‘Koi sense hai iss team ki?’ - Fans react as Ricky Ponting shares his combined Indian and Australian XI for WTC Final

The World Test Championship (WTC) Final is all set to happen from 7-11 June 2023 at The Oval, England. India will take on Australia in this mega clash as an enthralling battle awaits both teams and their fans. Now, ahead of the clash, the former Aussie skipper, Ricky Ponting came up with a Combined Test XI from the Australia and India squads.

Advertisment

During a recent interaction on the latest episode of the review show of the Apex Council of Cricket, Ponting said: "I'll start with Usman Khawaja. His last couple of years, whether it has been in Australia or away, have been outstanding at the top of the order. Almost since he's been picked back in the Australian team, he hasn't put a foot wrong. The older he is getting, the better he is getting.”

“I wanted him to be captain of the side.” - Ricky Ponting on Rohit Sharma

"I'm going left hand-right hand, so I'll go for Rohit Sharma as the other opener. He's not just entirely form-based either. I wanted him to be captain of the side. Pat Cummins, I'll mention him later, he'll be in this side, but just from the experience point of view with Rohit, he's obviously been captain a lot longer than Pat has, so I thought he deserved to be the captain of this team," Ponting further added.

Advertisment

"Pretty hard to go past the next couple I've got in the batting line-up, which are Virat Kohli and Steve Smith. If you talk about great players of the last decade, both of these guys will be right at the top of anyone's list. Both with exceptional Test records and both make a lot of hundreds. I know it has been a couple of years and been a bit of a lean sort of trot with Virat, but he bounced back to his best in that last series against Australia and thoroughly deserves to be picked in the middle order," Ponting said. 

After that, he picked Ravindra Jadeja, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, and Mohammad Shami in the playing XI. But, seeing just four Indian players in the playing XI, some fans were not happy and termed Ponting as biased towards Australia.  

Here is how fans have reacted to the selected team:

You can take more than 4 overseas players... Mr ponting

— Ravi Bhargava (@RaviFarzi) May 28, 2023

Shastri ki bhi yehi to thi!

— ReD bAll🇮🇳 (@Cricfever1129) May 28, 2023

India ke chaar sher.
Kohli, Rohit , Jadeja , Shami

— CSK ( Dhoni ) (@ChhotaMotu73470) May 28, 2023

Koi sense h is team ki ??

— Deepak Sharma 🇮🇳 (@De_Shar11) May 28, 2023

Bht logo ko jal rha hai comment section me 😂

— Ꮶᴀʀᴛɪᴋ ❹❺ 😎 Paysenger (@Its_KartikM) May 28, 2023

Only 4 indians vaah apne desh ki hi khicho but dekhna india 🇮🇳 hi wtc final jitegi.

— Vidhubha Zala (@z_vidhubha) May 28, 2023

Ye konsi 20 over league ki team lag Rahi hai . 4 overseas player jaise 4 Indian player liye hai

— Ayush Tale (@tale_ayush) May 28, 2023

WTC turned into BBL 😯

— DRP 🇮🇳 (@its_DRP) May 28, 2023

Only four Indians? Tell me he is not biased

— Nirmal Jyothi (@majornirmal) May 28, 2023