Legendary West Indies cricketer Curtly Ambrose has revealed his Retro T20 XI during a chat session with celebrity anchor Karishma Kotak. In the Curtly and Karishma show on YouTube, Ambrose talked about his good old classic days and listed out his favourite players of the present era.
The veteran Caribbean fast bowler picked Test cricket as his favourite format, saying players get legend status only if they excel in the red-ball setup. However, Ambrose also mentioned that he loves T20 as well.
“There are so many different versions of the game these days. T20 bring a different type of audience, and it’s exciting. It’s a short game, and most people love it. I do love it as well, but for me, Test cricket is the ultimate,” said Ambrose.
“At the end of a career, you will be judged on how many Test matches you’ve played, how many wickets you’ve taken as a bowler, how many runs you’ve scored as a batsman. It has to be Test cricket to gain legendary status,” he added.
Ambrose then revealed his Retro T20 XI and stated that he is picking players from his era up to the year 2000 when he retired from international cricket. The 57-year-old started the proceedings by naming Gordon Greenidge and Sanath Jayasuriya as openers. Greenidge had played 128 ODIs, scoring 5134 runs at an average of 45. Similarly, Jayasuriya had amassed 13,430 runs from 445 ODIs.
Next on the list of Ambrose were Viv Richards, Jacques Kallis and Collis King. While Richards made 6721 runs in the white-ball format, Kallis accumulated 11,579 runs in ODIs. Kallis also scored 2427 runs in the T20 format. On the other hand, King made 2738 runs in his List-A career.
For the wicket-keeper’s spot, Ambrose went with Australian star Adam Gilchrist, who amassed 9619 runs in ODIs and 2622 runs in T20s. The former Antiguan cricketer named Ian Botham as an all-rounder. He picked Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan as spinners.
For the fast bowlers, Ambrose selected Wasim Akram and Joel Garner. Akram picked up 502 wickets in ODIs, whereas Garner bagged 146 scalps in the 50-over format.
Interestingly, Ambrose did not pick any Indian cricketer in his list. The likes of Sachin Tendulkar, who played well before the 2000s was completely ignored by the West Indies veteran.
Apart from naming the XI, Ambrose also picked his favourite cricketers from the current era. He picked Virat Kohli, Joe Root and Jasprit Bumrah as his most loved players of modern-day cricket.
Here is Curtly Ambrose’s Retro T20 XI:
Sanath Jayasuriya, Gordon Greenidge, Viv Richards, Jacques Kallis, Collis King, Adam Gilchrist, Ian Botham, Wasim Akram, Shane Warne, Joel Garner, Muttiah Muralitharan.
