India's all-time dream Twenty20 XI

Who will open the batting? We have three candidates: Virender Sehwag, Mushtaq Ali and Farokh Engineer. I'll keep Engineer at No 7 to belt out in the final overs. According to the legendary Australian Keith Miller, "Mushtaq was the Errol Flynn of cricket -- dashing, flamboyant, swashbuckling and immensely popular wherever he played."

Mushtaq had the footwork of a fencer as he jumped out to drive, brandishing his bat like a sword. To the spectators, he was three musketeers rolled into one.

Palm tree hitter Polly Umrigar will come in at No 3, swinging his bat and warning fielders to run for cover. Then will walk in Yuvraj Singh saying, "Fee-fee fo-fum, I can smell the blood of an Englishman, by the name of Stuart Broad!" He narrowly beats another six-o-maniac Salim Durani and the run-machine Sachin Tendulkar for the No 4 spot.

Next man in is skipper CK Nayudu. He chides Yuvraj for asking for a drink. "No drinks for two hours, understand? Discipline, young pup!"u00a0 CK's hitting sprees in the past is only exceeded by his courage. He once kept batting despite losing teeth off a bouncer and bleeding profusely on the turf.

That makes it five. Now we need two all-rounders. Kapil Dev is the obvious choice.

My second choice is the left-handed Rusi Surti, referred to in the past as "Poor man's Garry Sobers." He could bat like a millionaire, bowl like a miser and field like superman. To me, he was India's first agile fielder.

Sadly, Test-class all-rounders Vinoo Mankad, Amar Singh and Mohinder Amarnath miss out.

We have two wicketkeepers, Engineer and Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Having younger feet and smaller tummy, Dhoni will field. As vice-captain, he will keep skipper CK - out of this world for many decades - informed about who is good at what, as also about rules of this funny game called Twenty20!

Now the hardest part: Selecting two spinners from a field of eight world renowned candidates; Subash Gupte, Bapu Nadkarni, Bishan Bedi, EAS Prasanna, B S Chandrasekhar, Srinivas Venkataraghavan, Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh.

But as the selection is for a T20 XI and not a Test XI I am forced to fly economy class. Just as Sehwag, Mushtaq and Umrigar gain preference over the three classy Vijays (Merchant, Hazare and Manjrekar), Sunil Gavaskar, GR Viswanath, Dilip Vengsarkar, Sachin Tendulkar Rahul Dravid ufffdas batsmen, I go for the economical spinners Nadkarni and Prasanna.

So here is India's Super T20 XI in batting order:
Sehwag, Mushtaq, Umrigar, Yuvraj, CK Nayudu (captain), Kapil Dev, Engineer (wk), Surti, Dhoni (vice-capt), Nadkarni and Prasanna. 12th man: 'Tiger' Pataudi.

What a batting line-up with Nadkarni at No 10! Kapil and Surti will open the attack, Umrigar as first change. Nadkarni and Prasanna will keep runs down with their spin and bounce. Yuvraj and Sehwag can turn their arm over, if needed.

Pity CK, Mushtaq and Umrigar will be there only in spirit!

Kersi Meher-Homji is an Indian-born cricket historian based in Sydney, Australia

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