Sooda

At a time when India were truly dreadful away from home, he was okay: centuries at Lords in that test where Gooch hammered a 330, century in Aus Adelaide I think vs McDermott and Co, and of course cape town that awesome partnership with Tendulkar. There weren't many great overseas performances, a few special ones though.

As a child of the 90's I remember Laxmi Ratan Shukla

I feel like there is bit of a contradiction in what youre saying: we cant be so sure that there is that depth, if as you say we dont know how good they are having not seen them play against international sides ; on which I agree there are a few players who should have had more opportunities.

Its a silly statement So many of the younger guys, or newer guys have literally played a handful of LOIs. Sure SKY, Krunal, Kishan have made good starts to their careers: but that is all it is, STARTS. The Aussies of the late 90's to early noughties could almost field a 2nd XI good enough to beat most Int'l sides, even in test cricket. We certainly dont have that depth in tests, and in LOIs we dont know nearly enough about the newer guys yet!

Tried to make two 11's and a 12th man strictly using surnames only and in order of alphabet (excluded Q and X), but need an opener with N (Saffie Dudley Nourse and WIndian Seymour Nurse are not openers but might be forced to go with Seymour who at least has opened) Updated now...any changes suggestions guys :-) ? Amla, H Boycott, G Chappell, GS Dravid, R Edrich, J Flintoff, A Gilchrist, A Hadlee, R Illingworth, R Johnson, M Khan, Z Lara (12th man) Mohammad, Hanif Nazar, M O' Nei

The whole point of this thread is to trigger the "you know who" hard core fan base

Depends on the losing scenario in this alternative universe. Did Tendulkar get caught on one of the 3 or 4 times he was dropped and we lose to Pak in the semi? That would be traumatic.

Marshall Ambrose are not just two top tier ATG bowlers but also complement each other more so than other combos, got a shorter skiddier type and tall bouncy one, deadly in all conditions Arguably Pak would open with Waqar, with his pace.

I remember the first match India crossed 300. Against Pak, SRT and Sidhu had a big stand then Azhar slogged a brisk 30 or so smashed this random Pak bowler ( ata ur rehman, i even remember the name)

Yep. Nilesh Kulkarni took a wicket with his first ball in test cricket, it was just hellish thereafter. I remember SRT as skipper saying after the match SL made no effort to win, they literally batted for (what felt like) 4 days

Opening with Rahul could be key to this, he is the only opener who can strike at 100 + from the outset. Dhawan can start briskly but not at England level beserkness...for all his sterling ODI service, is it time to bid him farewell?

Agree with this... Rohit, Rahul, Virat, Sundar, Pant, Hardik, Krunal, Thakur, BK, Chahal, Krishna

Yes thats the other option. Or staright swap Hardik for Sundar, Sundar is not a finisher he needs to be at 5 at least, but will chip in with ball .. Rohit, Dhawan, Virat, KL, Sundar, Pant, Krunal, Thakur, BK, Chahal, Krishna

With Hardik not able to bowl, we are hamstrung with just 5 bowlers. Kurnal is not good enough to give 10 overs a match every match, and on this form/pitches neither is Kuldeep. We need a 6th option for one several guys are having a terrible day like today. Rohit, Rahul, Virat, Pant, Hardik, Sundar, Krunal, Thakur, BK, Chahal, Krishna Pant or Hardik at 4 is too high... could replace Hardik with SKY .. or Sundar is potentially good enough to bat at 4?

Hard to argue against it, just for their sheer destructiveness, taken hitting to a new level... the England team in general have It is Tough to compare across eras, as Morgan pointed out in his post match interview sport like all things evolves, bats and batsmen have become bigger and stronger, conditions stacked in their favour... arguably the quality of new ball bowling in this era is not quite as good as it was 15 to 20 years ago