Open Mic: One Day Internationals: India's All-Time Lineup

The selection for the ODI side should be easier than the one for the Test side.

For one, ODIs are only three decades old!

Though that still means a lot of player statistics to go through it poses a lot easier challenge. Reasons?

a. India’s incompetence at this stage in the early years.

b. You are just more familiar with these players than ones who played almost a hundred years back!

I love One Day Internationals! It is the reason cricket in India is so popular today. We won the World Cup, albeit only once, in 1983!

Okay, so we haven’t really set the stage on fire... EVER!

But we can boast of producing some of the best individual athletes ever to be seen in this form of the game.

From Jimmy to Kapil, from Sachin to Mahi, this side should put quite a few bums on the seats!

The All-Time Indian One Day Eleven

            John Wright (Coach): By the time his tenure as the Indian coach was finished,he was “more Indian than the Indians”, in his own words. The practice of having a coach is a recent trend in cricket, one borrowed from football, no doubt. in tapping Wright, India became one of the first countries to appoint a foreign coach. His biggest achievement is his partnership with Ganguly, one which sent India to 12 consecutive tournament finals! Plus, every all-time side needs its all-time coach, Wright?

1. Sachin Tendulkar: Again, the opening batsman is not going to be a real shocker! They say, if Bradman had played one day cricket, he would have been Tendulkar. I’m not gonna argue! His numbers in this form of the game are as gigantic as they can get! But it is not the numbers which makes him so endearing to us fan(atics). It is the surety with which he decimates the best attacks in the world. Be it the pairing of Glenn McGrath and Damien Fleming, Brett Lee and Mitchell Johnson, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Sami, Chaminda Vaas and Dilhara Fernando, the list is endless. Pardon me if I have missed a few names, ‘coz this man has battled against two or three different generations of fast, new ball bowlers, and conquered them all. I can’t remember one bowler who can stand up today and say, “Yes! I got the better of him!” If you get him out in one inning, you can be rest assured that he is going to make amends in the following game! A legend, a phenomenon, and definitely the world’s greatest One Day batsman of all time, no way he is out of the Indian XI!
   
   
   
2. Sourav Ganguly (Captain): SURPRISE! Oh wait. This, too, was expected, wasn’t it! If there was no Tendulkar, Ganguly would have easily been the best ODI batsman ever, not only in India, but in the world too. Elegance, poise, and a love for slow left arm spinners; he also performed the impossible feat of turning a bunch of individuals into a unit that nearly clinched the World Cup. He's the captain of this side, even though he never quite won it all.
   
   
   
3. Mohammad Azharuddin: He was the fore runner to Tendulkar when it came to One Day domination. Once the holder of the record for most ODI runs, with 9378 runs, Azharuddin’s ODI career was a marvelous journey. He captained India during one of the most turbulent times in the history of the game, and his career itself was marred by the revelation of Match Fixing. While it stalled his Test tally at 99 matches, he did manage to set a record of 308 ODI appearances, a record later broken by Wasim Akram and Steve Waugh. Also a brilliant slip fielder, held the record for most ODI catches for a non wicket keeper, with 156 swallows!
   
   
   
4. Ajay Jadega: Another victim of the match fixing scandal, Jadega was a finisher extraordinaire, a contemporary of Michael Bevan, and could match the Aussie great in every department. A handy fielder, with a good arm, he also rolled his arm over a few times.
   
   
   
5. Mohinder Amarnath: Fondly called “Jimmy”, Amarnath is most revered for his role in India’s triumphant 1983 World Cup. Man of the Match awards in the semi final as well as the final. If at all a Man of the Series were to be awarded (which wasn’t the case during the ‘80s) he would have won that as well!
   The original comeback man of cricket, Amarnath enjoyed a patchy cricketing career, but his ability against fast bowling and his deceptive medium pace bowling made him one of the crowd favorites of his time.
   
   
   
6. Yuvraj Singh: A surprise inclusion? Probably. But this left-hander is the most talented thing Indian cricket has ever seen. And you can take that in writing from me! Tall, majestically built, and a Lara-like batting bat-lift, he is definitely comparable to the West Indian legend in terms of sheer ability. Hopefully he will be able to break it into the Test side on a permanent basis one day. But he has already etched his name on the annals of Indian cricketing folk-lore with his exploits in the ODI format. If any substantiation is needed to verify this man’s powers, one look at his 139 against Australia should be enough!
   His electrifying fielding at point is pure bonus, given his batting.
   
   
   
7. Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Wicket Keeper): To say this man has changed the face of Indian cricket would be the understatement of the century. Some fifty years from now, if someone is bored enough as I am, and making a list like this, he/she would be full of praise and wonderment at this man. We are lucky for being able to witness this man for what he truly is, and not relying on second hand information. Hope he can achieve the same heights as the ODI skipper, too, very soon, as he achieved with the T20 side. Next stop, World Cup 2011, Indian Sub-continent!
   
   
   
8. Kapil Dev: And if Mahi needs any inspiration, the man following him in the batting order should give him enough of it! Winning the World Cup in 1983 in the biggest upset ever, Dev instantly became a hero among India’s youth and adults alike. He inspired a generation of cricketers, and continues to do so. Probably only Sachin Tendulkar matches the impact this man has had on the game in India. Definitely the architect of a win that made cricket a religion in this country!
   His explosive batting and pacey bowling have already been discussed in the All Time Test team article.
   
   
   
9. Roger Binny: The leading wicket taker in the ’83 World Cup (18) and also in the 1985 World Series Cricket Championship (17), Binny was a very handy bowler, especially in conditions that helped swing bowling.
   He was also a good batsman lower down the order, and a very handy fielder.
   
   
   
10. Javagal Srinath: One of the legends among the modern era of Indian cricketers, Srinath was blessed with pace and a very good in-swing, he was India’s answer to Waqar Younis. He hit the deck, and caused a lot of trouble to opposing batsmen due to the variable bounce he generated at home, and the steep incoming deliveries in Australia, England and South Africa. In his day, he was the best you could hope to find. But he was susceptible under pressure, and lacked the edge when it came to his stamina. Yet, he was a forerunner to the likes of Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra, and could have achieved a lot more had Kapil Dev retired in time!
    
    
    
11. Harbhajan Singh: This was a real quandary for me. Spinner? Fast bowler? Ishant Sharma? Kumble? Finally, I had to settle for the Turbanator. Though he is often criticized, more so in the recent past, for being a bit too defensive, and flat in his trajectory, his method seems to be working magically in the one dayers, and I have no doubt that he will blend in with this team brilliantly. He is a showman, wears his heart on his sleeve and most of all, provides the zing to this side. He is the perfect foil to the pace battery of Dev, Srinath, Binny and Amarnath, plus his never say die attitude galvanizes the side!
    
    
    

If you look up this lineup, the common theme is flamboyance.
I’m sure many will bemoan the absence of Dravid and Gavaskar, and the like. But this side is out-and-out aggressive.

One painstaking omission from the side was Robin Singh. An all rounder par excellence and also a fielder of great merit, I guess I will have to make him 12^th man!