India's greatest test XI

What would be India's greatest test XI: this would be mine:

1.Virender Sehwag
2.Sunil Gavaskar
3.Rahul Dravid
4.Sachin Tendulkar
5.VVS Laxman
6.Sourav Ganguly (c)
7.M.S.Dhoni (wk)
8.Kapil Dev
9.Anil Kumble
10.Zaheer Khan
11.Javagal Srinath

Bishen Bedi in for Zaheer would also have Azharuddin in for Ganguly - amazing how many players are still playing but could make an all time team on merit.

does anyone think that in tests Dev should be higher than Dhoni in the batting order, in TEST MATCHES?

Well you could argue either way. One is a bowler the other a wicket keepr. Perhaps depending on the match situation and who needs some rest.

Gavasker
Sehwag
Dravid
Tendulkar
Viswanath
Dev
Dhoni
Zaheer
Kumble
Bedi
Srinath

dev was an allrounder biligont

Yeah, I know, but he has to bowl, that is why I am saying depending on the match situation.

Dhoni's batting is slightly better than Dev's.

Galted wrote:Bishen Bedi in for Zaheer would also have Azharuddin in for Ganguly - amazing how many players are still playing but could make an all time team on merit.

agree very good for india, completle transformation to england, where our best XI are pretty much players from a long time ago.

1) Dravid
2) Dravid
3) Dravid
4) Sachin
5) Sachin
6) Sachin
7) Dhoni (c+wk)
8) Kumble
9) Dev
10) Bedi
11) Srinath

That covers that...

Gregers, you gonna be a few short when it is time to field mate.

Dhoni keeping, Dravid at square leg, Sachin at point, Kumble bowling, Kapil dev on the cover boundary, Bedi at mid off, Srinath at third man.

Tough challenge.

Its fine biltong, we have Sachin and Dravid clones

Ah, OK.

to be fair though cf, that's mostly because England have more greats to choose from than India. For instance, Cook would be close to making an all-time Indian XI, KP/Bell probably would, Anderson too, etc.

Anyway my Indian XI would be:
Sehwag
Gavaskar
Dravid
Tendulkar
Ganguly (capt)
Vijay Hazare
Kapil Dev
Kirmani
Kumble
Zaheer Khan
Bedi

Srinath, Chandrasekhar, Laxman and Azhar all unlucky to miss out

Azhar for Ganguly for me. How about Faroukh Engineer to keep wicket and bat at six or seven. Might put Chandra above Bedi. Chandra was practically unplayable at times
Reckon the MUST HAVES are Sehwag, Gavaskar, Dravid, Tendulkar and Kapil Dev (5,000 Test runs and 400 wickets and I'm not sure anyone has done that) but everyone else arguable.

I have Ganguly in because I wanted someone who could really guts it out to complement the more free-flowing play of Tendulkar and Hazare, and also for his captaincy. Chandra vs Bedi was a tight call, but I think Chandra was a more similar bowler to Kumble (bowled fast leggies with lots of googlies thrown in) so felt the difference Bedi offers would be nice.

Ganguly was a must for me...quality batsman, and offers medium pace bowling option, which india badly miss these days.

cricketfan90 wrote:Ganguly was a must for me...quality batsman, and offers medium pace bowling option, which india badly miss these days.

Mohinder Armanarth could add the medium pace but Ganguly was a better bat, possibly.

Gavaskar
Sehwag
Dravid
Tendulkar
Hazare
Armanath
Engineer
Dev
Kumble
Bedi
Srinath

Stella wrote:

cricketfan90 wrote:Ganguly was a must for me...quality batsman, and offers medium pace bowling option, which india badly miss these days.

Mohinder Armanarth could add the medium pace but Ganguly was a better bat, possibly.

maybe, but overall Ganguly was the better player IMO.

cricketfan90 wrote:

Stella wrote:

cricketfan90 wrote:Ganguly was a must for me...quality batsman, and offers medium pace bowling option, which india badly miss these days.

Mohinder Armanarth could add the medium pace but Ganguly was a better bat, possibly.

maybe, but overall Ganguly was the better player IMO.

Yeah, can't argue with that.

Sunil Gavaskar.
Virender Sehwag.
Rahul Dravid.
Sachin Tendulkar.
Gundappa Viswanath.
Kapil Dev.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni?
Vinu Mankad?
Anil Kumble.
Javakal Srinath.
Zaheer Khan.
The top 4 pick themselves. Kapil Dev and Anil Kumble too, there may be a questionmark on Kapil's batting position.
On the wicket keeping front, there is Kirmani, considered by many as India's best with the gloves, there is engineer who was pretty good with the gloves and attacking with the bat. But as an overall package, I think Dhoni just makes it.
Mankad was a superb all-rounder for India. good with the bat, good with the ball. Although Chandra, Bedi and even Harbhajan?, too havve claims, considering Kapil and Dhoni are batting at 6 and 7 they would need Mankad's batting skills as well.
With Kapil, Zaheer, and Srinath in there, all the finest in that department will be in there.
But in the batting department, there is Vensarkar, there is VVS Laxman, there is Vijay Hazare and there of course is Sourav Ganguly. Mohinder Amarnath too has a decent claim. But for me, its Vishi who would get the nod.
Azhar would have been considered, but then there is the stigma associated with him, and his overseas record wasn't the finest either.

Forgot about Mankad, but I'm struggling to fit him in, quite keen in having the streetfighter Ganguly in my XI. Hazare bowled a bit, didn't he?

Many consider Vensarkar, Vishwanath, and VVS as better bats than Dada Sourav.

What about the great India team of 1986:-

1 Sunil Gavaskar
2 Kris Srikkanth
3 Mohinder Armarnath
4 Dulip Vengsarkar
5 Mohammed Azharuddin
6 Ravi Shastri
7 Kapil Dev
8 Kieran More
9 Roger Binny
10 Chetan Sharma
11 Maninder Singh (India's greatest left arm slow bowler since Bishen Bedi)
12th Man Sundeep Patil