Former England skipper Alastair Cook picked his all time XI on July 17. Since then his video has been making rounds on the internet with cricket fans divided over why he did not include legendary batsman Sachin Tendulkar in his playing XI. The 32-year-old English cricketer is the fastest to get 10,000 and 11,000 Test runs in terms of years taken. Cook is often compared to Tendulkar and a few believe that he can break the Master Blaster’s record in Test matches.
The player is supposed to choose his all time XI from the players they have played against in their career but Cook made an exception for his favourite player, England’s Graham Gooch. The English opener did not just include Gooch in his team but made him the captain as well for the work he has done for England and Essex Cricket Club.
Let’s take a look at Cook’s all time XI—
Graham Gooch (c), Mathew Hayden, Brian Lara, Ricky Ponting, AB de Villiers (wk), Kumar Sangakkara (wk), Jacques Kallis, Muttiah Muralitharan, Shane Warne, James Anderson, Glenn McGrath
Cook refrained from including even one Indian or Pakistan player. There was no Sachin Tendulkar, no Rahul Dravid who is regarded as ‘The Wall’ by cricketing greats around the world.
What seemed odder in his side that he made Graham Gooch the captain of the side instead of Australia’s one of the greatest captain Ricky Ponting.
Cook was not sure of the batting order of his team as well apart from the openers. He left it on the batsmen on wherever they want to bat whether it is up the order or down the order. He was not sure about who will keep the stumps between Sangakkara or De Villiers. Cook’s side boasted of legends but not including any Indian or Pakistani player was unexpected.
Though Cook apologised for not including a lot of great players in his all time XI towards the end of the video.
