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All-Time India XIs - A re-run

ma1978

International Debutant
Don't think VVS is miles better but I'm picking him ahead of Pujara 10/10 times as a batsman tbh.
thus is one where the stats are not miles away and Pujara in Australia was awesome for one BGT and passable for other, but if you actually watched them bat it’s a universe apart

the question is more VVS or Kohli for first XI
 

OverratedSanity

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thus is one where the stats are not miles away and Pujara in Australia was awesome for one BGT and passable for other, but if you actually watched them bat it’s a universe apart

the question is more VVS or Kohli for first XI
Pujara was way more than passable in the second series win too afaic.

Regardless, VVS was just better at most things to do with batting.
 

capt_Luffy

Cricketer Of The Year
Imo, while Pujara batting Top 3 in a tough era makes this close, and both have close to equally good record vs Australia; VVS's expertise in crisis clinches this. Also, removing his initial opening stints makes this even clearer.
 

peterhrt

U19 Vice-Captain
Well I'd have put in a vote for Hazare ahead of Kohli.

He missed arguably the best 7 years of his career due to the war, and if you throw in his averages against the Commonwealth touring sides he'd be well over 50... Plus he bowls a bit.
During almost half a century between 1926 and 1975 India played 34 matches that might loosely be termed "Unofficial Tests". Opponents were MCC, Ceylon and Commonwealth XIs. 11 matches were won, 9 lost and 14 drawn. All took place on the sub-continent. Overall India got the better of Ceylon, lost out to MCC and showed an even record against the Commonwealth.

Leading batsmen: Hazare 1501 runs @ 57, Gavaskar 344@57, Viswanath 279@55, Umrigar 1263@52, Mankad 874@38, Merchant 713@33, Mushtaq Ali 744@32, Manjrekar 235@29, L Amarnath 248@24.

Leading bowlers: Amar Singh 39 wickets @ 18, Ghulam Ahmed 31@18, Gupte 38@20, Bedi 22@20, Chandra 21@20, Mankad 56@27, Venkat 24@27, Nissar 16@27, Hazare 21@33.

Amar Singh took 36 wickets in the five-match home series against MCC in 1937-38. Mankad played four of these games, averaging 62 with the bat, 14 with the ball (15 wickets) and holding 11 catches. He didn't play as much domestic cricket during the war as Hazare or Merchant, who racked up 35 hundreds between them and boasted a combined average of 113.
 
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Fuller Pilch

Hall of Fame Member
Vengsakar is better than both. Neither Pujara nor Laxman were ever the best in the world, but one stage Vengsakar was (at one stage better than than Viv, AB, Miandad, Crowe, Greenidge, and Gower).
Vengsakar's highest batting ranking was 1st, Pujara's was 2nd, and Laxman's was 6th.

Also Vengsakar faced better bowlers than the other 2
 

ma1978

International Debutant
Vengsakar is better than both. Neither Pujara nor Laxman were ever the best in the world, but one stage Vengsakar was (at one stage better than than Viv, AB, Miandad, Crowe, Greenidge, and Gower).
so was Gambhir. That doesn’t make him better but that Colonel is definitely a contender for the second XI
 

capt_Luffy

Cricketer Of The Year
Vengsakar is better than both. Neither Pujara nor Laxman were ever the best in the world, but one stage Vengsakar was (at one stage better than than Viv, AB, Miandad, Crowe, Greenidge, and Gower).
Vengsarkar had a Mohammad Yousufish peak, albeit in tougher era, and was very ordinary except that.
 

capt_Luffy

Cricketer Of The Year
Virat Kohli - 4
Kapil Dev - 4

Rahul Dravid - 1

Vijay Merchant - 8
Rohit Sharma - 2

Vijay Hazare - 10
V V S Laxman - 8

Cheteshwar Pujara - 1
Dilip Vengsarkar - 1
 

capt_Luffy

Cricketer Of The Year
India XIIndia AIndia BIndia C
1. SM Gavaskar1. VSM Merchant
2. V Sehwag2.
3. RS Dravid3.
4. SR Tendulkar4. VS Hazare
5. V Kohli5. VVS Laxman
6. RR Pant+ ✴6.
7. RR Jadeja ⬆⬆⬆7.
8. NK Dev8.
9. R Ashwin⬆9. A Kumble ⬇
10. MA Shami ⬆⬆⬆10.
11. JJ Bumrah ⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆11.
 

CricAddict

Cricketer Of The Year
India XIIndia AIndia BIndia C
1. SM Gavaskar1. VSM Merchant
2. V Sehwag2.
3. RS Dravid3.
4. SR Tendulkar4. VS Hazare
5. V Kohli5. VVS Laxman
6. RR Pant+ ✴6.
7. RR Jadeja ⬆⬆⬆7.
8. NK Dev8.
9. R Ashwin⬆9. A Kumble ⬇
10. MA Shami ⬆⬆⬆10.
11. JJ Bumrah ⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆11.
So the bowling line-up of first XI has entirely changed to current bowling line-up while batting line-up remains intact. Interesting.
 

capt_Luffy

Cricketer Of The Year
Now please vote for:
A) one of Kapil Dev or Virat Kohli to captain Team India, those who haven't voted for any of them previously, though may change the vote. @OverratedSanity , @ataraxia if interested.
B) One more Middle order batsman
C) Two opening bowlers
D) The wicketkeeper
 

Fuller Pilch

Hall of Fame Member
B) One more Middle order batsman

Vengsakar

C) Two opening bowlers

Zaheer
Ishant (although also handy as a 3rd seamer)

D) The wicketkeeper

Dhoni
 

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