Australian cricket’s hall of fame Shane Warne has been very active on Instagram lately, through live sessions with the fans about favious topics. Recently Warne named his ‘all-time Indian XI’ squad, which featured iconic Men in Blue players from different generations. Now, the legendary spinner has listed his ‘Greatest World ODI XI’, and two Indian cricketers are included in his team. They are- Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag, two stalwarts of the Indian cricketing scene.
Just like his previous selection, Shane Warne picked the players from the ones he has faced in his career.
Electing the legendary Sri Lankan batsman Sanath Jayasuriya as the opener of choice for his ODI team, Warne went ahead and named Sehwag, India’s former hard hitting run machine to be Jayasuriya’s opening partner.
Sehwag is revered as one of the greatest opening batsmen of all time, with 8,273 ODI runs to his name.
Picking Sachin for the no, 3 spot was a no-brainer, as the cricketer with the highest runs in ODIs, a staggering 18,426 runs in the format.
Even though the Aussie legend’s duels with the Master Blaster on the 22 yards is still memorable to cricket fans till date, Warne’s respect towards his former opposition reflected in his choice of players for the ODI XI.
West Indies hall of fame Brian Lara and former England international Kevin Pietersen were Warne’s no. 4 and no. 5 respectively.
Kumar Sangakkara is the second Sri Lankan in the squad, and Warne’s choice for the wicket keeping role.
Andrew Flintoff and Wasim Akram were picked as the two all rounders of the team, and the bowling squad included former New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori, Pakistani fast bowling icon Shoaib Akhtar, and the legendary Curtly Ambrose.
“If you look at this side, this is pretty amazing,” is the reaction Warne had after picking his ODI XI.
Warne’s greatest World ODI XI: Virender Sehwag, Sanath Jayasuriya, Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, Kevin Pietersen, Kumar Sangakkara (wk), Andrew Flintoff, Wasim Akram, Daniel Vettori, Shoaib Akhtar, Curtly Ambrose.
The 50 year old, who retired from international cricket in 2007, was named in both ICC and Cricinfo’s World Test XI in the year of 2006.
Also read-
Shane Warne picks his all time Indian XI – and here’s why he left out Dhoni and Kohli!
