Cricket is the biggest celebrated sport in India and sub-continent, fan following is so immense that it unites the nation and everyone belong to one and only religion i.e Cricket. And its a privilege to say “Cricket World Cup the biggest SPECTACLE comes home 🙂 ” I believe this world cup will remain in memory of the extreme die hard fans for long period. Now its up for the INDIAN Team – the major hosting nation, to finish the undone by winning Cricket World Cup in home and in front biggest fan base! There’s no one stopping us.
Officially, this is not the India Best XI by ICC or BCCI; its my dream XI in ODI’s and i rate these players based on their on their performance at peak of their career.
- Sourav Ganguly (c)
- Sachin Tendulkar
- Virender Sehwag
- Yuvraj Singh
- MS Dhoni (wk)
- Yusuf Pathan
- Robin Singh
- Kapil Dev (vc)
- Harbhajan Singh
- Zaheer Khan
- Anil Kumble
- Mohinder Amarnath (12th man)
Coach: John Wright or Gary Kirsten
Obviously the debatable question of this team is the opening pair and it has always been a questioning since arrival of Virender Sehwag. I don’t want to break the opening standards set by Ganguly and Tendulkar worldwide so i retain them as it is, but i believe in Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag can match or even higher the level by the latter, for that purpose Sachin Tendulkar must retire earliest. And another good thing about Sehwag is his game plan which doesn’t change in whatever situation he is put in, so i put him one down. Then Yuvraj Singh the most skilled player in India but not consistently providing the same, he has produced some unbelievable, breathtaking match winning innings coming one down and two down, so he is a unpredictable match winner.
MS Dhoni, though i am not a big fan of his, i am keeping in my team because he the best wicket keeper India produced so far when batting and wicket keeping is considered together, that 148 against Pakistan, 183* against Sri Lanka and few match winning knocks in India and Pakistan was the turning point of his career to get established as regular keeper. Still he hasn’t done much outside the sub continent. So this World Cup is the platform up for him for the grabs. Yusuf Pathan and Robin Singh are definite match winner.Yusuf Pathan with his ability to clear the ropes at any stage of the innings makes him the Dabangg player in ODI’s :). Robin Singh is one of the better All rounder in India and a superb fielder, Indian Jonty Rhodes?? nah! Then Kapil Dev no doubts in him being in Dream XI, he earns it, one of the best seam bowler and the 1st thing that comes to my mind about his batting is his 175 against Zimbabwe, where India were 5 wickets down for 15 runs, if am not wrong he and Madan Lal turned up that match, raised the confidence in the Indian side, and they went on to win that match and won the ultimate glory of Cricket.
In bowling department, when it comes to spin Jumbo aka Anil Kumble and Turbinator aka Harbhajan Singh are my 1st thoughts, both have variation and the versatility. Harbhajan and Anil Kumble have suffered a lot because of poor fielding, or else they would have set the standards of Warne and Murali, both definitely deserve better fielding if we are expecting them to take crucial wickets. Last up Zaheer Khan, i like him the most for his perfect revese swinging yorkers, which makes any bowler proud 🙂 and batsman can only ask for is an inside edge 😛
Lastly about captaincy, there are 5 players who captained India. Sachin doesn’t have the privilege and proud feelings of leading the nation, he only wants the pride of playing for the nation. Kumble and Kapil are good leaders and performers, Kumble should have got the captaincy long ago, not in the retiring ages and Dhoni is not the perfect leader, he just has a good performing team and the credit of captaincy is going to him is a luck by chance, any senior player in the team i.e Yuvraj or Sehwag would have done the same as captain and last up Ganguly, i still see him as my captain, because under his captaincy and John Wright as the coach, team India became a challenging side that it was able contest any team, anywhere in the world. Little bit mixed thoughts on whether Ganguly or Kapil for captaincy, but i stick with Sourav Ganguly.
THIS IS IT ABOUT MY DREAM XI.
rahulselvam 
kapil dev is a perfect captian.
and only 2 fast bowlers? ??
anyways gud team….congrats
thank u.. 🙂
Nice post….
Surprised that you didnt include RAHUL Dravid
My dream XI would be
1.Sachin Tendulkar
2.Sourav ganguly
3.Rahul Dravid
4.Yuvraj Singh
5.Mohammed Azharuddin(C)
6.M.S.Dhoni(WK)(I have picked him leaving my egos aside)
7.Kapil Dev
8.Anil Kumble
9.Javagal Srinath(Or venkatesh prasad if its a match against Pakistan)
10.Zaheer khan
11.Harbhajan singh(Again leaving my egos aside)
12th man: Sehwag
Coach : John Wright
i was two states of mind whether to include Dravid in team or not.. Main reason was his strike rate.. He would b handy in chasing low scores like below 260, i still doubt to keep him in my team!! Azharuddin got sold to other while playing for India. Surprised to see him in your team!!