Former Indian opener Aakash Chopra came up with the two illustrious Indian Test teams of the different eras and put them against each other, ascertaining on who would win the battle. While he picked one team from the era of Sourav Ganguly's captaincy, the other team featured the current Test side.
India were at their peak in the longest format of the game with stalwarts like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and Virender Sehwag in the batting line-up, and match-winners in Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath, Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan in the bowling attack under the captaincy of Ganguly. Aakash Chopra heaped praise on 'Dada's XI'.
"We went to Australia and drew the series there. We went to Pakistan and defeated them. In India, we drew one series and lost one series to Australia," Chopra said in a video uploaded on his YouTube channel 'AakashVani'.
"And Sourav Ganguly's team even drew the series in England. It was a fairly good team, a team which taught us how to win abroad."
He then spoke about the current team in the longest format which, according to him, has got mixed bag results overseas under the leadership of Kohli.
"Virat Kohli's team has defeated Australia in their home conditions, the only team to have done so in Indian cricket history. But they lost in South Africa and lost quite badly in England. In South Africa, they came close but lost the series 2-1," Chopra explained. (ALSO READ: The Three Ws: Legendary trio of West Indies cricket)
Chopra concluded that Ganguly's XI would get the better of Kohli's XI if both sides ever met at the peak of their powers.
Sourav Ganguly's XI: Virender Sehwag, Aakash Chopra, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Sourav Ganguly, Parthiv Patel, Harbhajan Singh, Anil Kumble, Zaheer Khan, Ajit Agarkar
Virat Kohli's XI: Rohit Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Wriddhiman Saha, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami/Jasprit Bumrah
