Rohit Sharma and Dhoni omitted; Pant included in Alex Carey’s combined Ind-Aus T20 XI

The duration of the ongoing lockdown - across the world - has meant that cricketers have decided to don the selectors’ hat and select ‘teams’ for fun, be it all-time ODI XIs or all-time World Cup XIs. Several renowned cricketers, including Dale Steyn, Tilakaratne Dilshan, Shahid Afridi and Aakash Chopra, in the past week, have named ‘all-time’ sides comprising players they’ve either played with or watched, and on Friday, Australia’s Alex Carey did the same. 

The wicket-keeper batsman, who was purchased by Delhi Capitals for a sum of Rs 2.4 crore, named his combined India-Australia T20 XI and interestingly, the 28-year-old’s team had a lot of controversial choices. The South Australian decided to leave out the explosive trio of Rohit Sharma, Aaron Finch and Glenn Maxwell from the XI, while also omitting MS Dhoni.

Instead, Carey’s side features David Warner and Delhi Capitals teammate Shikhar Dhawan up top, while the middle-order is completed by Steve Smith, Virat Kohli and another Capitals star, Rishabh Pant. The southpaw slotted himself into the team as the wicket-keeper, while he opted for Ravindra Jadeja and Adam Zampa as the side’s spinners. The fiery pace trio of Mitchell Starc, Jasprit Bumrah and Pat Cummins complete Carey’s XI, which features six Aussies and five Indians.

Alex Carey’s combined India-Australia T20 XI: David Warner, Shikhar Dhawan, Steve Smith, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Alex Carey (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins,  Jasprit Bumrah, Adam Zampa