Indian head coach and former opening batter Gautam Gambhir revealed his all-time best India XI in ODIs, where he surprisingly excluded star players like Rohit Sharma.
Gambhir who took the coaching role with the Indian team, had a mixed start in his new role. After clean sweeping the T20I series 3-0, the team went on to lose 0-2 in the subsequent One Day series against Sri Lanka.
His all-time XI came with a couple of surprise inclusions of veteran players and excluded some players who are considered to be modern greats by the Indian fans.
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What is Gautam Gambhir's all-time India ODI playing 11?
India head coach Gambhir revealed his all-time India ODI playing XI on Sportskeeda's YouTube channel, in which he named himself as one of the openers alongside his 2011 and 2007 World Cup partner, Virender Sehwag.
The middle order consisted of the iconic trio of Dravid, Tendulkar and Kohli, who had some of the best careers, particularly in the 50-over format.
- Virender Sehwag
- Gautam Gambhir
- Rahul Dravid
- Sachin Tendulkar
- Virat Kohli
- Yuvraj Singh
- MS Dhoni
- Anil Kumble
- Ravichandran Ashwin
- Irfan Pathan
- Zaheer Khan
The finishers in Gambhir's XI included allrounder Yuvraj and wicketkeeper-captain MS Dhoni, who were both instrumental in different roles during both of India's World Cup wins in the 21st century.
The bowling lineup consisted of two specialist spinners, Kumble and Ashwin, and two pacers, Irfan and Zaheer, apart from the part-timer spinners Yuvraj and Sachin.
While it is somewhat understandable that it would've been difficult to include Rohit in the lineup, it was a surprise that he did not pick the world-class pacer Jasprit Bumrah in his team.
It appears that Gambhir chose to go with a playing 11 which included players with whom he had played during his India career, which prompted him to leave out the likes of Rohit and Bumrah.