Fans vote for India's Greatest Test XI ahead of the historic 500th Test

Many cricketers in the past have named their Greatest XI. Some preferred considering the stats while some judged on the basis of their own playing experience. It was their opinion and nevertheless, all the playing XIs which we have heard and read about in the past were fabulous. But there have been few occasions in the past where the fans had the opportunity to pick their Greatest XI.

While the ‘Best XIs and the ‘greatest XIs’ featuring players from different countries are picked every now and then, it happens only a few times that a Greatest XI of a country is chosen using a public platform.

Cricket Australia thought of doing so and has now come out with India’s Greatest Test XI. The team was not chosen by any panel of pundits or any ex-cricketers. People themselves voted for their favourite cricketers.

The news has come out just ahead of India’s 500th Test. The special moment will take place when they take on New Zealand in Kanpur from Thursday (September 22). To mark this momentous occasion, CA invited fans to pick India’s “Greatest Test XI”.

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“The votes are in – this is India’s Greatest Test XI as voted by YOU! Over the past week, we have been asking you to have your say on who you think deserves to be selected in India’s Greatest XI as a way of celebrating their 500th Test match, starting on Thursday in Kanpur,” CA announced on its website on Tuesday.

Fans were given the option to votes for the players most suitable for the respective positions. CA states that more than 50,000 votes were cast with Mahendra Singh Dhoni garnering the highest percentage among all players. He swept 93 percent of votes in the wicket-keeper category to clearly emerge as the winner , beating Syed Kirmani and Kiran More, for the number 7 spot.

Sunil Gavaskar and Virender Sehwag were chosen as the openers. Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar took the vital No.3 & no. 4 spots. VVS Laxman was at number 5 while Sourav Ganguly grabbed the no.6 position.

Kapil Dev and Zaheer Khan were chosen as the fast bowlers while the spinners Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh form the spin attack.

We asked, you voted and the results are in – presenting India's Greatest Test XI, as selected by YOU https://t.co/ytaeknzME6 pic.twitter.com/oTjosGMp0K

— cricket.com.au (@CricketAus) September 20, 2016

Here is India’s Greatest Test XI:

Sunil Gavaskar, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Sourav Ganguly, MS Dhoni, Kapil Dev, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan