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best indian test team
- Thread starter sumantra
- Start date
Outswinger@Pace
International 12th Man
According to your criteria, I'm only selecting guys who played a fair share of cricket after 1980 or so. It's a shame because all the great spinners (bar one) are lost.
Team A (for tests in the sub-continent)
S.Gavaskar
V.Sehwag
R.Dravid
S.Tendulkar
S.Ganguly (capt.)
V.V.S.Laxman
Kapil Dev
Ravi Shastri
Syed Kirmani (wk.)
Anil Kumble
Zaheer Khan
Team B (for tests outside the sub-continent)
S.Gavaskar
G.Gambhir
R.Dravid (capt.)
S.Tendulkar
G.Viswanath
M.Amarnath
Kapil Dev
Syed Kirmani (wk.)
Anil Kumble
Javagal Srinath
Zaheer Khan
Team A (for tests in the sub-continent)
S.Gavaskar
V.Sehwag
R.Dravid
S.Tendulkar
S.Ganguly (capt.)
V.V.S.Laxman
Kapil Dev
Ravi Shastri
Syed Kirmani (wk.)
Anil Kumble
Zaheer Khan
Team B (for tests outside the sub-continent)
S.Gavaskar
G.Gambhir
R.Dravid (capt.)
S.Tendulkar
G.Viswanath
M.Amarnath
Kapil Dev
Syed Kirmani (wk.)
Anil Kumble
Javagal Srinath
Zaheer Khan
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Vijay.Sharma
School Boy/Girl Captain
Sunil Gavaskar
Virendra Sehwag
Rahul Dravid
The Batting Buddha
VVS Laxman
Mahendra Singh Dhoni
Kapil Dev
Harbhajan Singh
Anil Kumble
Zaheer Khan
Javagal Srinath
Virendra Sehwag
Rahul Dravid
The Batting Buddha
VVS Laxman
Mahendra Singh Dhoni
Kapil Dev
Harbhajan Singh
Anil Kumble
Zaheer Khan
Javagal Srinath
yes, good team actually, of course there are bound to be differences...and we have few, not much...inside sub continent u included ravi shastri, guess, it's because of his all around ability, but honestly, could he really bat or bowl? his test average were 37 in india and 35 outside, while his strike rate was more than 100!!! both in and out of india...inclusion of ravi is a sorry message...i think, in indian sub continent u need 2 genuine spinners, and they are going to take balk of the wickets, not someone who got 151 wickets in 80 test matches, so i would always fancy harbhajan singh...i won't mind even a dilip doshi...but shastri...NO...all the rest ius fine for me...about the outside sub continent one i have more problems actually, 1) how can u replace gambhir with sehwag? we tend to get intimidated by the recent performances, i know, but sehwag was absolutely out of the game in this english tour dear...he did very well in S. A and Aus before...i will alaways have him for the sheer impact....2) very surprised to see viswanath in that overseas team, if u wanted to have him in the side, u could have thought about having him in that sub continent team, cos he never really did much outside sub continent...he is the third home giant of indian cricket, after vengsarkar and azharuddin...his average in india was 47, and outside 37...
well, that batting buddha is one i didnt get much...who are u talking about!!!!!!! M. S. Dhoni is a third grade keeper, may be a slightly better batsman than kirmani, but i need a genuine keeper, i am afraid...rest is fine, whether there will be srinath or harbhajan depends on the surface u r playing, that's ok...
smash84
The Tiger King
The problem with the best Indian team is that it suffers on the bowling front. If they try to bolster the batting then they fall short with the batting.
My best Indian line up would be
Sehwag
Gavaskar
Dravid
Sachin
Azhar (vc)
Laxman
Dhoni (c)
Kapil
Kumble
Zaheer
Srinath
This side bats very deep and has an extremely strong batting line up (which will play to india's strength) and adding any other bowler post 80 doesn't really help the team balance that much.
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marc71178
Eyes not spreadsheets
Simple then, bat AA at 7, the man has more Test centuries at Lords than Tendulkar FFS!
weldone
Hall of Fame Member
fixed
flibbertyjibber
Request Your Custom Title Now!
Ajit Agarkar Appreciation Society. 
mohinder as a far better batsman than azhar or laxman, having him in place of aany of the two, actually, will also boost the balance of the side (something u seem mostly concerned about) and yes, dhoni is probably a better batsman than kirmani, but pathetic behind the wickets...kirmani was a standard wicketkeeper batsman...and 10 times better than dhoni behind the wickets
smash84
The Tiger King
actually I forgot all about Amarnath.......and of course balance matters.........it won't do me much good if I place all of Pakistan's top bowlers in one team will it?
In place of Azhar or Laxman we can have Amarnath. Laxman plays very well under pressure so I guess Azhar gets the boot
In place of Azhar or Laxman we can have Amarnath. Laxman plays very well under pressure so I guess Azhar gets the boot
yeah nice team actually, but any such overall team is difficult to talk about, since u have included players like hazare, nissar and gupte...can't think of having an all time indian test team without mohinder though, specially if u r playing outside sub continent...anyway, thats a well thought out team...
yes, of course balance matters, what i wanted to mean is that since u have mentioned that and made a team keeping that in mind, then how can u not have amarnath! anyway, u can boot azhar to keep jimmy, and laxman is a better test batsman than azhar (specially outside sub continent), but again, if that balance thing comes into the picture, laxman is a pathetic fielder, azhar is outstanding...so what do u say? well, i think, if we are playing in the sub continent we can actually have both of them, azhar and laxman in the team, and not jimmy...but when the side goes out, jimmy is a must, and azhar has to get out...
weldone
Hall of Fame Member
Thanks.
Regarding the Jimmy issue, Hazare was an awesome player outside the subcontinent. Laxman is a very good player of pace and bounce as well (re: his record in Australia, South Africa etc); he's not that good against top quality swing bowling in condusive conditions (England etc). But if I have to replace him with a top-class player of fast bowling, that would be Gundappa Vishwanath. Mohinder Amarnath was very good too, no doubt, but I rate Vishy just a bit higher.
Interestingly, if I have to replace Laxman with someone 'only in England', Vengsarkar or Ganguly won't do too bad either.
In the subcontinent, Azharuddin was probably as good as any of them, if not the best of the lot.
Having said all that, the 3 Indian players with the best attacking techniques against fast bowling in the last 50 years or so were Tendulkar, Vishwanath and Amarnath IMO. (while the 3 with best defensive techniques against fast bowling were probably Gavaskar, Tendulkar and Dravid)
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marc71178
Eyes not spreadsheets
As in Sami? Think there may be, but it's a cheap rip-off of the original and best.