Azharuddin as captain. (Hardly lost in India, hardly won abroad)
Lets see what the experts come up with.
Quite an apt choice and you might concur with the cricinfo jury as well. However, I would like to make 3 changes in this side. I wanted to make 4 changes, but couldn't think of any better fast/seam bowler than Srinath in the Indian cricketing history. So, I would go for this Test XI:
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2. Virender Sehwag
3. Rahul Dravid
4. Sachin Tendulkar
5. VVS Laxman - Higher average than his competitors (azhar, ganguly, vengsarkar, vishwanath), Better with tail-enders, and of course he has played the best ever Indian innings in test cricket.
6. Kapil Dev
7. MS Dhoni (c) - May be a notch below Kirmani in keeping, but I feel that he may soon catch up. Meanwhile his pure-batsman-like average will suffice. Captain because he is a calm strategist and moreover,it was under his captaincy that India climbed to No. 1 spot
8. Anil Kumble
9. Javagal Srinath
10. EAS Prasanna - Tough comeptition, but I would go with an off-spinner in a side so enriched with 'different' kind of leg-spinners
11. B Chandrasekhar