ALL-TIME INDIA TEST XI

ALL-TIME INDIA TEST XI 

1. Vijay Merchant 

2. Sunil Gavaskar 

3. Vijay Hazare 

4. Sachin Tendulkar 

5. Rahul Dravid 

6. Vinoo Mankad (c)

7. Farokh Engineer (w)

8. Kapil Dev 

9. Amar Singh 

10. Mohammad Nissar 

11. Bhagwat Chandrasekhar

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12. Virender Sehwag (opener/middle order)

13. Mahendra Singh Dhoni (w)

14. Ramakant Desai (fast medium)

15. Dattu Phadkar (fast medium/all rounder)

16. Subhas Gupte (leg spinner)

17. Virat Kohli (middle order)

THE SELECTION RATIONALE 

Merchant and Gavaskar were automatic choices as the opening pair on account of their technical soundness. Both were equally adept against pace and spin and comfortable in the English swinging conditions. Both had enormous reserves of concentration, loads of patience to wear down the opposition bowlers and were capable of playing a long innings. Merchant's first class batting average is 71, only next to Bradman. Gavaskar's records need no mention. They remain unsurpassed by any opening batsman in Test cricket history. He could simply block out an entire oppositipn bowling attack indefinitely and save a Test match under almost impossible conditions. Sometimes he batted two days and more to do so. With these two at the helm of the batting order India can weather all storms. 

As if this was not enough, Vijay Hazare follows next. A trifle unwieldy in batting style, Hazare was the proverbial wall in our line-up at a time when India was taking her first infant steps to cricketing maturity. Facing Lindwall and Miller, the deadley pace duo of Bradman's prospective Invincibles, and scoring a century in each innings of the 1946-47 Adelaide Test, then going on to remaining defiantly undefeated at 30 in all-time low score of 52 all out in the 1952 Old Trafford Test with the Yorkshireman Freddie Trueman doing the damage taking 8 wickets for 31, Hazare has passed into Indian cricketing folklore as the original defensive wall against opposition attack. Hazare comes in at no. 3.

Tendulkar bats at his customary position at no. 4. Is there anyone who would contest his occupancy there? Arguably the second greatest Test batsman of all time, Tendulkar's record speaks for itself. 51 Test centuries from 200 Test matches at a fair pace when necessary, with exhilarating strokeplay all round the wicket, adept against pace and murderous against spin, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar is an adornment to the Indian batting line-up.

Rahul Dravid has been selected at no. 5 to give a defensive solidity to the line-up as India will have to face the best of all time from other more formidable cricketing powers of the world. He will be the wall that will resist the onslaught of opposition attacks. His enormous concentration, capacity for playing long innings, immaculate defence and ability to play well under all conditions, including the heavily swinging English conditions, make him the choice for no. 5. Dravid will also be a specialist slip catcher to both our pacemen and our spinners.

Controversially perhaps, Vinoo Mankad who I consider the ultimate professional with vast county cricket experience and possessed of an acute understanding of the game, is my captain. Driven by the will to win, a master with both bat and ball, the finest left-arm spinner with a wide variety of foxing deliveries and an opening bat with two Test double centuries to credit, a match-winner with both bat and ball, Vinoo Mankad to my mind was the greatest all-rounder India ever produced, even better than the mercurial Kapil Dev, and is therefore my choice at no. 6. An added advantage in positioning Mankad here is that in a long enough Indian innings he will be most handy in negotiating the second new ball along with wicket-keeper Farokh Engineer who is at no. 7 but has Test centuries to his credit as a swashbuckling opening batsman.

At no. 8 comes Kapil Dev with all his bowling and batting repertoire to lend wholeness to the side. Inimitable in approach to the game -- for who can forget his Trent Bridge 175 against Zimbabwe in the 1975 World Cup when India was tottering at 17/5, or who could have hit four sixes to clear the deficit in a Test match to save the team from following on as Kapil did with the last man in with him? -- , the Haryana lad ushered India into the big league of teams spearheaded by pace attacks, whose harvest we are reaping today.

There have not been im India better fast bowlers than Amar Singh and Mohammad Nissar on whom the then English players like Walter Hammond showered praises. They form India's finest opening attack followed by Kapil Dev as the swinging first change before spinners Vinoo Mankad and Bhagwat Chandrasekhar lead the charge with the old ball. Amar Singh was also a fine bat and provides great depth to the batting line-up towards the tail. Nissar was express fast and therefore an indispensable asset to the bowling line-up.

Last comes the genius Bhagwat Subramaniam Chandrasekhar, the infirm right arm that spun its way through batsmen's defences and left stumps spread-eagled. The matchwinner for India who could fox the best of batsmen and triumph on his day with his medium fast leg-breaks, top-spinners and googlies. Simply indispensable to the side.

That does the team with Vinoo Mankad the skipper raring to go at the opposition. God bless the India XI !

Selected and written by Sugata Bose