England’s star wicket-keeper batter Jonny Bairstow recently selected his all-time XI. Over the last few years, the cricket universe has noticed the trend of all-time XIs, where current and former cricketers pick the best playing XI from cricketers who played across generations. Bairstow has also joined that group.
As reported by India.com, the England wicket-keeper batter decided against picking former Indian captain MS Dhoni and current Indian Test skipper Virat Kohli in his all-time XI. Interestingly, he did not pick the Indian ODI and T20I captain Rohit Sharma also as Sachin Tendulkar was the only Indian present in his all-time XI.
He picked the right hand-left hand duo of Hashim Amla and Alastair Cook as the two opening batters. Cook was also assigned the captaincy responsibilities by Bairstow. At number three was former West Indies cricket team captain Brian Lara. Picking the next two names, Jonny said:
“Sachin Tendulkar at No.4, the all-time leading run-scorer, the magician, he was absolutely fantastic for such long period of time. No.5 and wicket-keeper AB de Villiers, he is just doing the things people are never dreamt of doing in ODI, Tests, and T20Is.”Â
AB de Villiers’ compatriot Jacques Kallis also found a place in the all-time XI of Bairstow as the number six batter. In what can be called an eyebrow-raising decision, Bairstow named current England Test cricket team captain Joe Root as the number seven batter. He then ended the XI with four bowlers.
The first name in the bowling department was former Australian leg-spin bowler Shane Warne. He was the only bowler in the all-time XI. Then, he picked three fast bowlers – one each from Australia, England and South Africa. Mitchell Johnson was the only left-arm fast bowler in the team. He will form the pace attack along with Dale Steyn and James Anderson.
All-Time XI of Jonny Bairstow
So, in total, Bairstow selected 11 players – 1 from India, 2 from Australia, 4 from South Africa, 1 from West Indies and 3 from England. There was no place for any player from New Zealand, West Indies, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh or Pakistan.
Alastair Cook (captain), Hashim Amla, Brian Lara, Sachin Tendulkar, AB de Villiers (wk), Jacques Kallis, Joe Root, Shane Warne, Mitchell Johnson, Dale Steyn, James Anderson.
