Page 6 - Seniorstoday December 2023 Issue
P. 6
Cover Story
India Veterans XI
Ayaz Menon picks a Dream Team of yesteryear stars for the 50-over one-day
format
The Rohit Sharma-led team was widely up of players from the past, the single most
touted as the best limited overs side India’s important eligibility criterion being they
ever had – even better than Kapil Dev’s must be ‘Senior Citizens’, which could
team which won the 1983 tournament, and compete with Rohit’s team on equal terms.
Kapil Dev’s side which won in 2011. This International limited overs cricket started
view was nourished and reinforced for only in the early 1970s. The first World Cup
over six weeks as India went on a winning was played in 1975. There have been a huge
spree, beating all comers till the final where number of highly skilled, match winning
they were felled by the hardy, resilient, players, who would have made the cut into
resourceful Australians. a World Cup side had they been born in a
While Rohit’s team lost disappointingly, different era.
the quality of talent it possessed, the In drawing up this team, I had to traverse
balance it had, each player assigned different generations and eras, find players
clearly defined roles, with the flexibility to who would be adept at one-day cricket
improvise depending on match situations though they may have never played it.
– set up an impressive template for future This is the 12-man squad I picked. Some
teams. are readily identifiable, some may ring a
This set me thinking about a team made bell in diehards and those inclined towards
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