Alastair Cook reveals all-time Test XI – No Indian cricketer makes cut
Alastair Cook said that he has picked the all-time Test XI team based on either the players he has played with or against, but no Indian cricketers was part of the list.
England opener Alastair Cook revealed his all-time Test XI but surprisingly, not a single Indian cricketer was part of the list. In the video released by the International Cricket Council (ICC), Cook said that he has picked the team based on either the players he has played with or against. However, there was one exception in form of former England cricketer Graham Gooch, who was named as the captain.
Cook picked destructive opener Matthew Hayden as Gooch’s opening partner while big names like Brian Lara, Ricky Ponting, AB de Villiers, Kumar Sangakkara and Jacques Kallis made up the batting line-up.
In the bowling department, he decided to go with two spinners – Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan and Australia’s Shane Warne - while James Anderson and Glenn McGrath were the two fast bowlers.
Cook, who is England’s all-time leading Test run-scorer with 12,254 at 44.88 including 32 hundreds, will retire from international cricket after the end of the ongoing series with India.
The 33-year-old Essex left-hander, whose run of 159 consecutive Test appearances is a world record, has struggled for runs recently and averages just 18.92 from nine Tests in 2018.
“After much thought and deliberation over the last few months I have decided to announce my retirement from international cricket at the end of this Test series against India,” said Cook in an England and Wales Cricket Board statement.
