Worst Test XI from your country

[smash84]

SS Das has got to be there, surely.

You mean shiv sunder das?? What about Hrishikesh Kanitkar???

 

[Blaze 18]

You mean shiv sunder das?? What about Hrishikesh Kanitkar???

Yeah, that's him. Kanitkar might be worth a mention. I didn't mention him because I took a liking to him ever since that Dhaka match, where he hit a last ball four against Saqlain to help India chase what was then the highest score in ODIs IIRC

 

[Isura]

Hard time topping these all stars. All have test caps.

Michael Vandort
Avishka Gunawardene
Jehan Mubarak
Russell Arnold
Chamara Silva
Prasanna Jawardene
Farveez Maharoof
Kumar Dharmasena
Pramoda Wichramasinghe
Kumara Pushpakamara

 

[Arjun]

For India-

• Ghulam Parkar
• Deep Dasgupta (WK)
• Maharaj of Vizianagaram (C)
• Hrishikesh Kanitkar
• Vijay Bharadwaj (OB)
• MSK Prasad (WK)
• Parthiv Patel (WK)
• Noel David (OB)
• David Johnson (RM)
• Paras Mhambrey (RM)
• Jaidev Unadkat (LM)

I included Ghulam Parkar as he was Sunil Gavaskar's wild choice to open the innings in that one Test, which many felt was ill-deserved. Yes, there are three wicketkeepers, whom I had chosen because there was this more recent belief that wicketkeepers should have some batting ability- and none of these had any ability before or behind the stumps. You'd hardly find batsmen who were undeserving of their places in the Indian team.

I wouldn't be surprised, though, if the worst ever India XI comes from the pre-Independence teams, when players rarely made the team on merit.

 

[chicane]

^ Haha premature mentioning Unadkat but would include most of the others in my worst India team too. Noel David! Forgot about him! EDIT: He didn't get a test cap. Would replace him with Dodda Ganesh or Nilesh Kulkarni.

 

[Cevno]

sanjay bangar as a opener?

Salil Ankola? Subroto Banerjee?Harvinder Singh? VRV Singh?Tinu Yohannan?Vivek Razdan?MSK Prasad?Atul Wassan?
To name a few.

 

[Andre]

Hard time topping these all stars. All have test caps.

Prasanna Jawardene

Tough call, he's just about the best gloveman in the world!

 

[smash84]

Yeah, that's him. Kanitkar might be worth a mention. I didn't mention him because I took a liking to him ever since that Dhaka match, where he hit a last ball four against Saqlain to help India chase what was then the highest score in ODIs IIRC

lol...........true.........that was such a gun match........absolutely couldn't believe that India had chased such a huge score.........

 

[nsniks]

For India-

• Ghulam Parkar
• Deep Dasgupta (WK)
• Maharaj of Vizianagaram (C)
• Hrishikesh Kanitkar
• Vijay Bharadwaj (OB)
• MSK Prasad (WK)
• Parthiv Patel (WK)
• Noel David (OB)
• David Johnson (RM)
• Paras Mhambrey (RM)
• Jaidev Unadkat (LM)

I included Ghulam Parkar as he was Sunil Gavaskar's wild choice to open the innings in that one Test, which many felt was ill-deserved. Yes, there are three wicketkeepers, whom I had chosen because there was this more recent belief that wicketkeepers should have some batting ability- and none of these had any ability before or behind the stumps. You'd hardly find batsmen who were undeserving of their places in the Indian team.

I wouldn't be surprised, though, if the worst ever India XI comes from the pre-Independence teams, when players rarely made the team on merit.

In place of parthiv, I would include jacob martin, rest I agree

 

[vcs]

Yeah, that's him. Kanitkar might be worth a mention. I didn't mention him because I took a liking to him ever since that Dhaka match, where he hit a last ball four against Saqlain to help India chase what was then the highest score in ODIs IIRC

Kanitkar became a real cult hero after that. Played around 50 odd ODIs, basically on the strength of that one boundary.

 

[vcs]

For India-

• Ghulam Parkar
• Deep Dasgupta (WK)
• Maharaj of Vizianagaram (C)
• Hrishikesh Kanitkar
• Vijay Bharadwaj (OB)
• MSK Prasad (WK)
• Parthiv Patel (WK)
• Noel David (OB)
• David Johnson (RM)
• Paras Mhambrey (RM)
• Jaidev Unadkat (LM)

I included Ghulam Parkar as he was Sunil Gavaskar's wild choice to open the innings in that one Test, which many felt was ill-deserved. Yes, there are three wicketkeepers, whom I had chosen because there was this more recent belief that wicketkeepers should have some batting ability- and none of these had any ability before or behind the stumps. You'd hardly find batsmen who were undeserving of their places in the Indian team.

