Former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram recently unveiled his all-time combined India-Pakistan ODI XI. While speaking to Fox Sports, Akram came up with a star-studded team showcasing a lineup of legendary cricketers from both nations.
Wasim Akram picks his all-time combined India-Pakistan ODI XI
Yes, Wasim Akram was recently asked to furnish an all-time India-Pakistan XI ahead of the upcoming ICC World Cup 2023 in India. While he picked several legends of the game, however, a few talented names were missing from the best XI picked by Akram. While Akram snubbed current captains Rohit Sharma and Babar Azam from his Indo-Pak playing XI, he picked Tendulkar as the No.3 batter and slotted run-machine Virat Kohli to the fifth position in his XI.
“Number three, the great man, Sachin Tendulkar. Hundred international hundreds, can’t go wrong. Number four is…. very difficult to pick. I have Mohammad Yousuf, Babar Azam, Javed Miandad, Zaheer Abbas, Misbah-ul-Haq, Inzamam-ul-Haq and another great from India – Rohit Sharma. It’s difficult not to pick Rohit. But at four, I’m going to go with Javed Miandad because of the way batted and how he assessed situations and he was a gun fielder in his heyday,” Akram said.
“Kapil Dev is my hero..”
Picking all-rounders for his best XI, Akram hailed former India skipper Kapil Dev as his hero. He also named legendary all-rounder Imran Khan as the captain of his dream XI. He said:
“Number five, I’ll go with Virat Kohli. You can’t just not have Virat Kohli in the playing XI as a selector. Number six, it’s Imran Khan for me, batting at number six and skipper obviously. And then, of course, another great, one of my favourite persons, my hero – Kapil Dev,”
Further, Akram selected former Indian captain MS Dhoni as the keeper of his team before picking spin icon Saqlain Mushtaq as the only spinner in his best eleven. “Nobody can beat this team,” he concluded.
Wasim Akram’s combined India-Pakistan ODI XI
1. Saeed Anwar 2. Virender Sehwag 3. Sachin Tendulkar 4. Javed Miandad 5. Virat Kohli 6. Imran Khan (C) 7. Kapil Dev 8. MS Dhoni (WK) 9. Saqlain Mushtaq 10. Jasprit Bumrah 11. Waqar Younis.
