Karthik doesn’t see Dhoni in India’s all-time best XI
India’s cricketing legacy boasts four World Cup titles,two in ODIs and two in T20s.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni captained the Indian team to victory in the 2007 T20 World Cup and the 2011 ODI World Cup, adding to his illustrious leadership record, which also includes an ICC Champions Trophy win.
Despite these achievements, Dinesh Karthik, who played under Dhoni’s captaincy, does not include him in his all-time greatest Indian XI.
Karthik also leaves out two other cricketing legends—1983 World Cup-winning captain Kapil Dev and the revered captain and batsman Sourav Ganguly.
In the XI, published on Cricbuzz, he selected Virender Sehwag and Rohit Sharma as openers.
Both Sehwag and Rohit are famous for giving India aggressive starts in batting.
At number three, he placed Rahul Dravid, known as ‘The Wall,’ who was also India’s captain and served as the head coach until June this year.
At number four in Karthik’s best XI is a player who would make anyone’s all-time best team—Sachin Tendulkar.
At number five is his successor, Virat Kohli. The batting lineup from one to five consists of pure batsmen.
Following them are two all-rounders, both left-arm spinning all-rounders. The first is Yuvraj Singh, the player of the tournament in both the 2007 and 2011 World Cups. The second is a current player—Ravindra Jadeja.
In Karthik’s view, the four specialist bowlers include two spinners and two pacers.
The spinners are Anil Kumble and Ravichandran Ashwin, while the pacers are Jasprit Bumrah and Zaheer Khan.
Outside of these 11 players, Karthik has included off-spinner Harbhajan Singh as the 12th man.
Among the 11 players in the team, Rahul Dravid has the most experience as a wicketkeeper for India, and he is expected to keep wickets in this lineup.
Dinesh Karthik’s All-Time Best Indian XI: Virender Sehwag, Rohit Sharma, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Anil Kumble, Jasprit Bumrah, and Zaheer Khan.
12th Man: Harbhajan Singh.
