Wasim Akram picked the team days ahead of India-Pakistan World Cup clash.
Ahead of the marquee fixture, Pakistan pace legend Wasim Akram has named his combined India-Pakistan ODI XI.
The team was picked by Akram while speaking to Fox Sports and it features a line-up of great cricketers.
For the opening slots, Wasim Akram opted to go with Saeed Anwar and Virender Sehwag. He picked Sachin Tendulkar to bat at No. 3 followed by Javed Miandad and Virat Kohli.
“I will start of with a lefty from Pakistan Saeed Anwar. I think he got 19 ODI hundreds, not the best fielders but as a batter one of the best Pakistan has produced – an all-round player.
“I will pick Virender Sehwag to open with him. Again, a dashing player, one of my favourites. He changed the mindset of an opener in Test cricket. Before Sehwag, it used to be three slips and a gully – Sehwag started just whacking everyone, got a couple of triple-hundreds,” the former Pakistan captain said.
“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,” he explained.
Picking two quality all-rounders in his playing XI, Akram hailed India’s World Cup-winning skipper Kapil Dev as his hero while he named the legendary Imran Khan as the captain of his dream XI.
"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," he said.
MS Dhoni was designated wicketkeeper-batter in Akram’s team. He picked Saqlain Mushtaq as the only spinner in his XI while Jasprit Bumrah and Waqar Younis were the premier fast bowlers. “Nobody can beat this team,” he concluded.
Wasim Akram's combined India-Pakistan ODI XI
Saeed Anwar, Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Javed Miandad, Virat Kohli, Imran Khan (c), Kapil Dev, MS Dhoni (wk), Saqlain Mushtaq, Jasprit Bumrah, Waqar Younis