Cricket

'Yeh toh firangiyo ka dal hai' - Fans abuzz as only four Indians make into Ravi Shastri's combined XI for Test Championship final

Ravi Shastri selected his combined XI for the final of the Test Championship. Here's the players he selected and how fans reacted.

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Ravi Shastri declares his combined XI for Test Championship

Ravi Shastri declares his combined XI for Test Championship (Source: Twitter)

The IPL 2023 is almost over. The league matches have concluded. In Chennai, the playoffs will start on Tuesday. However, the discussion about the upcoming phenomenon in cricket has already started. The Test Championship final will begin in another two weeks at The Oval in London, where India will face Australia with the hope of winning their first major trophy in ten years.

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Former India coach Ravi Shastri made an intriguing choice for the summit match. He chose the best XI while considering players from the current Indian and Australian squads, ignoring Shubman Gill and Cheteshwar Pujara. Speaking about the upcoming Final, Shastri selected only four players from his country and seven from the Australian team while naming his best XI, including Australia and India.

Rohit Sharma captains Nathan Lyon ahead of Ravichandran Ashwin

Since Pat Cummins is his counterpart in the Australian team, Rohit Sharma was selected as the first opener and skipper without hesitation, according to Shastri. He did acknowledge that he would have chosen Steve Smith over Rohit had he continued to serve as captain.

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"I would give the captaincy to Rohit because he's much more experienced than Pat," Shastri declared. "He's been around and captained sides for a long time. If Steve Smith was captain of Australia, then maybe it's a different story, but since it's Pat Cummins and Rohit Sharma, Rohit wins it. Plus, you know, as a captain, you're a certainty in the XI, so he opens the batting."

"It's a tight one between Usman Khawaja and Shubman Gill," Shastri admitted. "Shubman is the rising young star, and he's a terrific player, but I think Usman Khawaja, just by current form and the number of runs he's got over the last couple of years, gets in there."

"The reason why I picked Nathan Lyon ahead of Ashwin is because of Nathan's overseas record," Shastri explained. "Not just in Australia, but outside Australia and (Lyon is) probably stronger to bowl those overs in England if needed."

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Ravi Shastri combined India-Australia Test XI: Rohit Sharma (c), Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Virat Kohli, Steve Smith, Ravindra Jadeja, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Mohammad Shami

Here's how fans reacted:

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