Only four Indians make Ricky Ponting's Test Championship Final combined XI, excludes star India batter

Ricky Ponting (Source: Twitter)

The Ultimate Test between the two powerhouses of world cricket, India and Australia, is set to kick off on June 7 at The Oval. As India aim to lift the elusive trophy this time after a painful loss to New Zealand in the first edition of the Test Championship final, Australia will be looking to avenge their 2-1 defeat in Border Gavaskar Trophy 2023. With the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 coming to a conclusion today (Sunday), T20 cricket fever will soon be over, and all attention will turn to the longer format of the game.

Former cricketers and pundits have begun to make predictions ahead of the mega clash, and former Australian captain Ricky Ponting has come up with his combined XI of both sides. Interestingly, Ponting picked only four Indian players and left out a star Indian player, who is currently on fire in all formats of the game.

With Rohit Sharma captaining his XI, the legendary batter chose Usman Khawaja to open with the Indian skipper, skipping Shubman Gill, who has scored a century in all formats this year, including three in IPL 2023.

“I’ll start with Usman Khawaja. His last couple of years, whether it has been in Australia or away, have been outstanding at the top of the order,” Ponting said on Cricket Governing Body's podcast.

“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," he added.

Virat Kohli and Steve Smith will be right at the top of anyone’s list: Ponting

Claiming the "sort of class he holds with the bat", at No. 3, Ponting picked Marnus Labuschagne, followed by the star pairing of Virat Kohli and Steve Smith.

"Pretty hard to go past the next couple I’ve got in the batting line-up, which are Virat Kohli and Steve Smith. If you talk about great players of the last decade, both of these guys will be right at the top of anyone’s list. Both with exceptional Test records and both make a lot of hundreds."

With Ravindra Jadeja slotting in as an all-rounder, Ponting relied on Aussie wicketkeeper Alex Carey to stand behind the stumps. Mohammed Shami, who was the fourth Indian to feature in the XI, will join Nathan Lyon, Pat Cummins, and Mitchell Starc in the bowling unit.

Ponting's combined India-Australia 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