Amid lockdown, many cricketers are engaging in different things to interact with their fans. Some are revealing their favourite batsmen/bowler while some are coming up with their best XI team consisting of legendary cricketers from different teams.
Recently, Australia’s spinner Ashton Agar dropped his dream XI which featured many pre-eminent names from this sport. Latest on the trend is Sri Lanka batsman Dinesh Chandimal. On Tuesday, he revealed his all-time Test XI of the players he has played with and against.
Chandimal picked five players from his nation, two from India and South Africa, and one each from West Indies and England. Although his batting line-up looks a bit unusual, for example, Chandimal picked iconic Sachin Tendulkar as an opener. The Lankan batsman chose Alastair Cook as Sachin’s partner.
With 15,921 runs, Sachin is the highest run-getter in the longest format of the game, while Cook with 12,472 runs to his name is the leading run-scorer for England and fifth highest overall.
For the next two spots, Chandimal went with his countryman Kumar Sangakkara and India captain Virat Kohli. The batting maestro, Sangakkara is the leading run-getter for the Islanders. He has scored 12,400 runs in red-ball format, whereas Kohli has so far accumulated 7240 runs.
Apart from Sangakkara, Chandimal picked four more Lankan players in the form of Mahela Jayawardene, and bowling trio of Rangana Herath, Chaminda Vaas and Muttiah Muralitharan. The 30-year-old named Jayawardene as captain of his all-time Test XI.
Muralitharan is the highest wicket-taker in Test cricket with as many as 800 scalps to his name. On the other hand, Herath with 433 wickets in red-ball format is the second-highest wicket-taker for Sri Lanka, while Vaas is also just behind the spin duo with as many as 355 scalps in the longest format of the game.
Chandimal went for Jacques Kallis as the all-rounder and Dale Steyn as the prime pacer. For the middle-order, Chandimal picked West Indies’ genius, Brian Lara. Kallis is the third-highest run-getter in Tests with 13,289 runs to his name, whereas Lara is at the seventh spot in most run-scorers with 11,953 runs.
Here is Dinesh Chandimal’s all-time Test XI:
Alastair Cook, Sachin Tendulkar, Kumar Sangakkara (wk), Virat Kohli, Brian Lara, Mahela Jayawardene (c), Jacques Kallis, Dale Steyn, Rangana Herath, Chaminda Vaas, Muttiah Muralitharan.
https://twitter.com/chandi_17/status/1255045025433636865
