Shane Warne drops VVS Laxman to make Sourav Ganguly captain of his all-time Indian Text XI

Former Australian cricketer Shane Warne recently took to Instagram and nominated his greatest Indian Test XI in a live session. His list includes only those Indian players whom he played against during his illustrious international journey. Warne nominated Sourav Ganguly as the captain of the side which also includes the likes of Kapil Dev and Sachin Tendulkar.

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Shane Warne nominates greatest Indian XI, omits an Indian legend surprisingly

Quite surprisingly, Shane Warne did not include stylish Indian batsman VVS Laxman in his greatest Indian Test XI. The Australian bowling attack of the late 90s and early 2000s was regarded by many as one of the greatest of all time. Indian Test specialist VVS Laxman used to score runs in heap against the then number 1 Test side and registered many memorable knocks against them. Among his many marathon batting efforts, VVS Laxman’s 281 against Shane Warne and co. in the 2001 Kolkata Test is widely considered among the greatest match-winning effort in the cricketing folklore.

In the session, Shane Warne explained why he did not pick VVS Laxman in spite of being at the wrong end of his numerous batting masterclass efforts. The legendary spinner stated that he went for Sourav Ganguly instead because of his leadership abilities.

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Virender Sehwag, Kapil Dev feature in Warne’s Indian XI

Among other cricketers in the line-up, Warne included dashing Indian opener Virender Sehwag and former all-rounder Kapil Dev. The 145-Test veteran also included his former Rajasthan Royals teammate and batting legend Rahul Dravid. He nominated Navjot Singh Sidhu as one of the opening batsmen and cited his batting brilliance against spin bowling as the reason behind his inclusion.

Shane Warne's greatest Indian XI: Virender Sehwag, Navjot Singh Sidhu, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Mohammed Azharuddin, Sourav Ganguly (c), Kapil Dev, Harbhajan Singh, Nayan Mongia, Anil Kumble and Javagal Srinath.

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Shane Warne’s record against India

While Shane Warne is considered among the greatest spin bowlers of all time, his record against India is way below than his overall bowling standards. He collected 43 wickets against India from 24 innings at an average of 45.79, which is much higher than his career average of 25.41.

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