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Aakash Chopra's Top-5 India Test Batters of All-Time [Source: X, AFP]
Former India opener Akash Chopra picked his top-5 Indian Test batters of all time, speaking exclusively to CREX. His list focused not only on the number of runs scored by the players but also on their impact on the Indian Test team during their time in whites.
Picking all-time lists is always a hot topic among the fans and experts, and it often divides opinions. Hence, it is always interesting whenever prominent names pick their bests, leaving many big names out.
Similarly, with Aakash Chopra’s top-5 Test batters from India, many would argue against the players he named.
Aakash Chopra’s Top 5 Indian Test Batters of All-Time
During his recent chat with CREX, Aakash Chopra, who played 10 Tests for India, scoring 437 runs, was given a task to pick his best Indian Test batters from a plethora of options at his disposal.
Right from the greats of the sport like Sunil Gavaskar to the modern-day pioneer like Virat Kohli, who redefined Test cricket in the 2010s, Chopra had a big headache. However, making things easy for himself, he named five players, including three of his teammates.
The following was his list of batters:
1. Sachin Tendulkar
2. Rahul Dravid
3. Virat Kohli
4. Sunil Gavaskar
5. VVS Laxman
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What are the debatable picks in Aakash Chopra’s list?
Three of the five names in Aakash Chopra’s list mentioned above pick themselves. Only three Indians have scored over 10,000 Test runs, and all three, i.e., Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sunil Gavaskar, made the cut for Chopra.
However, apart from the three sure-shot picks in this list, Virat Kohli — the fourth highest run-scorer for India — and VVS Laxman were also a part of it. Notably, he left out Virender Sehwag from his list, despite a career average of 49.43 for 8503 runs.
Other notable exclusions from this are the greats like Sourav Ganguly, Mohammad Azharuddin and Gundappa Viswanath, among others. All of them are considered pioneers of Indian cricket, while Viswanath also inspired a generation of greats from the 1980s.
Aakash Chopra’s picks in numbers
All five of his batters are the players who have scored the most runs for India in the format. Notably, Sunil Gavaskar was the first-ever player to score 10,000 runs in Test cricket, finishing his career with 10,122 runs in 125 Tests at an average of 51.12.
Later on, Sachin Tendulkar surpassed Gavaskar and eventually became the all-time leading run-scorer in Tests, finishing his career at 15,921 runs in 200 Tests with a whopping 51 centuries, averaging 53.78.
Even Rahul Dravid went past Gavaskar to finish his illustrious 163-match Test career with 13,265 runs, 26 hundreds, and an average of 52.63. All three of these batters averaged over 50 in away conditions.
Virat Kohli missed the landmark of 10000 runs and finished at 9230 after 123 Tests at an average of 46.85, while once averaging over 54. VVS Laxman scored 8781 runs for India in 134 Tests at an average of 45.97, and his best performances often came in the tough Australian conditions, earning him a spot in this list.
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