The former English cricketer chose his combined Indian and Australian XI ahead of the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final between the two cricket giants at Oval England from June 7 to 11. Both teams have arrived in the UK and are working hard for the game.
Rohit Sharma will captain the combined team selected by Nasser Hussain and will also open the innings. The former cricketer was also keen to have Shubman Gill in his team, but inexperience saw Usman Khawaja get the nod. Speaking at ICC Review, he said:
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“Rohit Sharma, very easy, the best of the order and captain for me. I love the way Rohit captains. I would like to have Shubman (Gill) but I think it’s a little early for him to get into my combined XI so I’ll go with Usman Khawaja to open up the batting.”
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Nasser Hussain then did not shy away from choosing Marnus Labuschagne, Virat Kohli and Steve Smith at 3, 4 and 5 respectively. He touted them as greats and said his pick was pretty easy for him and he followed them with Cameron Green up the batting order.
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He explained: “Then, in the very easy part, three of the world’s all-time greats in (Marnus) Labuschagne, (Steve) Smith and (Virat) Kohli go in three, four, five.”
Nasser Hussain then chose Alex Carey on his team. He said that if Rishabh Pant had been there, he would have picked him straight away and now that India is figuring out which goalkeeper to play, he went with Carey. He added:
“Wicketkeeper is a bit stiff due to Rishabh Pant’s injury. He’d get him in right away, no questions asked, but he’s not there. He is injured, unfortunately. India is still trying to decide which one he will play with, so I am going to go with Alex Carey as my goalkeeper at seven”.
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ICC World Test Championship Final: Nasser Hussain picks R Ashwin as sole spinner on his team
Nasser Hussain then opted for only one spinner in the team. He chose R Ashwin over Ravindra Jadeja and Nathan Lyon on his team. The former England cricketer chose a formidable pace attack in Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Mohammed Shami.
He chose Starc because of the left arm variation and also said that if Jasprit Bumrah had been available, he would have been his first pick, but he wasn’t, so he chose Mohammed Shami.
“(Pat) Cummins at nine, easy choice. (Mitchell) Starc at 10 to give me that left arm variation. Mohammed Shami, just so we can get as many reps of the seam position of him down. Obviously, I would have Jasprit there if he wasn’t injured, but he is, so I’ll have Shami at 11.”
Nasser Hussain’s India-Australia Combined Test XI:
Rohit Sharma (c), Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Virat Kohli, Cameron Green, Alex Carey (week), Ravichandran Ashwin, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Mohammad Shami
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Virat Kohli | rohit sharma | Rishabh trousers | Raul KL | Suryakumar Yadav | sanju samson | Shreyas Iyer | Yuzvendra Chahal | Jasprit Bumrah