WTC final 2023: Ricky Ponting picks his combined Australia-India Test XI ahead of summit clash

Arguably, one of the best captains to have ever played the game, Ricky Ponting has now come up with his best combined Test XI for both India and Australia. The legendary Australian player chose an all-star line-up combining the two sides that will face off in the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final based more on recent performance than on reputation. 

Firstly, Ponting chose Rohit Sharma and Usman Khawaja as the left and right-handed openers from both squads, respectively. Due to his significant leadership experience, the former Australia captain chose Rohit to lead the combined Test XI despite Pat Cummins' presence in the Aussie side for the WTC final.

“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,” Ponting said on the latest episode of the ICC Review.

Ponting even disclosed the reason for selecting Rohit to lead the side. The legendary Australian cricketer seemed quite impressed with the way Rohit led India to their 2-1 Test series victory on home soil over Australia earlier this year in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Ponting also went on to select Marnus Labuschagne as the third batter in the combined Test XI, praising his recent performance as equal, if not better than any other batter in the world.

"Since he came into Test cricket as a concussion sub at Lord's when Steve Smith got hit by Jofra Archer, he's hardly put a foot wrong. He's improved and comes on in leaps and bounds to be where he is now, right at the top of the world Test Batting Rankings, so it was pretty hard to go past him," Ponting added.

Moving ahead, the former Australian captain picked Virat Kohli and Steven Smith as his number 4 and 5 respectively as both these batters cannot be left out with the kind of great performances that they have shown in the last decade or so. Ponting also stressed the fact that both these batters have exceptional numbers in Test cricket with a lot of hundreds to their names.

“I know it has been a couple of years and been a bit of a lean sort of trot with Virat, but he bounced back to his best in that last series against Australia and thoroughly deserves to be picked in the middle order," the former World Cup winning skipper said.

Ravindra Jadeja, with the utility that the southpaw has shown in Test match cricket in the last two to three years, can easily hold on to the number six or even number seven spot. Ponting chose Alex Carey to don the wicket-keeping gloves since there is no Rishabh Pant available for India at the moment. The legendary Australian mentioned that there will be three main pacers and one main spinner in his squad.

Ricky Ponting’s combined India-Australia Test XI (based on WTC final squads): 

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