All-time greatest Test XI of Team India

Even after the rising popularity of T20 cricket, red-ball cricket is still considered the format with the highest standard in the game of cricket. Test cricket is the ultimate challenge for a player as it tests both the physical and mental strength of players. Playing the game for five continuous days is very challenging, and one has to use the highest degree of skill to survive in the longest format of the game.

Team India started its Test cricket journey on 25 June 1932 and has played 545 test matches in total with 157 wins, 167 defeats, 217 draws and one tie in its 88 years of their sojourn. A total of 296 players have earned the glory of representing India in Test cricket.

India are currently standing second in the ICC Test Championship table, showing how much dominant they can be. In this article we tried our best to pick the best Test XI among the 296 players who donned the Indian white jersey.

Let us see the players who make into the greatest Indian test-XI: –

1. Sunil Gavaskar

Arguably the greatest Test opener of all time, Sunil Gavaskar will be the best choice to open the batting for India on any given day due to his ability to play long innings at the top. He possessed all the qualities a batter requires to have, to open the innings. He is the first player in the world to reach 10,000 runs in Test cricket and also held the record for the highest number of centuries (34) for nearly two decades in his time.

In an era of fearsome and ruthless Caribbean pace attack, Gavaskar faced them with enormous courage even without a helmet and had an astonishing average of 65.45 against them. He also scored his highest score (236*) in Test cricket against them which tells us about his extraordinary consistency against the most dangerous bowling attack of all time.

In 125 Test matches, he played for India, Gavaskar scored 10,122 runs at an average of 51.12 with the help of 34 100s and 45 fifties. He had an extraordinary strike rate of 66.04 which is a very healthy one considering the deadly bowling attacks in those days.