Fast bowling legend Wasim Akram has picked his all-time combined India-Pakistan eleven to be captained by Imran Khan. The team has six Indians and five Pakistan stars with only two active players making the cut.
Akram, widely hailed as the greatest left-arm pacer to have played the game, picked Saeed Anwar to open the innings with Virender Sehwag followed by ‘the great man’ Sachin Tendulkar.
ICC Cricket World Cup 2023: Jos Buttler, England’s Quiet Leader
“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,” he said on Fox Cricket.
“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,” he added.
While Akram had no difficulty picking Tendulkar at no. 3 given his incredible ODI numbers, he did have a lot of quality options for the no. 4 spot including the likes of Rohit Sharma, Babar Azam, Javed Miandad, Zaheer Abbas, Inzamam-ul-Haq among others.
He ultimately picked Miandad.
“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,” Akram said.
Modern-day batting legend Virat Kohli is at no.5 in his team followed by former Pakistan captain Imran who led them to ODI World Cup title win in 1992.
Another world cup winning captain, Kapil Dev, who Akram calls as his ‘hero’ is also part of the star-studded eleven.
“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,” Akram said.
The spin department will be handled by Saqlain Mushtaq while Jasprit Bumrah and Waqar Younis slot in as the two leading fast bowlers.
Wasim Akarm’s Combined IND-PAK ODI XI: Saeed Anwar, Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Javed Miandad, Virat Kohli, Imran Khan (captain), Kapil Dev, MS Dhoni (wk), Saqlain Mushtaq, Jasprit Bumrah, Waqar Younis