Lord's Cricket Ground releases non-honour's board XI; three Indians make it to the list

Lord’s cricket ground is known as Mecca of Cricket. Players deem themselves blessed only to play at this stadium leave alone scoring a century or picking a five-wicket haul for the team. However, the cricketer who manages to do so gets his/her name inked on the honour’s board which is deemed extremely prestigious. While so many players have been successful in doing it, some of cricket’s greatest ever haven’t had a great outing at Lord’s.

With not much action going around, Lord’s Cricket Ground released an interesting non-honour’s board XI on its Twitter handle on Wednesday seeking the attention of the fans. And the first one to make it to the list was the legendary WG Grace who played a mammoth 870 first-class matches in his career. He featured in five Test matches at Lord’s out of the 22 but could only muster 214 runs with a high score of 75.

He has also been named the skipper of the side and will open alongside Virender Sehwag. The former India cricketer played 1 Test and three ODIs at Lord’s and crossed the 50-run mark twice. But unfortunately, he got out on 84 and 71 failing to get his name on the honour’s board. Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara and Virat Kohli form the middle-order of this extremely strong team.

Tendulkar and Lara dominated world cricket during their respective careers but somehow never managed to score a ton at Lord’s. While the former’s highest score across 5 Tests and 3 ODIs at the venue was only 37, Lara averaged only 20 in eight matches (5 ODIs and 3 Tests) mustering only 200 runs at Lord’s.

The current India skipper Kohli has so far played 4 matches (2 Tests and 2 ODIs) scoring 126 runs and will get a few more chances to correct his record in the future.

Akram, Lillee and Ambrose form a potent pace attack

The only all-rounder in the team is Jacques Kallis who neither picked up a five-wicket haul or breached the 100-run barrier at the venue in three Tests, two ODIs and a solitary T20I he played at the venue. Adam Gilchrist has been chosen as the wicket-keeper of this team whose highest score is 90 at the venue in eight matches.

The bowling attack of this XI comprises of Shane Warne, Wasim Akram, Dennis Lillee and Curtly Ambrose. It is surprising that all these legendary bowlers who literally used to send shivers down batsman’s spine didn’t manage to scalp five wickets at Lord’s during their careers.

Here’s the XI: WG Grace (C), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, Virat Kohli, Jacques Kallis, Adam Gilchrist (WK), Shane Warne, Wasim Akram, Denis Lillee, Curtly Ambrose.