Harsha Bhogle names his pre-Gavaskar era XI

Revered cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle today announced his ‘Dream XI’. Bhogle revealed his dream team through twitter and stated that while everyone from current cricketers, former cricketers and cricket experts is picking “all-time XI” nowadays featuring the players with whom they either played or seen them play, he chose to break the trend by forming his dream team entirely from the pre-70’s era.

He said he dislikes the current trend and pointed the flaws that exist in the selection as the team will be based on the cricketers we have seen in our generation.

“I am not a great fan of picking all time XIs because you don’t always know enough about players from another era and so, in effect, you pretend to be an expert in an area in which you aren’t. And so, when I got asked to pick my own version (coming up on Cricbuzz) I stayed with players I had seen,” said Harsha.

He mentioned the importance of recognising the talent of the cricketers who the laid the foundation of Indian cricket. “There is also the ‘recency’ factor to a popular vote, and I could see that nobody other than Gavaskar and Kapil Dev were able to break that barrier in several recent public polls,” said Harsha on his post on Facebook.

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“But we need to be aware of what came before because a generation flowers on the seeds the previous one planted. And so I would love someone competent to pick an all-time India XI of players from another era, say pre-1970 which coincides with the arrival of Gavaskar in early 1971,” he added.

Let have a look at his eleven. Vinoo Mankad and Vijay Merchant will open the batting for his side. Mankad was known for his 413-run opening partnership with Pankaj Roy in 1956. Even though Vijay Merchant hasn’t made an impact on the international circuit, he is known to be the ‘God of first class cricket’, as he averages 71 in first-class cricket.

Vijay Hazare, Polly Umrigar, and Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi will make India’s middle-order. Hazare was the one who led India to their first ever Test win. They will be joined by Vijay Manjrekar, Farookh Engineer, and all-rounder Dattu Phadke in the lower middle-order.

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Highly skilful spinners of the generation, Erapalli Prasanna and Subhash Gupte will lead the spin department. The pace bowler Mohammed Nissar will complete his squad.

Harsha Bhogle’s Pre-Gavaskar era XI: Vijay Merchant, Vinoo Mankad, Vijay Hazare, Polly Umrigar, Vijay Manjrekar, Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, Farookh Engineer, Dattu Phadkar, Erapalli Prasanna, Subhash Gupte, Mohammed Nissar.

Pre-Gavaskar era XI. Informed views welcome. Merchant,Mankad,Hazare,Umrigar,Manjrekar,Pataudi,Engineer,Phadkar,
Prasanna,Gupte,Nissar.

— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) September 27, 2016