I wouldn't be surprised, though, if the worst ever India XI comes from the pre-Independence teams, when players rarely made the team on merit.

That's a quality team. I mean, some quality rubbish in there.

 

[smash84]

Kanitkar became a real cult hero after that. Played around 50 odd ODIs, basically on the strength of that one boundary.

That's a quality team. I mean, some quality rubbish in there.

 

[Arjun]

sanjay bangar as a opener?

Salil Ankola? Subroto Banerjee?Harvinder Singh? VRV Singh?Tinu Yohannan?Vivek Razdan?MSK Prasad?Atul Wassan?
To name a few.

Sanjay Bangar was fine, not terrible, did a job in a limited capacity but got little to play with. The rest are either average or unlucky, and could have done their bit.

In place of parthiv, I would include jacob martin, rest I agree

Jacob Martin never got a Test cap. In that respect, my choice of Noel David was incorrect, but he was a strong contender for a Test cap. Until someone asked that question.

My selection wasn't just that of mediocre or less impressive cricketers, but blokes who largely didn't deserve to be in the side. Parthiv Patel didn't deserve to be there, as his keeping was poor and batting not good enough even for ODIs- which is why Rahul Dravid was stuck with oversized gloves and pads behind the stumps. Proper wicketkeepers like Mongia, Ratra and Vinayak Samant were denied their places in the side, and even Pankaj Dharmani, the then best wicketkeeper-batsman, was excluded. There's no way Noel David, David Johnson or MSK Prasad (or Dodda Ganesh) deserved to be in the team ahead of Bahutule, Kulkarni, Kuruvilla and Dighe, top Mumbai players who made that team a formidable unit in domestic cricket. But the selectors wanted the team to be more cosmopolitan.

 

[Arjun]

That's a quality team. I mean, some quality rubbish in there.

It could get much worse- look at most pre-Independence Indian teams. I often thought there was a link between independence and the first victory. My father said that those old teams were never picked on merit.

 

[zaremba]

Any Australian XI would surely have to have Kenny Burn behind the stumps.

Wisden of the time termed his selection as wicketkeeper the one serious mistake in making up the side for the 1890 Ashes tour of England, and described how only when he had accepted the terms offered him and joined the ship at Adelaide was the discovery made that he had never kept wicket in his life.

 

[Smudge]

So much to choose from....
1. Blair Hartland
2. Michael Papps (remarkably has a worse record than Darrin Murray or Blair Pocock)
3. Richard Jones
4. Murray Parker
5. Peter Webb
6.Paul McEwean
7. Lee Germon (c)
8. Brooke Walker
9. Robert Kennedy
10. David Sewell
11. Murray Webb

 

[fredfertang]

So much to choose from....
1. Blair Hartland
2. Michael Papps (remarkably has a worse record than Darrin Murray or Blair Pocock)
3. Richard Jones
4. Murray Parker
5. Peter Webb
6.Paul McEwean
7. Lee Germon (c)
8. Brooke Walker
9. Robert Kennedy
10. David Sewell
11. Murray Webb

Jock Edwards would be the first name on my NZ version of this - though I suspect he may be a bit of an "Eddie the Eagle" type folk hero

 

[Flem274*]

Harsh on Papps and Jones imo. Papps is a quality domestic player and Jones only got one test, and managed an ODI stint that wasn't terrible.

Blair Pocock couldn't average over 30 in FC and played 15 tests. I'd pick him.

James Marshall should also be around the team imo.

 

[Smudge]

Harsh on Papps and Jones imo. Papps is a quality domestic player and Jones only got one test, and managed an ODI stint that wasn't terrible.

I don't know if you had noticed, but the thread title isn't "Worst Test XI made up of guys who were quality domestic players and didn't go terrible in ODI stints from your country".

 

[robelinda]

What about that pace bowler who played one test in 1996? Can't recall his name, but his only test wicket was that of Michael Slater, and led to Slats being dropped.

did someone call me?

YouTube - ‪GREAT CATCH Mohammad Azharuddin catches Michael Slater 1996 vs Australia‬‏