Since February 2013, India have never lost a home series
Former South African skipper Graeme Smith and ex-Indian cricketer VVS Laxman on Sunday combined to pick a dream team of 11 players from a current lot of active players who could challenge Virat Kohli’s domineering Indian team at home.
Since February 2013, India have never lost a home series and run that eclipsed the famed Australian teams led by Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting. They won 11 series since then – a world record in Test cricket while losing only one Test match out of the total 31 games. Hence, on Sunday, during the ongoing third Test against South Africa, Laxman and Smith picked their dream XI.
The two cricketing stalwarts picked three Australians, two each from South Africa, England and Bangladesh and one apiece from New Zealand and England.
Dream XI to challenge India at home: Dean Elgar, Tamim Iqbal, Kane Williamson, Steve Smith, Babar Azam, Shakib Al Hasan, Ben Stokes, Quinton de Kock, Pat Cummins, Jofra Archer, Nathan Lyon.
Well, Elgar and De Kock are presently part of the ongoing series in India and both had scored a century each in the opener in Visakhapatnam. His knock of 160 was his first on Asian soil since his 103 against Sri Lanka in Galle in 2014 and a first for South Africa in the rivalry contest since Hashim Amla's ton in 2010. Meanwhile, de Kock had become the second South African wicketkeeper to score a Test century in Asia.
Talking about the series, India presently lead by an unassailable 2-0 margin and are looking to wrap up the contest with a whitewash. They amassed 497/9 on day 2 before declaring the innings. The pacers started off on a fierce note as the combination of Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Shami dismissed both the openers.
