DREAM TEST TEAMS -- ALL-TIME WORLD TEST CRICKET CHAMPIONSHIP

DREAM TEST TEAMS -- ALL-TIME WORLD TEST CRICKET CHAMPIONSHIP

Dream India Test XI

1. Vijay Merchant 

2. Sunil Gavaskar

3. Virender Sehwag 

4. Sachin Tendulkar 

5. Rahul Dravid 

6. Vinoo Mankad ☆☆●

7. Mahendra Singh Dhoni [[[

8. Kapil Dev ☆●

9. Jasprit Bumrah ●

10. Amar Singh ●

11. Bhagwat Chandrasekhar ●

Dream Australia Test XI

1. Matthew Hayden

2. Bill Ponsford

3. Don Bradman ☆☆

4. Steve Smith

5. Stan McCabe

6. Adam Gilchrist [[[

7. Keith Miller ●

8. Ray Lindwall ●

9. Shane Warne ☆●

10. Dennis Lillee ●

11. Bill O'Reilly ●

Dream West Indies Test XI

1. Frank Worrell ☆☆●

2. Gordon Greenidge 

3. Vivian Richards 

4. George Headley

5. Brian Lara 

6. Garry Sobers ☆●

7. Jeff Dujon [[[

8. Malcolm Marshall ●

9. Andy Roberts ●

10. Joel Garner ●

11. Lance Gibbs ●

Dream England Test XI

1. Jack Hobbs 

2. Len Hutton ☆☆

3. Wally Hammond ☆●

4. Denis Compton 

5. Ken Barrington

6. Ian Botham ●

7. Wifred Rhodes ●

8. Alan Knott [[[

9. Harold Larwood ●

10. Fred Trueman ●

11. Sidney Barnes ●

Dream South Africa Test XI

1. Barry Richards ☆☆

2. Graeme Smith 

3. Graeme Pollock 

4. Dudley Nourse

5. Jack Kallis ●

6. Eddie Barlow ●

7. Shaun Pollock ☆●

8. Mark Boucher [[[

9. Hugh Tayfield ●

10. Dale Steyn ●

11. Allan Donald ●

Dream Pakistan Test XI

1. Hanif Mohammad

2. Babar Azam

3. Zaheer Abbas

4. Javed Miandad ☆

5. Inzamam-ul-Haq  

6. Imran Khan ☆☆●

7. Moin Khan [[[

8. Wasim Akram ●

9. Abdul Qadir ●

10. Waqar Younis ●

11. Shoab Akhrar ●

Dream Sri Lanka Test XI

1. Sanath Jayasuriya ●

2. Marvan Atapattu 

3. Kumar Sangakkara [[[

4. Aravinda de Silva 

5. Mahela Jayawardene ☆

6. Tilakaratne Dilshan ●

7. Arjuna Ranatunga ☆☆

8. Chaminda Vaas ●

9. Rangana Herath ●

10. Lasith Malinga ●

11. Muttiah Muralidaran ●

Dream New Zealand Test XI

1. Glen Turner

2. Kane Williamson

3. Brendon McCullum [[[

4. Martin Crowe ☆☆

5. Nathan Astle 

6. Bevan Congdon ●

7. Chris Cairns ●

8. Daniel Vettori ●

9. Richard Hadlee ☆●

10. Trent Boult ●

11. Shane Bond ●

Umpires: Frank Chester, Dicky Bird, David Constant, David Shepherd, Srinivas Venkataraghavan, Steve Bucknor, Billy Bowden, Darrel Hair, Simon Taufel, Steve Davis, Aleem Dar, Kumar Dharmasena, Rudi Koertzen.

Scorer and statistician: Bill Frindall

Commentators: John Arlott, Brian Johnston, Christopher Martin Jenkins, Trevor Bailey, E. W. Swanton, Richie Benaud, Bill Lawry, Ian Chappell, Tony Cozier, Tony Lewis, Henry Blofeld, Robin Jackman.

Journalists: H. S. Altham, Neville Cardus, E. W. Swanton, Alan Gibson, Ray Robinson, John Woodcock, Jack Fingleton, Christopher Martin Jenkins, John Arlott, Tony Cozier, Colin Bateman, Gideon Haigh, Jack Egan.

Venues: Lord's, Oval, Headingley, Old Trafford, Brisbane, Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Bridgetown Barbados, Port of Spain, Georgetown Guyana, Eden Gardens, Mumbai, Chennai, Colombo, Kandy, Lahore, Karachi, Auckland, Wellington, Johannesburg, Cape Town. 

Selected by Sugata Bose

Comments :

Sugata Bose @Indibar Gurdas Mukherjee : Yes, I did it [the selection of the Dream Teams] through the depth of the night into the wee hours and it rolled on till the day had well broken through and cast its morning beams.

Sugata Bose @Amarnath Ghosh : You have a point. But Steve Smith's record is simply phenomenal, next to Don Bradman's in Test cricket. However, I do concede the point that Greg Chappell had to contend with a better breed of bowlers as all others of that era had to, and he triumphed against virtually all of them barring in his twilight years against the fearsome Windies' four-pronged pace attack which was easily the best the world has ever seen and that, too, by Sir Donald's admission which is the ultimate accolade a cricketer would deem for performance well done. Steve Smith's record in the Ashes is, barring Bradman's, the best ever for an Australian, especially in England, and he keeps consistently performing at his very best every time the Aussies meet their old rivals. By the time Smith hangs his boots he will have torn to shreds all Test records except perhaps the 99.94 per innings Test average by Bradman and the 400 not out by Lara. So it seems at least to me. Interesting enough will to see how he fares against the Indian spinners on Indian soil which the current series should be a pointer to. So, on the eve of the second Test Match, dear Amarnath, you have given me food for fresh thought regarding the two Australian greats. Greg Chappell was the dominant middle order batsman of his era before the mantle passed on to Viv Richards. Steve Smith is doing consistently better in Test cricket than his other four peers in Virat Kohli, Kane Williamson, Joe Root and Babar Azam. Where it all leads to and where it all eventually ends remains to be seen. Good morning.

Sugata Bose @Amitabha Dutta Majumdar : Their [Vinoo Mankad and Amar Singh] memory remains in my dream and necessarily so in my Dream Test Team for India.

Sugata Bose @Riya Bhattacharya : No, not at all. Happily I abide in cricketing lore, selecting my dream eleven across the ages for all Test playing nations.