Mani/Varun's team:
Openers:
Opening our batting is the original “Little Master”,
Hanif Mohammad and the gritty left hander
Kepler Wessels. Credited with playing the longest test innings, a staggering 970-minute 337 against West Indies in Bridgetown in 1957-58, Hanif will lead our batting line up and provide it the solid start needed. He is one of the best players you could want to see off the new ball and lay the platform for a big score. He will be supported in this by Wessels who was also known for his determination and ability to provide a solid start to his teams by playing a long innings. This duo will play the very vital role right at the top of the batting order by scoring big and laying the platform for the middle order to come.
Middle order:
The legendary
Rohan Kanhai will walk in at No 3 for us. All time greats like Gavaskar and Kallicharran were so inspired by Kanhai that they named their sons after him. Simply put, one of the legends of the game who inspired many after him. A man known as much for his phenomenal defence as for his beautiful strokeplay, many regard him the best batsman they have seen.
Gavaskar on Kanhai:
“Rohan Kanhai is quite simply the greatest batsman I have ever seen. What does one write about one's hero, one's idol, one for whom there is so much admiration? To say that he is the greatest batsman I have ever seen so far is to put it mildly. A controversial statement perhaps, considering that there have been so many outstanding batsmen, and some great batsmen that I have played with and against. But, having seen them all, there is no doubt in my mind that Rohan Kanhai was quite simply the best of them all. Sir Gary Sobers came quite close to being the best batsman, but he was the greatest cricketer ever, and could do just about anything. But as a batsman, I thought Rohan Kanhai was just a little bit better."
Following Kanhai is
Sachin Tendulkar. GOD. Enough said.
Martin Crowe and
Alvin Kallicharran finish off our top 6. The graceful and technically perfect Martin Crowe needs no introduction. The best batman New Zealand has produced, Crowe started his test career as a 19 yr old and instantly established himself as among the best young batsmen in the world. Capable of playing long innings and scoring all over the wicket, he’ll provide big scores in our middle order. Finally, we have Alvin Kallicharran. Wisden Cricketer of the year for 1973, Kalli is among the true greats of the game. Known for his elegance and panache for long innings, he was also a ruthless stroke player. He once ripped into the great Dennis Lilee hitting him for 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 1, 4, 6, 0, 4 in an incredible spell of 10 balls. Widely recognized as one of the most complete batsman of his generation, the great Alvin Kallicharran finishes our top 6.
Wicket Keeper:
Walking in at No 7 is our wicket keeper, the one and only,
Jeff Dujon. It was one of the most spectacular sights of cricket in the 1980s. A great West Indian fast bowler - any of several suspects - roared on by a partisan Caribbean crowd, a short ball rearing, the batsman fending and edging, and behind the stumps, a lithe athlete leaping and plunging to take another one-handed blinder. Jeff Dujon was the gymnastic hub of those all-conquering Windies sides, a man who never participated in a losing series. Equally adept vs pace and spin, Dujon gives our side a fantastic keeper and a great 7th batsman.
In an age when wicket keepers weren’t expected to play much of a role with the bat, Dujon proved his worth with the bat as well. Often left to bat with the tail, he elegantly scored vital runs down the order and introduced the term ‘wicketkeeper-batsman’ to the cricketing vocabulary. Batting in the lower middle order, he scored 3322 runs, including 5 centuries and 16 half centuries. In fact, it was his spirited batting in the highly competitive West Indies domestic circuit that brought Dujon into the limelight when he made his debut as a batsman in place of an injured Gordon Greenidge. His finest moment with the bat was against Australia, on a rain-marred Perth track , when he produced a splendid counter-attacking knock of 139 off just 158 deliveries. Coming in at 186/6, after the more illustrious batsmen in the side had failed, Dujon, despite being hit on the head early on, conquered both the conditions and the Aussie speedsters to set the foundation for an innings victory.
Pace Battery:
Michael Holding. Joel Garner. Frank Tyson
This irresistible trio forms our 3 pronged pace attack. Pace, Bounce, Movement and a flurry of wickets, that's what you get when this trio get the ball.
"Whispering death" and "Big Bird" as they came to be christened will lead our pace attack and cause the opposition all sorts of problems. They didnt just take wickets, they induced fear into opposition batsmen. Big Bird possessed the meanest yorker the game has seen and when combined with the ridiculous bouncer that he bowled, you know why batsmen didnt fancy playing him. "You don't, even Viv doesnt hit him in the nets" is Botham's famous reply to Boycott when he asks him for tips on scoring off Garner after struggling the first time he played him. "Typhoon" Tyson completes our pace trio. The man Richie Benaud and Sir Don Bradman consider the fastest bowler ever, he took wickets at a devastating rate.
Spinner:
Subhash Gupte.
The legendary Subhaschandra Gupte completes our bowling attack.
Sobers on Gupte:
Warne's a great bowler but the best leg-spinner I've ever seen is still (Subhash) Gupte. He could do things that I still don't believe all these years later
He so dominated the arena of spin bowlers during the 1950’s that these years were later to be remembered by Indian cricket historians and fans alike, as the “Age of Gupte". Gupte was a world class leg spinner and the man who inspired the likes of Prasanna and Bedi who both consider him their idol. Bedi famously named Gupte as the reason why he took to spin bowling. His impact on Indian cricket went far further than just his performances, Gupte was responsible for inspiring Indians to take to Spin bowling. Gupte famously took 9 wickets in an innings while playing the legendary WI side, denied all 10 because the WK dropped Gibbs. He caused the WI team so many problems that they coined the phrase "Can turn it on glass" to describe him.
