No place for India's record-holder in Ricky Ponting's combined playing XI for WTC Final

As one of the two heavyweights of the world cricket world will take on each other in one of the biggest crowns of the world's longest format, the wait for the most awaited event is soon going to get over. The Indian cricket team under Rohit Sharma will take on Pat Cummins' Australia in the final of the World Test Championship. The WTC Final will begin from June 7, 2023, at the Kennington Oval ground in London, and former Australian captain Ricky Ponting has named his combined XI for the WTC Final. 

Ricky Ponting has made some surprising choices while picking up his team and has ruled out an inform batsman and a legendary player. Ponting has ruled out inform Indian batsman Shubman Gill from his XI and has also not picked Indian veteran spinner Ravichandran Ashwin. The former Australia captain has chosen Usman Khawaja and Rohit Sharma as the openers for the WTC Final. 

I'll go for Rohit Sharma as the other opener: Ricky Ponting

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While naming his combined XI, Ricky Ponting said on the ICC Review, "I'm going left-hand-right hand, so I'll go for Rohit Sharma as the other opener. He's not just entirely form-based either. I wanted him to be captain of the side. Pat Cummins, I'll mention him later, he'll be in this side, but just from the experience point of view with Rohit, he's obviously been captain a lot longer than Pat has, so I thought he deserved to be the captain of this team."

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Ponting has further picked up Marnus Labuschagne, Virat Kohli, and Steve Smith as the main pillars of his middle order and also Ravindra Jadeja as the all-rounder. Further, Alex Carey is the wicketkeeper in Ricky Ponting's team whereas Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, and Mohammed Shami are the other four bowlers in his team. 

The most surprising aspect of Ricky Ponting's team is that he has left out veteran Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, who has a decent record with the ball in England. 

The Indian team would like to win the final of the World Test Championship as they will be making it to the final of the biggest crown of the longest format of the game for the second consecutive time. Team India was defeated by New Zealand in their last appearance in the final and now will be hoping to lift an ICC trophy after almost ten years. 

Ricky Ponting's combined XI: 

Rohit Sharma (c), Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Virat Kohli, Steve Smith, Ravindra Jadeja, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Mohammed Shami