Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli Named In Joe Root’s All-Time Test XI

Jan 9, 2017 at 5:22 PM

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Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli Named In Joe Root’s All-Time Test XI

England star batsman Joe Root has selected Sachin Tendulkar and current India Test skipper Virat Kohli in his all-time Test XI. Root has chosen Alastair Cook as the skipper of his team with former England skipper Michael Vaughan opening the innings with him.

“Opening the batting for me are Michael Vaughan and Alastair Cook. Vaughan because as a kid growing up, he was from the same local club then going through and playing for Yorkshire and captaining England to an Ashes-winning team,” Root said.

“Cooky at the other end, again, England’s all-time run maker. I have had the opportunity to play alongside him and bat with him out at middle at the moment. He is going to captain the team as he is the only ever international captain I have played under in Test cricket,” he added.

Surprisingly, Root has selected Sachin Tendulkar at No. 3. This comes as a surprise as Tendulkar batted at No. 4 for the Indian team in Test cricket and it was Rahul Dravid, who was a permanent batsman for India at 3, “At number 3, Sachin Tendulkar, one of the best players to ever play the game. Lucky enough to have made my debut against him, and it was quite an honour to just be on the same field as him.

 

All-rounder Jacques Kallis is at No. 4 in the team. The deadly duo of Virat Kohli and AB De Villiers will bat at number 5 and number 6 respectively in Root’s squad, “Number 5, Virat Kohli, one of the best players in the world at the moment. The way he can construct an innings in all formats of the game is outstanding. At number 6 is AB de Villiers, again a fantastic player for South Africa for a number of years. Can keep, can field, I think he has even got wickets, and obviously scored a number of match winning knocks for South Africa.”

Kumar Sangakkara has also been named in the Root’s XI, who also turns out to be only Sri Lankan in the squad, “Number 7 is Kumar Sangakkara, he is going to keep wicket for my team, every time I play against Kumar, he seems to get runs. Whether it be county cricket, playing in one-day international or Test cricket. I watch him play and he makes it look extremely easy and always seems to score hundreds. So, if he is playing on my team and he does that, I will be extremely happy.”

Surprisingly at number eight is the former England all -rounder Andrew Flintoff, “Number 8 will be Andrew Flintoff, as a kid growing up, watching that Ashes 2005 series, the way he went about that and the way he sort of made that series his own was so inspirational and really got me drawn even more into cricket than I already was.”

Shane Warne is the only spinner in Root’s playing XI, “Number 9 is Shane Warne, one of the best spinners of all-time, definitely want a wrist spinner in my team so he makes the grade.

“To finish off, two nasty fasties. Mitchell Johnson who made life pretty uncomfortable when we played Australia down under a few years ago. And, of course, Glenn McGrath is going to bat number 11 for me, one of the best records as a seamer. That is my all-time XI.”

In all, his squad includes three England players, two Indians, two players from South Africans, One Sri Lankan player in form of Kumar Sangakkara and three Australian players, all of being bowlers.

Joe Root’s All Time XI – Michael Vaughan, Alastair Cook (Captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Jacques Kallis, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Kumar Sangakkara, Andrew Flintoff, Shane Warne, Mitchell Johnson, Glenn McGrath.

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