Would a joint Indo-Pak Test team been the best in the world in previous eras?

[Harsh Thakor]

It is fascinating when analyzing the history of the game how strong a joint India-Pakistan team would have been .Imagine Gavaskar ,Kapil Dev,Vengsarkar and Vishwanath playing alongside Imran.Miandad ,Qadir and Zaheer Abbas .Infact I ask myself which would have been the best joint indo-pak team .To me at it's best in the 1980's and 1990's the joint Indo-Pak team would have been the best in the world.Today probably a joint team would anyway be the best but still it does not compare with great Australian or West Indies team s of the past.Clive Lloyd's or Viv Richard's West Indians and Steve Waugh or Ricky Ponting's Australians would have thrashed n indo-pak team of today.


1980-85 team
Sunil Gavaskar
Mohsin Khan
Zaheer Abbas
Gundappa Vishwanath
Mohinder Amarnath
Javed Miandad
Kapil Dev
Imran Khan
Syed Kirmani
Abdul Qadir
Sarafraz Nawaz




1985-90 team

Sunil Gavaskar
Mohsin Khan
Zaheer Abbas
Mohinder Amarnath
Javed Miandad
Dilip Vengssarkar
Kapil Dev
Imran Khan
Syed Kirmani
Wasim Akram
Abdul Qadir





1995-2000 team

Saed Anwar
Amir Sohail
Rahul Dravid
Sachin Tendulkar
V.V.S.Laxman
Inzamam Ul Haq
Azhar Mehmmod
Moin Khan
Wasim Akram
Saqlain Mushtaq
Waqar Younus



Considering strength and diversity of bowling attack and match-winners amongst batsmen in addition to more talent I consider the joint team of 1995-2000 the best.I would have backed it to beat Steve Waugh's all-conquering Australian team.2nd would be the 198-90 team which would have possibly beaten Viv Richard's West Indians with it's superior diversity in bowling , talent in batting and all-rounders which make the crucial difference.Infcat it is the presnce og genuine all-rounders like Imran Khan and Kapil Dev which would have enabled it to give a neck to neck battle with the 1995-2000 joint team. Cllive Lloyd's invincible West Indies of 1984 in my view would have beaten the indo-pak team hands by just the margin of a whisker..

 

[Gilly]

A champion team will beat a team of champions, that's been proven over time.

 

[marlonbrowndo]

Del

 

[street cricketer]

Problem is India had its best ever team in the 2000s while Pakistan had it in the 80s.

So there was hardly a time when both teams were at their peak.