Rohit, Virat, Dhoni Make The Cut In Babar Azam's Combined Indo-Pak T20 XI

During a chat show with Harsha Bhogle, Babar donned the selector's hat to select and pick up a combined XI Indo-Pak T20 featuring quite a few T20 stalwarts from India and Pakistan.

Photo: AFP

New Delhi: Pakistan’s batting lynch-pin Babar Azam is hailed as one of the most talented strokemakers in modern-day cricket. The supremely gifted right-handed stroke-maker is often clubbed as part of an elite list of modern day batting greats which comprise of Indian captain Virat Kohli, Kane Williamson, Steve Smith and Joe Root. Babar has drawn comparisons with India's batting great Virat Kohli on the back of his consistent match winning performances with the willow for Pakistan. During a chat with Harsha Bhogle, the soft spoken Azam opened up on various facets of his game and also spoke extensively about the players he admires and would like to emulate in his already stellar career. On Harsha's request, Babar also donned the selector's hat to select and pick up a combined XI Indo-Pak T20 featuring quite a few T20 stalwarts from India and Pakistan. Babar started in an orderly fashion by naming his team's openers by selecting Rohit Sharma and himself. Rohit is the second-highest run-scorer in T20Is, amassing a staggering 2773 runs in just 108 games. Babar then selected his middle order by naming Indian skipper Kohli and Pakis veteran all-rounder Shoiab Malik to make form a meaty middle-order. The Indian skipper has notched up 2794 runs in the shortest format – highest by any batsman currently. Malik, on the other hand, is the leading run-getter for Pakistan with 2321 runs. Babar picked India's clinical finisher MS Dhoni and star all-rounder Hardik Pandya to form a lethal lower middle order. In 98 games, Dhoni has amassed 1617 runs. Three seamers and two spinners formed part of Babar Azam's bowling lineup. He went with Shaheen Afridi, Mohammad Amir and Jasprit Bumrah as his frontline pacers. In 50 games, Bumrah has taken 59 wickets with a brilliant economy of 6.66. Similarly, Afridi and Amir have bagged 16 and 59 scalps, respectively. For the spinners, Babar chose Shadab Khan and chinaman Kuldeep Yadav. In 40 matches, Shadab has taken 48 wickets, while Kuldeep has 39 scalps to his name in 21 games. Babar has played remarkable cricket for the past couple of years in the white-ball format, and therefore he averages above 50 in both ODIs and T20Is. Here is a look at Babar Azam’s Indo-Pak T20 XI: Rohit Sharma, Babar Azam, Virat Kohli, Shoaib Malik, MS Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Afridi, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Amir, Kuldeep Yadav