India and Australia are set to face each other in the three-match ODI series starting from October 19. In the build-up to the much-awaited series, Pat Cummins who is injured and ruled out of the contest, has picked the all-time best ODI XI among the players from the two teams. However, Cummins picked only three Indian players in the XI and went with eight players from his own country.
In an interaction with Star Sports, Cummins played it safe by stating that he would only pick the players who are retired which filtered out the current lot of players. He went with David Warner and Sachin Tendulkar to open the innings together with Ricky Ponting and Steve Smith to follow next in the line-up. Ponting enjoyed a great record against India in the format, while for the unversed, Smith retired from ODI cricket after the Champions Trophy earlier this year.
A star-studded middle and lower-middle order followed as Cummins went with Shane Watson, Michael Bevan and MS Dhoni to bat numbers five, six and seven respectively. Bevan and Dhoni are arguably the best ever finishers in the history of ODI cricket while Watson was a perfect seam-bowling all-rounder in the format.
Cummins picks a fearsome bowling attack
Meanwhile, Pat Cummins has gone for a brilliant bowling attack in his combined XI comprising Brett Lee, Glenn McGrath and Zaheer Khan among the fast bowlers, while Shane Warne as the lone specialist spinner. Overall, the XI looks perfect, but it is startling to see that the Australian Test captain picked only three Indian players despite the country producing so many great players in the format.
Pat Cummins IND-AUS combined ODI XI (retired players): David Warner, Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Steve Smith, Shane Watson, Michael Bevan, MS Dhoni, Brett Lee, Shane Warne, Zaheer Khan, Glenn McGrath
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