Former England skipper Nasser Hussain has named his combined India-Australia XI ahead of the World Test Championship (WTC) final, slated to be held at the Oval in London from June 7-11.
Hussain could only find room for one spinner in the XI even though spin ruled to roost when India and Australia clashed earlier this year.
India won the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023 at home by a 2-1 margin, with the spin duo of R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja sharing 47 wickets between them. On the other hand, Australia's pair of Nathan Lyon and Todd Murphy accounted for 36 dismissals together.
Lyon (81) and Ashwin (61) were also among the leading wicket-takers in the WTC 2021-23 cycle, but only one spinner from the two teams made the cut in Hussain’s combined XI.
"If the World Test Championship Final was in the subcontinent or India, I might go Jadeja at six. But I'm not, because it's in England," Nasser Hussain told The ICC Review.
"I'm going to go for a bowling all-rounder, seam-bowler in Cameron Green. That's who I want as my all-rounder. My spin bowler would be Ravi Ashwin at eight. And he bats, obviously, very good at No.8," he added.
His batting line-up is full of star-studded names such as Rohit Sharma, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith and Virat Kohli.
"Rohit Sharma, very easy, top of the order and captain for me. I love the way Rohit captains," Hussain said. I'd like to have Shubman (Gill) in but I think it's just a little bit early for him to break into my combined XI, so I'm going to go with Usman Khawaja to open the batting. Then into the very easy bit, three of the all-time world greats in (Marnus) Labuschagne, (Steve) Smith and (Virat) Kohli come in at three, four, five," Hussain said.
Alex Carey is the designated wicketkeeper in Nasser Hussain’s combined Test XI while Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Mohammad Shami are part of the pace attack.
"(Pat) Cummins at nine, easy choice. (Mitchell) Starc at 10 to give me that left-arm variation. Mohammed Shami, just so that we can have so many replays of his seam position going down. I would have obviously Jasprit in there if he wasn't injured, but he is so I'm having Shami at 11," Hussain said.
Nasser Hussain's combined India-Australia Test XI: Rohit Sharma (c), Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Virat Kohli, Cameron Green, Alex Carey (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Mohammad Shami.
