Cricinfo Alltime Indian XI

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Choices are Sunny, Sehwag, Merchant and Sidhu (???)

Shoot out between Sehwag and Merchant for the 2nd slot

Has to be Sehwag. I think by the end of his career he will be up there with the great openers of any nation.

An opening partnership of Hayden and Sehwag in the best XI of the decade would certainly get a team off to a good start.

Trescothick would be next in line.

DJ_Smerk wrote:

Trescothick would be next in line.

Smith and Langer might have something to say about that

sunny and sehwag. sehwag has already done enough in my opinion and has quite a few years left as well

I said this in the match thread. Sehwag is a freak who would complement Sunny perfectly.

But I would still go with V Mankad to partner Sunny. India already have a great batting line up. They do not need another batsmen. They need to prop up their very weak bowling, hence Mankad would be ideal.

mankad does not need to open. sehwag would be a better bet than all but 2 of india's middle order batsmen

my team

Gavaskar
Sehwag
Ranji (i like tya's suggestion of claiming ranji)
SRT
Dravid
Mankad
Kapil
Kirmani
Srinath
Kumble
Chandra/Prasanna/Amar Singh

in tougher conditions maybe mankad and viru could swap. sehwag did start off as a m/o bat after all

Who in order do you rate as the best Indian batters. Sehwag is down the bottom of the list IMO.

You cannot claim Ranji

And I'd take Azhar or Vengsarkar in your team.

No Gupte or Bedi

I'd anyday take Gupte over Kumble and Engineer over Kirmani.

Plus, I'd play 3 pacers + 1 spinner combination for bowlers.

Sobers rated Gupte ahead of Warne. Had Indian fielding in '50s been as good as what Warne enjoyed, Gupte would've averaged less than 25. Plus, he was made to bowl to defensive fields by successive Indian 'captains'.

And if Ranji isn't allowed to be played for India, I'd play either Hazare or Vishy. I'd go for Hazare if it comes to that.

i think kumble has done enough to be considered india's greatest matchwinner. he plays for sure if we are playing at home. away from home i might swap him for chandra or gupte, but not bedi

my top indian bats are

srt
gavaskar
dravid

after that it gets a bit more open. i would probably group them as (in no particular order)

vishy
laxman
sehwag
hazare
merchant

and

vengsarkar
azhar
amarnath
ganguly
umrigar

Mankad would be useful to effect the runouts ...

Ranji would have to count as Indian for AT purposes. He couldn't play for India then.

No place for Pataudi Snr?

pataudi snr. does not have the credentials to get ahead of most of the batsmen who are not even picked, let alone the final xi

i agree with you on ranji. he didnt play for india as there was no indian team then. the very fact that our FC competition is named after him would mean he is as indian as the other contenders