Your choice– best playing XI from a match

[Arjun]

Indian 11 :
Sunil Gavaskar
Sachin Tendulkar
Rahul Dravid
Sourav Ganguly
Mohammed Azharuddin
Mahendra Singh DHoni
Kapil Dev
Anil Kumble
Harbhajan SIngh
Javagal Srinath
Venkaesh Prasad

Good attempt, but we're discussing actual playing XI's from matches, not ideal ones.

 

[Arjun]

For India, far too often we've seen three spinners in the team, and that's not a good thing for the pace prospects out there. Here's one team that travelled to England and won the Test series there.

• Gavaskar
• Srikkanth
• Amarnath
• Vengsarkar
• Azharuddin
• Shastri (SLA)
• Kapil Dev (C, RMF)
• Kiran More (WK)
• Chetan Sharma (RMF)
• Maninder Singh (SLA)

Here's a team that didn't do well in South Africa. They just blew it, losing 0-1 in 4 matches. This team played in the early 90's. They had makeshift openers in all matches, and none of them fitted the bill.

• Jadeja
• Prabhakar (RMF)
• Manjrekar
• Tendulkar
• Azharuddin (C)
• Amre
• Kapil Dev (RMF)
• Kiran More (WK)
• Kumble (LBG)
• Raju (SLA)
• Srinath (RFM)

Neither were strong fielding XI's, and that's often weakened the Indians as a bowling unit. Not surprisingly, Kapil figures in both.

 

[SJS]

The Indian team that played a second string West Indies team at hom during the Packer era in the first test match at Wankhede in Dec 1978 must be very close to being one of their best ever. It read

1. Sunil Gavaskar
2. Chetan Chauhan
3. Mohinder Amarnath
4. Gundappa Vishwanath
5. Dilip Vengsarkar
6. Kapil Dev
7. Syed Kirmani
8. Karsen Ghavri
9. Venkataraghavan
10. Bishan Bedi
11. Bhagwat Chandrashekhar

- In Gavaskar, Amarnath, Vishwanath and Vengsarkar it has four of India's al time stars who would be on most people's shortlists for an all time Indian team.
- In Chauhan it had the best opening partner Gavaskar ever had in his long career.
- In Kapil it had India's greatest all rounder and best ever new ball bowler.
- In Kirmani it has, arguably the best man India has ever had with the large gloves.
- In Bedi it has India's best ever left arm spinner
- In Chandrashekhar it has one of the greatest match winners India has produced.
- In Venkataraghavan it has a world class off spinner (though not the best in India even at that time)

Prasanna could actually have been in that team.

If only we could have a better new ball partner for Kapil it would give beat most other Indian teams even if they were picked from different eras. And thats saying a lot. And we havent had a great pair of opening bowlers bowling twgether after the first ever test match in 1932, have we?

I would say, for a team that actually played together in a test match for India, this one would be hard to beat for its all round strength.

 

[Arjun]

That's very much a good combination, especially with Ghavri as the fifth bowler and eighth batting option.

However, I wouldn't consider any Indian team with three spinners as the best Indian team ever, nor would I say it would be an all-time Indian XI, simply because that selection didn't help matters much. Rather, it has worked against the interest of Indian cricket in the long term.

Initially, the Indian team had a fine pace attack, with Amar Singh and Mohammed Nissar. When Harold Larwood, a lethal fast bowler of the era, spoke high of them, you know how good these two were. Then a spinner took nine wickets in an innings and then the selectors thought they should go in with three spinners, or more, and so pace was reduced to being an also-ran.

This didn't always work wonders for the Indians, and they still struggled to win Test matches consistently, especially away from India. More importantly, pace bowlers were reduced to just making up the numbers in all ranks of the game in India.

Then came Kapil Dev and the scene changed for the better. That's why he will always figure in the best Indian team that ever played, or in any Indian all-time XI. Still, we found seamers only picked to play abroad, when things are not going their team's way, but only roughing up the new ball (not taking wickets) at home. There were a few pacers who could have done a good job for the Indian team at that time, but lopsided selection policies didn't help them at all. Having three spinners is just as lopsided as having makeshift openers.

 

[FRAZ]

The Indian team that played a second string West Indies team at hom during the Packer era in the first test match at Wankhede in Dec 1978 must be very close to being one of their best ever. It read

.

LOL you know what! I remember reading old urdu and english newspapers of that time and in those newspapers there was a discussion about the Indian Team winning a one day match in Quetta Pakistan .I guess right before the above mentioned series or after this one there was a series between Pakistan n India and India visited Pakistan .And Urdu and English newspapers were giving front page coverage to that Indo-Pak series.
Actually I was searching for some thing in the store of my home and I found old newspapers of 1970'sand yes I remember reading about Gavaskar and Chandrashekhar .They were some big names in Indian Cricket and actually I guess one chracter of the Indian film Lagaan was inspired by ChandraShekhar. That person was a true spirit and he was a great and I admire him .

 

[LongHopCassidy]

To those in the know - was Prasanna or Venkat a superior offie?

 

[SJS]

To those in the know - was Prasanna or Venkat a superior offie?

Prasanna by hundreds of miles.

There was no comparison between them. But for the politics of Indian cricket Venkit would never have played except if they wanted to play both.