Ahead of the ICC World Test Championship final, former India head coach Ravi Shastri has picked out his combined playing XI from both India and Australia. In The ICC Review’s latest episode, Shastri named his best combined XI and his choices threw up quite a bit of surprises. For the former India batter, only four stars from India made the cut- Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja and Mohammad Shami.


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Speaking about his choices, Shastri told host Sanjana Ganesan that in terms of captaincy, Rohit Sharma is a more experienced option than Pat Cummins." If Steve Smith was captain of Australia, then maybe it’s a different story, but since it's Pat Cummins and Rohit Sharma, Rohit wins it,” the former India coach said.


Shubman Gill, who is in great form these days, did not make the cut. Ravi Shastri found it tough to choose who would open the batting with Rohit Sharma. Comparing Australia batter Usman Khwaja and Gill, Shastri said, “Shubman is the rising young star and he's a terrific player, but Usman Khawaja, just by current form and the number of runs he's got over the last couple of years, I think he gets in there.”


For the former India batter, Marnus Labuschagne, who is ranked No.1 in the ICC Test rankings is an easy inclusion in the playing XI. Ravi Shastri also chose Virat Kohli and Steve Smith for the middle order.



Between Cameron Green and Ravindra Jadeja, Ravi Shastri chose the India all-rounder, due to his abilities as a spinner.


Shastri found it difficult to leave out Ravichandran Ashwin and go in for Nathan Lyon in his XI, but chose on the basis of the Aussie spinner’s overseas record.


In terms of pacers, Ravi Shastri went with Mohammad Shami, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc.


 



 


Team India are set to face off against Australia in the WTC final starting from June 7 at The Oval. This is the second time India have reached the final of the championship. In 2019, the side lost to New Zealand by 8 wickets in the summit clash of the World Test Championship.


This year, some Indian players are going to arrive in England early to get used to the conditions. Virat Kohli, Axar Patel, Mohammad Siraj, Shardul Thakur, Umesh Yadav and Ravichandran Ashwin have become free of their Indian Premier League duties and will begin training early for the WTC final.