Gautam Gambhir has named his all-time India XI with some shocking exclusions, including 1983 World Cup-winning skipper Kapil Dev. Gambhir, who was recently appointed India’s new head coach, didn’t shy away from making some bold choices in picking the best XI of Indian men’s cricket history. However, some of the biggest names, including Rohit Sharma, Sourav Ganguly, Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar and Jasprit Bumrah, failed to make the cut in Gambhir’s side.
Rohit, India’s ODI and Test captain, has consistently performed across formats in the past decade and led the Men in Blue to the 2024 T20 World Cup triumph. Gambhir has often talked highly of Rohit on public platforms, but he chose himself and Virender Sehwag as the two openers in his XI.
The next two spots, number 3 and 4, were acquired by legendary India batters Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar. Meanwhile, run-machine Virat Kohli, who scored his 50th ODI century last year, also got a place in Gambhir’s side. Kohli and Gambhir played a big role in India’s ODI World Cup triumph with a crucial partnership of 83 runs for the third wicket, which stabilised the innings while chasing after the early departures of Sachin and Sehwag.
Yuvraj Singh, who was a key figure in India’s 2007 T20 World Cup and 2011 ODI World Cup triumphs, was picked as number 6 in the side by the new head coach of the Indian cricket team. Legendary skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni was chosen as the wicketkeeper batter on Gambhir’s side.
Veterans Anil Kumble and Ravichandran Ashwin, who are also good batting options in the lower order, were selected as the two frontline spinners.
Jasprit Bumah, arguably the best all-format bowler in world cricket, was also one of the shocking commissions from Gambhir’s side as he went ahead with two left-arm pacers, Irfan Pathan and Zaheer Khan, in his side.
Gambhir’s all-time India XI: Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni (wk), Anil Kumble, Ravichandran Ashwin, Irfan Pathan, Zaheer Khan
Coach Gambhir off to a mixed start
Recently, 42-year-old Gambhir took over India’s head coach duties from batting great Dravid, who finished his stint with the T20 World Cup title in Barbados last month.
Gambhir scored over 10,000 international runs during his 13-year-long international career for India since his ODI debut in 2003.
He had a mixed start to his coaching tenure with the Indian team on the Sri Lanka tour. Under Gambhir’s guidance, a young Indian side completed a 3-0 whitewash over Sri Lanka in the T20I series, but the experienced side, with Rohit Sharma as captain, lost the ODI series 0-2.