Indian cricket climbed new heights at the Gabba in 2021. With a 2nd or 3rd string team. One of the greatest sporting stories of all time.
During that series, Australia announced a Test & T20I squad that would have been played at the same time (before Australia cancelled the South Africa tour of course).
These two events got me thinking—Can India field two Test XIs at the same time without overlapping players? How about an additional ODI & T20I team?
Today’s Twist
Build FOUR Indian National Cricket Teams Roster: 1 Test team, an ODI, and 2 T20I XIs so that (1) each team can field a team (wicketkeeper & 5 bowling options), and (2) a player is not repeated in any of the lists.
The Catch
- Would you pick Virat Kohli for the Test team, ODI, or the T20I? Bumrah?
- Can you make all 4 teams balanced? The goal is that each team is just as good and competitive on the international stage. The ODI & T20I teams should be good enough for the World Cups and the Test teams for the World Test Championship.
Also Read: Indian Cricket’s Abundance of Talent: A Blessing or a Curse?
India Cricket Team – Current Squad Contenders
Before we start making the list, here are all the 106 cricketers in India currently who are vying for an Indian national spot!
Batters
- Yashasvi Jaiswal
- Shubman Gill
- Rohit Sharma
- Ruturaj Gaikwad
- Virat Kohli
- Suryakumar Yadav
- Rinku Singh
- Shreyas Iyer
- Abhishek Sharma
- Devdutt Padikkal
- Sai Sudharshan
- Sarfaraz Khan
- Tilak Verma
- Abhimanyu Easwaran
Wicket-Keepers
- Sanju Samson
- Rishabh Pant
- Dhruv Jurel
- KL Rahul
- Ishan Kishan
- Jitesh Sharma
Spin All-Rounders
- Axar Patel
- Ravindra Jadeja
- Riyan Parag
- Washington Sundar
- Tanush Kotian
- Krunal Pandya
Pace All-Rounders
- Nitish Kumar Reddy
- Hardik Pandy
- Venkatesh Iyer
- Ramandeep Singh
- Vijay Shankar
Spinners
- Kuldeep Yadav
- Yuzvendra Chahal
- Ravi Bishnoi
- Rahul Chahar
- Varun Chakravarthy
- R Sai Kishore
Fast Bowlers
- Jasprit Bumrah
- Mohammad Shami
- Arshdeep Singh
- Mohammad Siraj
- Mukesh Kumar
- Deepak Chahar
- Prasidh Krishna
- Harshit Rana
- Akash Deep
- Avesh Khan
- Mukesh Choudhary
- Khaleel Ahmed
- T Natarajan
- Mohsin Khan
- Kuldeep Sen
- Umran Malik
- Mayank Yadav
- Navdeep Saini
Fringe Players
- Hanuma Vihari
- Rahul Tripathi
- Rajat Patidar
- Prithvi Shaw
- Deepak Hooda
- Mayank Agarwal
- Rahul Tewatia
- Karun Nair
- KS Bharat (WK)
- Nitish Rana
- Shardul Thakur
- Harshal Patel
- Shahbaz Ahmed
- Abhishek Porel (WK)
- Anuj Rawat (WK)
- Abdul Samad
- Shahrukh Khan
- Shashank Singh
- Mayank Markande
- Sandeep Sharma
- Yash Dayal
- Ashutosh Sharma
- Kartik Tyagi
Future Stars
- Ayush Badoni
- Sameer Rizvi
- Kamlesh Nagarkoti
- Shivam Mavi
- Angkrish Raghuvanshi
- Nehal Wadhera
- Vaibhav Arora
- Musheer Khan
- Rajvardhan Hangargekar
- Raj Bawa
- Yash Dhull
- Vidwath Kaverappa
- Vijaykumar Vyshak
- Baba Indrajith
- Narayan Jagadeesan (WK)
- Anshul Kamboj
Past? (But have not retired yet)
- Ajinkya Rahane
- Cheteshwar Pujara
- Jayant Yadav
- Karn Sharma
- Manish Pandey
- Ishant Sharma
- Bhuvneshwar Kumar
- Mohit Sharma
- Jaydev Unadkat
- Shahbaz Nadeem
Four Possible XIs for Indian National Cricket Team
*Note: Since our original iteration in 2021, Rahane, Pujara, Ishant Sharma, R Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and Dinesh Karthik. have dropped out of these lists.
Test XI
- Yashasvi Jaiswal
- Abhimanyu Easwaran
- Hanuma Vihari
- Sarfaraz Khan
- Rishabh Pant (WK)
- Dhruv Jurel
- Axar Patel
- Nitish Kumar Reddy
- Kuldeep Yadav
- Jasprit Bumrah (C)
- Akash Deep
ODI XI
- Rohit Sharma (C)
- Shubman Gill
- Virat Kohli
- Shreyas Iyer
- KL Rahul (WK)
- Hardik Pandya
- Ravindra Jadeja
- Mohammad Shami
- Mohammad Siraj
- Yuzvendra Chahal
- Avesh Khan
Indian Cricket Limited Overs Teams:
T20 Team 1
- Sanju Samson (WK)
- Abhishek Sharma
- Tilak Verma
- Suryakumar Yadav (C)
- Rinku Singh
- Riyan Parag
- Washington Sundar
- Deepak Chahar
- Prasidh Krishna
- Ravi Bishnoi
- Arshdeep Singh
T20I Team 2
- Ruturaj Gaikwad (C)
- Ishan Kishan (WK)
- Devdutt Padikkal
- Venkatesh Iyer
- Ramandeep Singh
- Jitesh Sharma
- Krunal Pandya
- Harshit Rana
- Navdeep Saini
- Rahul Chahar
- Varun Chakravarthy
Players Who Have Retired Since the List Originally Came Out in 2021
- Retired: R Ashwin, Dinesh Karthik, Dhawal Kulkarni, Siddharth Kaul, Murali Vijay, Ambati Rayudu, Amit Mishra
- Out of Favor: Priyam Garg, Priyank Panchal, Mandeep Singh
Conclusion
Problem of plenty for Team India.
We have all criticized Indian cricket selectors at some point in time, but we can clearly see it is difficult to give every player an extended run. Gone are the days where we can find players who play 2 or 3 formats for more than a decade. Virat Kohli maybe the last of his breed in India.
Next week, we will do a similar exercise with the England cricket team. Their limited overs depth is quite something, and they are a rising force in Test cricket as well.
What will your Indian XIs be? What do you think of Indian cricket right now? COMMENT BELOW! Would love to know your thoughts!
If you like this, check out the rest of our World XIs with Twists Here – Best Fielding XI, Best Commentators XI, and much more!
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) – Indian Cricket Team Squad Depth
As of 2025, at least 100 Indian cricketers are fighting for a place in the national team. Today the Indian national cricket team player list is one of envy with its massive depth.
At least four professional cricket side can be fielded with the talent of Indian cricket team depth. These includes a separate squad for Test matches, ODI tournaments, and T20 series.
© Copyright @Nitesh Mathur and Broken Cricket Dreams, LLC, 2023. Contact us at bcd@brokencricketdreams.com. Originally published on 02/03/2021, updated on 01/15/2025. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Broken Cricket Dreams with appropriate and specific direction to the original content (i.e. linked to the exact post/article).
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