Cricket Australia select India’s Greatest Test Xl
Sep 21, 2016 at 9:28 AM
In an online poll conducted by Cricket Australia’s official website, over 50,000 fans voted for selecting India’s ‘Greatest Test XI’. With India set to play their 500th Test when they lock horns against New Zealand in the first of the three-match Test series, the website conducted the poll to celebrate the great milestone of the Indian team.
The fans were asked to select the players from a long list of the greatest openers, middle-order batting stars, the wicketkeepers, the fast bowlers and spinners. The list is heavily dominated by the players who recently retired from the game. And it is not a surprise as India reached the pinnacle of Test cricket only after these players came into the team.
India’s limited-overs skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni got the highest percentage of vote after receiving 93 percent of the vote as India’s greatest wicketkeeper-batsman.
Legendary openers Sunil Gavaskar and Virender Sehwag were selected to open the innings followed by ever-reliable Rahul Dravid at number three. World’s highest run-scorer in Tests, Sachin Tendulkar will follow Dravid at number four. VVS Laxman received the maximum votes for number five and six position but he was given the fifth position and the next position went to second-ranked Sourav Ganguly.
The bowling department also looks balanced with the likes of Zaheer Khan, Anil Kumble and Kapil Dev.
Check out the full team along with the full breakdown of the results:
Openers:
Sunil Gavaskar and Virender Sehwag
Votes received by each combination:
- Sunil Gavaskar-Virender Sehwag: 63 per cent
- Gautam Gambhir-Virender Sehwag: 30 per cent
- Gautam Gambhir-Sunil Gavaskar: 5 per cent
- Sunil Gavaskar-Navjot Sidhu: 1 per cent
- Virender Sehwag-Navjot Sidhu: 1 per cent
Number 3:
Rahul Dravid
Votes received:
- Rahul Dravid – 76 per cent
- Sachin Tendulkar – 23 per cent
- Mohinder Amarnath – 1 per cent
- Vijay Hazare – 0 per cent
- Dilip Vengsarkar – 0 per cent
- Gundappa Viswanath – 0 per cent
Number 4:
Sachin Tendulkar:
Votes received:
- Sachin Tendulkar – 77 per cent
- Rahul Dravid – 22 per cent
- Mohinder Amarnath 1 per cent
- Vijay Hazare – 0 per cent
- Dilip Vengsarkar – 0 per cent
- Gundappa Viswanath – 0 per cent
Number 5:
VVS Laxman:
Votes received:
- VVS Laxman – 37 per cent
- Virat Kohli – 28 per cent
- Sourav Ganguly – 18 per cent
- Mohammad Azharuddin – 17 per cent
- Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi – 0 per cent
- Polly Umrigar – 0 per cent
Number 6:
Sourav Ganguly:
Votes received:
- VVS Laxman – 44 per cent
- Sourav Ganguly – 25 per cent
- Virat Kohli – 16 per cent
- Mohammad Azharuddin – 14 per cent
- Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi – 1 per cent
- Polly Umrigar – 0 per cent
Wicketkeeper-batsman:
Mahendra Singh Dhoni:
Votes received:
- MS Dhoni – 93 per cent
- Syed Kirmani – 6 per cent
- Kiran More – 1 per cent
First fast-bowler:
Kapil Dev:
Votes received:
- Kapil Dev – 58 per cent
- Zaheer Khan – 31 per cent
- Javagal Srinath – 10 per cent
- Mohammad Nissar – 1 per cent
Second fast-bowler:
Zaheer Khan:
Votes received:
- Zaheer Khan – 48 per cent
- Kapil Dev – 29 per cent
- Javagal Srinath – 21 per cent
- Mohammad Nissar – 2 per cent
First spinner:
Anil Kumble:
Votes received:
- Anil Kumble – 75 per cent
- Harbhajan Singh – 11 per cent
- Bishan Bedi – 10 per cent
- Bhagwath Chandrasekhar – 3 per cent
- Erapalli Prasanna – 1 per cent
- Vinoo Mankad – 0 per cent
Second spinner:
Harbhajan Singh:
Votes received:
- Harbhajan Singh – 44 per cent
- Anil Kumble – 25 per cent
- Bishan Bedi – 21 per cent
- Bhagwath Chandrasekhar – 4 per cent
- Erapalli Prasanna – 4 per cent
- Vinoo Mankad – 2 per cent