Former Indian middle-order batter Ajinkya Rahane, who recently announced his retirement from all forms of the game, picked his all-time Indian Test XI, which features only players he has played alongside in international or domestic cricket.
Interestingly, the talismanic batting duo Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma missed out of the XI. However, Rahane named MS Dhoni as captain and wicketkeeper of his XI. His picks were made during a discussion on Sony Sports Network.
Rahane named Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan as his opening pair, with Rahul Dravid at No. 3 and Sachin Tendulkar at No. 4. He picked himself at No. 5, followed by MS Dhoni at No. 6.
Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin featured as his all-round and spin-bowling options, while Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma completed the pace attack.
The trio of fast bowlers played a key role in ushering in a pace-dominant era for Indian cricket in 2018, contributing to several memorable Test victories on overseas soil.
Ajinkya Rahane’s all-time India Test XI of teammates: Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Ajinkya Rahane, MS Dhoni (c & wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma.
Rahane announced his retirement from all forms of cricket in July this year through an emotional video shared on social media. The right-handed batter last represented India in the two-match away Test series against the West Indies in 2023, after which he was dropped from the national side.
He scored eight runs in his final international innings and ended his Test career with 5,077 runs from 85 matches at an average of 38.46. In limited-overs cricket, Rahane featured in 90 ODIs and 20 T20Is, accumulating 2,962 and 375 runs, respectively.
