Kapil Dev picks MS Dhoni as captain of his best ever ODI team for India
Kapil Dev
Kapil Dev has picked MS Dhoni as captain of India’s best ever One Day International team picked by him. At a promotional event, Kapil was asked to nominate twelve players that he would consider to be a part of India’s best ODI team.
The team named by Kapil has Dhoni as the skipper and comprises of Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Sourav Ganguly, Mohammed Azharuddin, Yuvraj Singh and Virat Kohli as the batsmen.
Javagal Srinath and Zaheer Khan were picked as the two seamers, and the team was completed with two spinners in Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh. In a rather interesting move, Ravindra Jadeja was chosen to be 12th man.
It was disappointing for fans to see that Kapil had not included himself in the team, and also none of the members of the 1983 World Cup winning squad were selected.
When questioned on this Kapil said, “I feel this is India’s best ODI team. People can disagree with me, but that’s my personal view.”
“Furthermore, I am selecting the side, so how can I include myself in it,” he said, as reported by NDTV.
“We won the 1983 World Cup but the fact remains that West Indies were by far the better side. We were just confident of doing well on that given day.”
Kapil went on to add that in his view, the side led by MS Dhoni in the recently concluded Champions Trophy was the best Indian side that he had ever seen in an ODI series.
“The team did not have key players like Sehwag, (Gautam) Gambhir, Zaheer, but the way they played nobody missed them. West Indies is still missing the likes of Viv Richards, Desmond Haynes,” he said.
“I have never seen such outstanding fielding side in the history of Indian cricket. The Champions Trophy title is the ultimate tribute to this team.”
Kapil was also lavish in his praise for Shikhar Dhawan, comparing him with Virender Sehwag. He believed that the opener is one to watch out for in the future. “Shikhar has been outstanding from his very first match. I had never thought there would be someone who can hit the ball better than Sehwag,” he said.
With the outstanding performances of the youngsters in the Indian team, seniors such as Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh and Zaheer Khan will find it tough to make it back to the side. But Kapil felt that they should not lose hope and continue to work towards making a comeback.
“Nothing is impossible but they need to have patience. The competition would be tough because the age is also not in their favour,” he signed off.
Here’s Kapil Dev’s all-time best ODI team:
Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag, Mohammed Azharuddin, Yuvraj Singh, Virat Kohli, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan. 12th Man: Ravindra Jadeja.