Former India captain and head coach Ravi Shastri has named his top five greatest Indian cricketers of all time, but in his list he ignored the likes of Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, and Anil Kumble, along with Rohit Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin. The cricketer-turned-commentator, though, gave a special mention to Jasprit Bumrah, who is arguably the best Indian fast bowler of all time.
During a recent interaction with former England captains Michael Vaughan and Alastair Cook on The Overlap Cricket podcast, when asked to name his “top five Indian cricketers of all time," Shastri said, “Definitely (Sunil) Gavaskar, Kapil (Dev), Sachin (Tendulkar), and Virat (Kohli) definitely for being… I am looking at the most influential players of that era. Bishan (Singh Bedi) would have been there but MS (Dhoni) again. MS will come in, and then Bumrah is still here. Bumrah is young; Bumrah has still got cricket. I am saying the guys who have almost finished their cricket, so these will be the five."
“It will be Sunny, Kapil, Sachin, Dhoni, and Virat."
When asked, “Who’s the No. 1?" by Cook, Shastri said, “Gavaskar—I would say batting. Kapil, wow, a fabulous cricketer, and I would put the entire package no. 1 would be Tendulkar because of the expectations and because of longevity, for having played 24 years in the game."
“24 years is a lot of time, and he has played… 100 hundreds. He played every pace attack of that decade. He started playing against Wasim (Akram), Waqar (Younis), and Imran (Khan). Then went on to the Aussies, then the English attack Broady (Stuart Broad) and (James) Anderson. South African attack (Jacques) Kallis, Shaun (Pollock). He is pure as technique-wise and following-wise," he added.
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Tendulkar made his international debut for India against Pakistan during a Test match played at National Stadium in Karachi from November 15 to 20 in 1989, and his last match as an India cricketer was against the West Indies at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai from November 14 to 16 in 2013.
During his 24-year-long career, Tendulkar played 200 Tests, 463 ODIs, and one T20I for Team India and scored 15921, 18426, and 10 runs, respectively, in addition to dismissing 201 batters (46 in Tests, 154 ODIs, and 1 in T20I).
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