India's all time left handed XI in test cricket

[deathmonger]

8 hours ago, Gollum said:

Now across formats we have:

 

Jaiswal

Pant

Jaddu

Axar

Sundar

Sai Sudarshan

Abhishek

Tilak

Ishan

Krunal

Rinku

Suryavanshi

Khaleel

etc.

 

And many doing well in Ranji, IPL. 

 

Welcome change. 

 

Arshdeep, Kuldeep.

 

Kuldeep's real red ball career starts now that Ashwin is gone and he will get a spot.

 

Even Axar will come into the team once Jaddu is gone.

 

And these two have pretty good numbers even if sample size is small.

 

Ofc, both really good in the white ball formats too.

[Trichromatic]

Using left hand is considered taboo in India and might have discouraged cricketers.

 

So many players who didn't have clear distinction. I always thought if you write with left hand or bowled with left hand, then that's your dominant hand.

 

Zaheer bowled left, field left handed, batted right handed.

 

Ganguly bowled right handed, batted left handed, fielded right handed.

 

Sachin played right handed, but used to write left handed.

 

 

I used to think Zaheer was anomaly. Many players could bat left handed even when it was not their dominant hand, but opposite was difficult.

 

[Gollum]

21 minutes ago, deathmonger said:

Arshdeep, Kuldeep.

 

Kuldeep's real red ball career starts now that Ashwin is gone and he will get a spot.

 

Even Axar will come into the team once Jaddu is gone.

 

And these two have pretty good numbers even if sample size is small.

 

Ofc, both really good in the white ball formats too.

Yeah, forgot about them. Big fan of both. 

[Sooda]

On 8/27/2025 at 10:28 AM, Trichromatic said:

Gambhir

Dhawan

Jaiswal

Vinoo Mankad (AR)

Pant (WK)

Ganguly (C)

Jadeja (AR)

Pathan (AR)

Bedi

Zaheer

 

Who can be 11th and 12th players?

 

Bedi and Zak batted right handed, but they were pure bowlers so can be part of the team. Shastri as AR doesn't make cut as he bowled left handed, batted right handed.

 

 

Can't think of any changes, good picks! I need to check but I think Mankad batted right handed too so may not qualify but let's keep him anyway :-)

 

Very good  ODI team 

 

Ganguly 

Dhawan 

Gambhir 

Yuvraj

Pant

Axar

Jadeja

Irfan 

Kuldeep 

Zaheer

Nehra

[diga]

On 8/27/2025 at 5:25 PM, Trichromatic said:

Indian players also struggled against lefties. I remember growing up with memories of one lefties being nightmare from each team.

 

Pakistan - Anwar

SL - Sanath

Aus - Hayden, Gilly

Eng - Trescothick

SA - Kirsten

Even Tamim had some good performances v Ind. 

Who can forget Andy flower?

[Gollum]

Saeed Anwar was another one.

 

And who can forget phateechar guys like Salman Butt, Nasir Jamshed score 100s against us for fun. 

[Gollum]

Lara, Graeme Smith thankfully failed against us. 

 

From modern era, Warner, Stokes, Latham, Karunaratne, Shakib etc. not big issues for us. Even Cook fell badly post the 2011 and 12 series, played 15 tests in 14, 16, 18, and not much impact. Kock plundered us in white ball but different story in tests. 

 

 

Edited August 28, 2025 by Gollum

[cricspirit]

We can field a decent lefty 11. The fast bowling department is bit of an issue. We had plenty of left hand spinners. 

 

Playing 11 -

Y Jaiswal

S Dhawan

G Gambhir

S Ganguly (Captain)

R Pant

Yuvraj Singh

Ravi Jadeja

Irfan Pathan

Karsan Ghavri

Zaheer Khan

Bishan Bedi

 

Reserves -

RP Singh

Kuldeep Yadav

Axar Patel
S Ramesh

 

* Mankad and Shastri were right hand bat and they were all rounders. So they do not count in my opinion. If a left hand bowler does not bat at all then he should be included. Both Shastri and Mankad could theoretically, not bowl at all and be in the test team as a right hand bat at the point of time in  Indian cricket. 

 

* Similarly Sundar is a right hand bowler. Bowling is a major skill for him.

 

* No Kambli for discipline issues and how he wasted himself. Used to like him early on. He could have batted no.4 

Edited August 28, 2025 by cricspirit

[Lord]

Mankad was a right handed bat

 

My Xi

 

Gambhir

Jaiswal

Wadekar

Ganguly (c)

Pant

Jadeja

Irfan

Sundar

Kuldeep

Zaheer

RP Singh/Bishan

 

[Sooda]

There is also Salim Durrani who was a good all rounder who bowled and batted left handed so should probably replace Sundar who is right arm bowler 

Edited August 28, 2025 by Sooda

[Majestic]

10 hours ago, Lord said:

Mankad was a right handed bat

 

My Xi

 

Gambhir

Jaiswal

Wadekar

Ganguly (c)

Pant

Jadeja

Irfan

Sundar

Kuldeep

Zaheer

RP Singh/Bishan

 

Vinod Kambli and Eknath Solkar?

[rkt.india]

On 8/28/2025 at 12:50 AM, Trichromatic said:

Using left hand is considered taboo in India and might have discouraged cricketers.

 

So many players who didn't have clear distinction. I always thought if you write with left hand or bowled with left hand, then that's your dominant hand.

 

Zaheer bowled left, field left handed, batted right handed.

 

Ganguly bowled right handed, batted left handed, fielded right handed.

 

Sachin played right handed, but used to write left handed.

 

 

I used to think Zaheer was anomaly. Many players could bat left handed even when it was not their dominant hand, but opposite was difficult.

 

Ganguly was a right hander who practiced batting left handed. He wasn't a natural left hander. Tendulkar is ambidextrous. Some guys like head who despite being predominantly right handed can bat left handed very well are ambidextrous. Only a natural left hander can bowl or throw left handed. People who don't throw or bowl left handed but bat left handed are not natural left handers. You cannot create left handed bowlers. They are born with it. There are some ambidextrous who can do some of things with both the hands but not everything. Some can do everything with both hands. David Warner is probably an ambidextrous too. He bowls right handed and bats left handed but can very well bat right handed too.