Batting riches in Indian dream team

Selecting a dream team is a task that cricket romantics love to take on despite the resultant odious comparisons justifying the final eleven.

To pick the best Indian Test XI since independence is a challenging task for anyone and not any less for a person who has to compare those he has seen in action with video clippings of other cricketers and those who have only been read about.

It is only natural that one sets the parameters before getting about the difficult but enjoyable task. For me, statistics are not as important as match-winning ability and thus the foremost criteria is the capability to perform in different conditions, in adverse circumstances and against the best of oppositions because I don't expect such a hand-picked team to take on a Test outfit like Bangladesh belonging to the so-called competitive era of modern cricket.

As this is a post-independence team, I have considered people who were in their prime after 1947 and thus avoided the likes of Vijay Merchant, Lala Amarnath and C.K. Nayudu.

When the riches are in abundance, all-rounders have a natural advantage over others, especially because in such an imagined situation where everyone is at his prime and close to his best, the weight-age in different facets tilt the scales quite easily.

Since averages and number of centuries don't fascinate me as much as the pure delight of seeing the bat in full flow against a testing bowling attack, even someone like Sachin Tendulkar is not an automatic choice in the team.

But there is no doubt whatsoever in picking Sunil Gavaskar straightaway, for the sight of the confident little man walking in briskly in his spic attire is bound to rub off on others, not to mention his superb judgment of line, length and movement against the fiercest of pace bowlers and the wiliest of spinners that would be likely on show.

One does not need to delve into his centuries against top-class sides but just remind readers of the ease with which he let go bouncers that would so easily have hit top modern-day batsmen on the helmet (which the Mumbai batsman never wore) and also the judicious way of handling spinners on wickets resembling minefields.

But who would be his partner? Mushtaq Ali, who brought in crowds by the herd, Virender Sehwag, the antithesis of an opener but still embraced by success, or Pankaj Roy, who was involved in a world record opening partnership? None. I would pick Roy's partner in that epic feet, Vinoo Mankad. A man who could play at any position would be best at the top and edge out Bishan Bedi as the left-arm spinner in the side.

I think it best to have a 'wall' at number three. Rahul Dravid has scored a century in every Test playing country and is as solid as they come, with the wristy Gundappa Viswanath, who never scored a century in a losing cause, to follow him. The two Karnataka batsmen of different generations would be a treat to watch together.

Tendulkar's weight of runs and tons edge out Polly Umrigar for a place in my eleven, and the decision has nothing to do with the scathing and even personal attacks on a certain Trevor Chesterfield, who did not have the Mumbai batsman in his XI last week.