Virender Sehwag, 6 Pakistanis make Sunil Gavaskar's all-time Indo-Pak Test XI

Former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar recently picked his combined Test XI comprising of players from India and Pakistan. In his preferred XI, the 125-Test veteran picked six Pakistani players in comparison to five Indians. Interestingly, Sunil Gavaskar picked all former cricketers and not a single active player.

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Virender Sehwag finds an opening slot in Sunil Gavaskar’s India-Pakistan XI

While speaking with Ramiz Raja on Sony TEN’s show Pit Stop and Blue Revolution Series, Sunil Gavaskar was asked to prepare an India-Pakistan Test XI. While the Indian batting icon admits that his team may not be the best one in this category, he picked them because he simply wants to see them play together. Sunil Gavaskar also candidly stated that he expects the dressing room of his team to be “hilarious” as he believes the players will be having much fun together.

Surprisingly, Sunil Gavaskar picked only five Indians which include Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar. The cricketer-turned-commentator has nominated Virender Sehwag to open the innings alongside Pakistani great Hanif Mohammad. Sachin Tendulkar, who has scored 1,057 runs against Pakistan in 27 Test innings, will be batting at the No.4 position.

Sunil Gavaskar also picked former captains and all-rounders Kapil Dev and Imran Khan. Both Kapil Dev and Imran Khan have been the captains of a World Cup winning side for their respective nations, i.e. 1983 and 1992 respectively.

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Virender Sehwag against Pakistan

While Sunil Gavaskar picked Virender Sehwag in his line-up, the right-hander actually boasts of a staggering average against India’s arch-rivals. In nine matches (14 innings) against Pakistan, Virender Sehwag has scored 1,276 runs at a Bradman-esque average of 91.14. The right-handed batsman has scored those runs at a brisk strike-rate of 80.20 with four centuries and two half-centuries to his credit. Moreover, Virender Sehwag has been nicknamed ‘Multan ka Sultan’ by many cricket experts and fans because of his epic 309 against Shoaib Akhtar and co. at Multan in 2004.

Sunil Gavaskar’s India-Pakistan Test XI

Hanif Mohammad, Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Abbas, Sachin Tendulkar, Gundappa Viswanath, Kapil Dev, Imran Khan, Syed Kirmani, Wasim Akram, Abdul Qadir and B. S. Chandrasekhar.

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