Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni Snubbed; Shock Captain Chosen In India-England Combined Test XI
Just days ahead of the start of the highly-anticipated Test series between India and England, former England cricketers and reputed pundits Nasser Hussain and Michael Atherton have built their best Test XI combining India and England players. There are a couple of caveats - they were allowed to pick a minimum of five players per nation, and only those who have played after the year 2000. Hussain and Atherton termed it a "thankless" task, which saw them ultimately leave out stalwarts like Virat Kohli and Joe Root from their playing XI.
Speaking on Sky Sports Cricket, Hussain and Atherton ended up going with an opening pair of Alastair Cook and Virender Sehwag, leaving out Rohit Sharma.
In the middle order, they faced the hardest dilemma, having had to pick just three players out of Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Kevin Pietersen, Joe Root and Virat Kohli.
Hussain and Atherton ended up picking Dravid, Tendulkar and Pietersen for No. 3, No. 4 and No. 5. This saw both Kohli and Root left out, arguably the two best batters of both teams post-2010.
Ben Stokes was selected as the all-rounder at No. 6, while Rishabh Pant edged out MS Dhoni and Matt Prior to be the wicket-keeper batter.
Stokes was also chosen as the captain of the side. The all-rounder has enjoyed success ever since entering the role after the appointment of Brendon McCullum as head coach.
Ravichandran Ashwin was selected as the lone frontline spinner in the team, while a three-pronged pace attack of James Anderson, Jasprit Bumrah and Stuart Broad was picked.
Nasser Hussain/Michael Atherton's post-2000 India-England Combined XI: Alastair Cook, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Kevin Pietersen, Ben Stokes (c), Rishabh Pant (wk), R Ashwin, Stuart Broad, Jasprit Bumrah, James Anderson.
The series between India and England kickstarts on Friday, June 20. The first Test will be played at Headingley, Leeds.
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