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Over the years, India has been one of the toughest places to visit for any touring side. With a formidable batting line-up that India perennially boasts off, coupled by the spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, the current World No.1 Test team, India has lost a solitary Test (vs Australia, 2017) in the past five years.
Having said that, there have a plethora of overseas cricketers, who have performed valiantly in India, even though their team might not have won the match or the series.
On that note, let us today, make a dream Test XI of the current era, that could potentially beat India in India.
#1 Alastair Cook
The youngest player in terms of age to cross the 10,000 run barrier in Test cricket, is also one of the most successful overseas openers to have come to India in the 21st century.
Having made his debut in 2006 against India, Cook gave an instant account of his penchant for batting for a long period of time, as he stroked a masterful hundred. However, it was only in the 2012 tour of India, where he scored a series reviving 176 in the second innings of the Ahmedabad Test. England might have lost that Test match, but it proved to be a series-defining one for the tourists. Cook the went on to score 122 and 190 in the succeeding Tests at Mumbai and Kolkata, to lead his side to a historic 2-1 series win in India after 28 years.
With seven scores in excess of 150 and two double-hundreds, Cook has thus far accumulated 12028 runs at an average of 45.73 which includes 32 hundred.
#2 David Warner
The only opener to smash a hundred in an opening session of the Test match, Warner has stamped himself as one of the leading Test openers of the current era, with 21 hundred at an average of 48.2 in 74 matches.
Joining Cook at the top will be Aussie David Warner. While the Aussie opener has not had a good time in India in his last two outings, his aggressiveness and shenanigans will be an ideal foil for Cook.
#3 Kane Williamson (Captain)
In at No.3 is New Zealand's skipper and arguably their finest batsman since the legendary Martin Crowe, the 27-year-old Kane Williamson.
Having made his debut in Ahmedabad 2010 against India, Williamson was already earmarked as the potential great since his U-19 days owing to his leadership skills and a non-Asian quality to play top-quality spin with precision. Thus, his pristine hundred (131) on his debut against a top quality spin attack of India.
One of the best overseas batsman in recent years of spin bowling, Williamson's will be the cornerstone of the team against the likes of Ashwin and Jadeja on the raging turners of India.
#4 Steve Smith
In at No.4 is Australia's former captain, Steven Smith. Smith has had a particular liking towards India ever since he started playing for Australia. He scored over 700 runs against the Men in Blue in 2014.
But Smith's finest hour in Test cricket arrived last year when he scored a tenacious hundred in the second innings at Pune on a dust-bowl masquerading as the first Test pitch to help Australia win their Test in India since Nagpur, 2004.
In ten Tests thus far against India, Smith has 1429 runs at an average of 84.06, which includes seven hundred.
#5 AB De Villiers
On his day he can tear any opposition apart as well as grind it out when the going gets tough, irrespective of reputations as well as conditions. It is with this predicament that de Villiers finds himself at No.4.
De Villiers enthralled the cricketing world with a swashbuckling 217 not out at Ahmedabad in 2008, and has since then has continued his love-affair with the Men in Blue.
South Africa's highest run-scorer in the recently concluded India-South Africa series, de Villiers enjoys has thus far featured in 11Test matches against India and has accumulated 1123 runs at an average of 40.10.
#6 Shakib Al Hasan
One of the best all-rounders of the 21st century Shakib Al Hasan makes our list at No.5. With an insatiable ability to hit the ball a distance, along with immaculate skills in the spin-bowling department, Al Hasan will be an ideal foil along with Lyon on Indian pitches. Shakib featured in the one-off Test in India last year and scored a pristine 82 and claimed two wickets.
The Bangladeshi all-rounder has thus far featured in 51 Test matches, and have accumulated 3594 runs at an average of 40.38, to go along with 188 wickets at an average of 32.37, which includes seventeen five-wicket hauls and two ten-wicket-hauls.
#7 Jonny Bairstow (Wicket-keeper)
Donning the wicket-keeping gloves will be England's, Jonny Bairstow. The Yorkshire wicket-keeping batsman has been one of the most improved cricketers in the past few years.
After making consistent performances for his team Yorkshire, that saw him score two back-to-back hundreds at the beginning of the 2012 season, Bairstow was handed his Test debut against the West Indies at Lords in 2012.
After an uneventful appearance, Bairstow was recalled for the third Test of the following South African series, after Kevin Pietersen was dropped due to disciplinary breach.
Bairstow cashed in onto his opportunity with a gritty 95 and followed it up with a fifty in the second innings.
In 52 Tests thus far, Bairstow has accumulated 3293 runs at an average of 39.2, including five hundred and seventeen fifties.
#8 Nathan Lyon
The spin department will be lead by one of the most successful off-spinner to have come out from Australia, the vile Nathan Lyon.
With 64 wickets in fourteen Test matches which include five five-wicket-haul and a match-winning ten-wicket haul at the Adelaide Oval in 2014, Lyon enjoys bowling to the Indians. Lyon's finest hour against India came in Australia's 2017 tour, where the vile off-spinner ran through India's famed batting-order and registered barely believable figures of 8-50 in Bengaluru.
With an ability to give more loop to the ball and with subtle changes in variations, Nathan Lyon will be the ideal pick in the World Test XI against India.
#9 Pat Cummins
Pat Cummins set the International arena on fire with a brilliant Test debut that saw him claim a seven-wicket match haul including a six-wicket-haul in the second innings on a green Wanderers pitch.
However, with constant injuries threatening to plague his career, Cummins was sidelined and it was only in the 2017 tour of India, where the talented fast bowler made his return after a hiatus of six years.
Cummins made an immediate impact as he nipped out four wickets in his comeback Test at Ranchi, and followed it up with another three-wicket haul in the first innings of Dharamshala Test. Cummins would serve as an ideal bowling partner along with Steyn and Starc.
#10 Dale Steyn
Overall, Steyn has an equally impressive record against India and averages an astounding 17.98, the lowest for any of the top four sides in Test cricket. One of the greatest fast bowlers to have graced the cricket field in the 21st century, Dale Steyn makes our list at No.10.
Blessed with immaculate accuracy and incisive pace and swing, both conventional and reverse, Steyn, is by far the most the most accomplished overseas fast bowler to have ever bowled in India.
Steyn was at his menacing best in South Africa's 2008 and 2010 tour of India. The fast bowler scalped 15 wickets in three matches in the 2008 tour and a further 10 in the 2010 rubber.
#11 Mitchell Starc
The menacing left-arm fast bowler from Australia, Mitchell Starc make our list at No.10. With a remarkable consistency in bowling brutal toe-crushers, that takes the pitch conditions out of context, Starc has proceeded to become one of the most fearsome fats-bowlers in contemporary cricket.
While he made his Test debut against New Zealand at the Gabba in 2011, a series of inconsistent performances hindered Starc's credentials of an all-format bowler, but it was only after the 2015 World Cup, where he was adjudged Player of the Tournament, that we saw the emergence of Starc 2.0.
With an ability to bowl toe-crushers with incisive pace, and an ability to reverse the ball, Starc along with Steyn will be an ideal combination on lifeless pitches of India.
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