On closer look, we'll find that there's a small matter of the matches against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. But these will be dealt with too, when we try and capture the essence of this decade.
The 2000s started most disastrously for team India. After yet another Australian whitewash, it was the turn of Cronje's Proteas blanking India at Home. And then the most forgettable incident in Cricket's history, which threatened annihilation of the game itself. It left India reeling, with yesteryears' heroes, Azhar and Jadeja being proved guilty of match fixing.
But from the rubble emerged a new India, much like the Reneissance after centuries of strife. And leading them from the front was Saurav Ganguly. The Prince led his men to their first test win of the decade, and an overseas one at that, against debutants Bangladesh and followed it with wins against Zimbabwe.
And then the epic series that would probably define the team for the decade that followed. To their credit, Ganguly, Dravid, Kumble and Dhoni managed to do in the 2000s what their predecessors hadn't managed in 67 years - a win-loss ratio of 1.
So before we start criticize this team, I feel we need to look-up our history and then make an assessment.
Much in the spirit of India's 100th victory, I've compiled my All-time India XI.
Sunil Gavaskar
Virendar Sehwag
Rahul Dravid
Sachin Tendulkar
G Vishwanath
Vinoo Manked
MS Dhoni
Kapil Dev
Anil Kumble
Zaheer Khan
J Srinath
Ekanath Solkar(12th man)
7 comments:
Eknath Solkar as 12th man?? With no Laxman? I cant imagine a test lineup without VVS...but yes we sure have bettered our 5-day game within this decade...
Yep! It was a tough decision. Solkar's was easily the best close-in fielder man we've had dude! Infact his catches/match ration is better than any other non-wicket keeping cricketer. So solkar's the 12th man.
As for Laxman, I was wondering who I could've left out. What if we were to drop Gavaskar or Vishwanath. We surely couldn't drop Manked.
What say?
Well Gavaskar to me was an all-gas player, self-centered and not much of a team player....plus anyday its a pleasure to see G Vishwanath batting over Gavaskar....and what about another southpaw up the order, a little more variety...too many rightys....
hey!! I couldn't help it. India didn't produce too many southpaws.
So Ganguly or Gambhir. Gambhir instead of Gavaskar?? Or should Ganguly come in as a captain? Dhoni would be my first choice captain though.
But anyway, I thought gavaskar was the reason we didn't lose as many games as we could have.
See, It's not easy compiling an all-time 11.
Well..to me it was players like Gavaskar) and our awful pitches) that stopped Indians for years, from playing the aggressive brand of test cricket that the world is now synonymous with. The aussie, 4 run an over kind...My ideal team would be pretty much the same, just replacing gavaskar, mankad and Zaheer with..gambhir, VVS and Sreesanth probably...you have only 4 full time bowlers on your team...one more would have been better..
BTW, Manked was chosen ahead of VVS because there's a small matter of him being the best orthodox left arm spinner in the world in his times. A spinner who also was the first indian to score a double century. He was quite an all rounder, so I thought he would be the ideal 5th bowler.
:)
Sreeshanth or Ishanth could easily replace Srinath, but not Zaheer. But anyway, there's still a lot these guys need to do to get into the best indian team ever. As for Gambhir, I'd like to see him perform in tests in SA, Australia and England before he replaces Gavaskar, who was our best player against the best pace bowlers in his times. And that's saying a lot if you've made your career opening against Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Malcolm Marshal, Joel Garner, Dennis Lilee, Bob Willis, Lever, Thompson, Pascoe, Imran, Nawaz, and company, and averaged over 50 in tests.
BTW, Manked was chosen ahead of VVS because there's a small matter of him being the best orthodox left arm spinner in the world in his times. A spinner who also was the first indian to score a double century. He was quite an all rounder, so I thought he would be the ideal 5th bowler.
:)
Sreeshanth or Ishanth could easily replace Srinath, but not Zaheer. But anyway, there's still a lot these guys need to do to get into the best indian team ever. As for Gambhir, I'd like to see him perform in tests in SA, Australia and England before he replaces Gavaskar, who was our best player against the best pace bowlers in his times. And that's saying a lot if you've made your career opening against Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Malcolm Marshal, Joel Garner, Dennis Lilee, Bob Willis, Lever, Thompson, Pascoe, Imran, Nawaz, and company, and averaged over 50 in tests.
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