Gautam Gambhir names Kumble as India's all-time Test XI captain ahead of Dhoni, Kapil

Former India cricketer Gautam Gambhir, who retired from all forms of cricket in December 2018, is into his second innings as a politician. Gautam Gambhir, who is now a Member of Parliament from East Delhi, won the Lok Sabha 2019 elections from his constituency by a big margin of 6,95,109 votes, despite being a first-time participant. Gautam Gambhir has often made headlines for being straightforward in his opinions whether it is in cricket or other national issues. The southpaw is known for his candid nature as he never shies away from speaking his mind.

While speaking in an interaction with Sports Tak, Gautam Gambhir picked his all-time India Test XI.

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Gautam Gambhir picks all-time India Test XI, names Anil Kumble captain ahead of MS Dhoni

Gautam Gambhir picked Sunil Gavaskar and Virender Sehwag as his openers. Both Gavaskar and Sehwag were prolific openers as they got the team off to positive starts and went on to score 10,122 and 8,586 runs respectively in their Test careers. Gautam Gambhir picked Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar at the No.3 and No.4 positions in the team, which doesn't come as a surprise looking at their impeccable records. Rahul Dravid scored 13,288 runs in 164 Tests at an average of 52.31 while Sachin Tendulkar amassed 15,921 runs in a record 200 Tests.

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Gautam Gambhir chose to go with Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni at five and six respectively which forms a formidable batting line-up. The former India captain will don the gloves for the team. India’s first World Cup-winning captain Kapil Dev is the only all-rounder, who makes a cut into Gambhir's all-time India Test XI.

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The spin attack boasts of India's two of the most successful spinners in the form of Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh,  who have given several match-winning performances. On the other hand, the pace battery is formed by Zaheer Khan and Javagal Srinath.

However, Gautam Gambhir sprang up a major surprise by naming Anil Kumble as the captain of his all-time India Test XI. Anil Kumble led India in 14 Tests, winning 3 and losing 5, before eventually calling it quits from international cricket. These stats do not compare much to the likes of MS Dhoni and Kapil Dev, who are in Gambhir's team and led India for a longer period of time with much success in both Tests and ODIs. On several occasions, Gambhir has been full of praise for Kumble's captaincy, rating him higher than the likes of MS Dhoni and Sourav Ganguly.

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IMAGE COURTESY: GAUTAM GAMBHIR TWITTER