Akash Chopra Picks His All-Time India-Pakistan Test XI

With the entire world under a lockdown, former and current cricketers are resorting to all sorts of activities to keep themselves engaged. While the likes of Yuzvendra Chahal are making Tik-Tok videos with their family, Shreyas Iyer, Ajinkya Rahane, Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana are taking to Twitter to engage with fans via Question-Answer session.

As far as former cricketers are concerned, Shane Warne and Akash Chopra are leading the way with regards to picking all-time great XIs across all formats of the game. Warne recently took to Instagram where he shared his all-time great Australian ODI XI and World XI, where he considered only those cricketers with whom he played with and against during his playing days.

Cricketer-turned-commentator Akash Chopra recently posted his all-time combined India-Pakistan Test XI. Chopra slotted his playing XI in such a way that the batting order was dominated by the Indians and vice-versa as far as bowling is concerned.

“I wanted to do a fun exercise today by selecting the combined all-time Test XI of Pakistan and India, although it was a very difficult task. One thing that we will all agree, before moving on, that the team will give more preference to Indian batsmen and Pakistan bowlers.” Chopra said in a video on Facebook as quoted by Hindustan Times.

Indian batsmen dominate the top-7 in Akash Chopra’s India-Pakistan Test XI

Chopra picked the original ‘Little Master’ Sunil Gavaskar and swashbuckler Virender Sehwag for the opening slot and frankly no one would have any reservations on that.

“There is no doubt that Sunil Gavaskar will be one of the openers as his presence is absolutely mandatory. would partner him with Virender Sehwag because he scored two triple centuries in Test cricket which is quite an achievement,” he added.

Following the openers, is the duo with the most number of runs as a pair in Test cricket- Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar. The fifth and sixth slot went to Javed Miandad and Inzamam Ul-Haq, both of whom Chopra admitted were out of place but deserved a place in the line-up.

“At the third and fourth position, I would include Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar,” he said. “At the fifth and sixth position, although they are both playing out of position but deserve a place in the XI, are Inzamam-ul-Haq and Javed Miandad,” he added.

Also Read: Shoaib Akhtar Proposes 3-Match ODI Series Between India And Pakistan To Raise Funds To Fight Coronavirus

MS Dhoni to keep wickets; Imran Khan to lead the India-Pakistan Test XI

The wicket-keeper’s slot went to former Indian captain MS Dhoni, although the former opener was tempted to give the gloves to Rahul Dravid.

“For the wicketkeeper spot, I will pick MS Dhoni. Although we can consider Dravid as well I don’t want to make a batsman playing at one-down to keep the wickets,” Chopra said.

The next two slots went to the superstar all-round duo of Kapil Dev and Imran Khan with the latter edging out Dev as far as captaincy is concerned.

“At number eight and nine, I will pick Kapil Dev and Imran Khan. Imran will also be the captain of my side,” he said.

“It is 100 percent certain that Wasim Akram will be part of this lineup and he slots in at number 10. With over 600 wickets, I will include leg-spinner, Anil Kumble, as the final player in my team. It is hard to keep Waqar Younis out of this XI but I will definitely include him as my 12th man,” he said

With only two spots remaining Chopra was forced to leave out Waqar Younis as he went in for the magician Wasim Akram and leg-spinner Anil Kumble.

Also Read: Shane Warne Names His All Time ODI XI

Akash Chopra’s combined India-Pakistan Test XI-

Virender Sehwag, Sunil Gavaskar, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Javed Miandad, Inzamam Ul Haq, MS Dhoni (WK), Kapil Dev, Imran Khan ©, Wasim Akram, Anil Kumble

12th man: Waqar Younis

Watch the video here:

https://www.facebook.com/104909716237935/posts/3032051436857067/