A formidable Indian cricket team will play with the visiting New Zealand team,in its historic 500th Test match.

There is an extra bit of statistics and history attached with the match for it being the team’s 500th Test match since it started playing the game 80 years back.

The team played its first ever Test when it was a British colony in 1932 but over the years, has established itself as a force in world cricket.

On the occasion of achieving this historic milestone , a team of highly accomplished Indian stalwarts picked the country’s all-time best XI.

The elite panel included former India captains Vengsarkar and Borde, former India batsman Pravin Amre and former all-rounder Yajurvindra Singh.

They met on Tuesday, with Borde joining in via telephone from his residence in Pune, to pick a balanced side which would best represent the ethos of Indian Cricket. It wasn’t easy.

The quartet dug deep into the past, with a multitude of anecdotes and laughs during the discussion. In the end, though, many hard decisions needed to be taken and the panel came to a consensus, picking XI men after long-drawn deliberations.

Though, Sachin Tendulakar was the automatic selection along with Gavashkar,Kapil Dev, GR Vishwanath and Vinoo Mankad, Sehwag also made it to the “best of the bests”.

But it was surprising to see legendry spinner Anil Kumble out of it!

The team is as below: