5 overseas spinners who could have become legends if they had played for India

#1 Lance Gibbs (West Indies)

Lance Gibbs is widely considered to be the greatest ever spinner to represent West Indies

For certain conditions, Lance Gibbs is arguably the easiest pick in a West Indies all-time XI. Although the fearsome fast bowlers could repeatedly take the pitch out of the equation with their hostile pace, turning tracks in the subcontinent open up the case for a specialist spinner. With his impressive Test record, Gibbs is an automatic choice on such surfaces ahead of the likes of Alf Valentine and Sonny Ramadhin. After all, he was the first spinner to breach the 300-wicket mark in the premiere format of the game.

Only a slightly below-par strike-rate of 87.7 prevents Gibbs from entering the debate pertaining to the best spinners in the history of Test cricket. Nevertheless, his clever variations in pace as well as a deadly arm-ball could have enabled him to strike on a quicker basis if the Guyanese had the chance to use the crumbling Indian surfaces.

Since he made his international debut as early as 1958, the off-spinner could have seamlessly helped the Indian team oversee the transition from the Vinoo Mankad-Subash Gupte generation to the era of the iconic quartet.

Statistics

Tests - 309 wickets from 79 matches at an average of 29.09 and strike-rate of 87.7; 18 five-wicket hauls and two ten-wicket hauls