ESPN Cricinfo has released an all time India XI that features a few expected and a couple of non expected stars as well.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni has been named the wicket keeper ahead of the likes of Farokh Engineer, Syed Kirmani and Kiran More. Erapalli Prasanna and Anil Kumble are the spin boling options along with the slow left arm bowling allrounder Vinoo Mankad.
The most notable absentee in the spin bowling department is the legendary Bishan Singh Bedi.
The batting is the strong point of this squad and the squad has all the expected players. Virendar Sehwag and Sunil Gavaskar have been chosen as the opening batsmen and will be followed by Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar.
There was a split verdict on the number five spot and finally Vijay Hazare was chosen ahead of the likes of Gundappa Viswanath, VVS Laxman, Mansour Ali Khan Pataudi, Mohinder Amarnath and Dileep Vengsarkar.
The two fast bowlers picked in the XI are Kapil Dev and Javagal Srinath.
The website had also asked its readers to pick an all time XI and the only difference between the reader’s XI and the jury picked XI was VVS Laxman who was chosen ahead of Vijay Hazare.
Sanjay Manjrekar, Aru Lal, Vasu Paranjpe, Pradeep Magazine, Ayaz Memon, R Mohan, Suresh Menon, Ramachandra Guha and Harsha Bhogle formed the jury.
One notable aspect in the XI is that six of the players are from the nineties, which indicates this is one of the best periods in Indian cricket, if not the best.