England One-Day International captain Eoin Morgan revealed his all-time playing XI recently in a video uploaded by Lord’s Cricket Ground’s official channel on YouTube.
He picked former India leg-spinner, Anil Kumble, presently the head coach of the team and MS Dhoni as wicketkeeper-batsman in his side but left Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli out. The measure for selection is players they have played with, against or have been influenced by.
Morgan”s teammate and England”s Test Skipper Alastair Cook has been chosen to lead Morgan’s dream XI. He will open the batting along with the greatest all-rounder of the era-Jacques Kallis. Cook has recently become the youngest batsman to reach 10000 runs in Test cricket while Kallis is the only cricketer to score 10000 runs in ODIs and Tests and scalp 200+ wickets in both versions of the game.
At No.3 comes the Australian legend Ricky Ponting, one of the most elegant batsmen of all time. Caribbean southpaw, Brian Lara will bat at No.4. The Superman from South Africa, AB de Villiers will follow along with Srilanka’s greatest batsman Kumar Sangakkara and MS Dhoni have been chosen as wicketkeeper-batsman.
Anil Kumble, the Jumbo of Indian cricket is the lone spinner in this side. In the fast bowling department, Morgan picked the deadliest attack of this decade. South Africa’s Dale Steyn, Australia’s Mitchell Johnson and England’s James Anderson will be the fast-bowling trio.
Some notable omissions in this side are Sachin Tendulkar, Shane Warne, Muttiah Muralitharan, Virat Kohli.
Eoin Morgan’s All Time XI: Alastair Cook (c), Jacques Kallis, Ricky Ponting, Brian Lara, AB de Villiers, Kumar Sangakkara, MS Dhoni (wk), Anil Kumble, James Anderson, Dale Steyn, Mitchell Johnson.
