Piyush Chawla, the out-of-favour Indian wrist-spinner, interestingly left out Virat Kohli and Steve Smith, two of the modern-day greats, while picking his all-time Test match XI.
During an Instagram live chat with Cricket Revolt, Chawla, who has played three Tests, 25 ODIs and seven T20Is for India, went about enlisting the players who he feels should feature in such a line-up.
Former India and Australia openers Virender Sehwag and Matthew Hayden will form the duo at the top in Chawla's team, followed by ex Aussie captain and batting great, Ricky Ponting, at the difficult No.3 slot.
In the middle-order, Chawla picked Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar to bat at No.4 and West Indies legend Brian Lara at No.5.
Adam Gilchrist, the former Aussie wicketkeeper, was selected to don the gloves and bat at No.6 by Chawla, who then picked Kapil Dev as his team's premier all-rounder at No.7.
Chawla focused on having a strong bowling attack at his disposal and came up with a four-pronged line-up including legends like Wasim Akram, Shane Warne, Muttiah Muralitharan and Curtly Ambrose. Jacques Kallis was picked as 12th man.
No active international cricketer got a place in his team.
Piyush Chawla’s all-time Test XI: Virender Sehwag, Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting, Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, Adam Gilchrist (wk), Kapil Dev, Wasim Akram, Shane Warne, Muttiah Muralitharan, Curtly Ambrose, Jacques Kallis (12th man)
