Waqar Younis, one of the all-time great fast bowlers was asked to create a combined team made up of Indian and Pakistani players. Waqar’s choices surprised pretty much everyone, leaving cricket fans buzzing.
He made his international debut back in 1989, played 87 Tests and 262 ODIs and took a total of 789 wickets for Pakistan. Waqar knows the India-Pakistan rivalry inside out having played in plenty of those fierce matches.
On the Shubhankar Mishra Podcast, Waqar joined a rapid-fire segment to build his ideal XI. Unexpectedly, he picked just one Pakistan player-every other spot went to Indian cricketers.
Q: Sachin Tendulkar or Inzamam-ul-Haq?
A: Sachin Tendulkar.
Q: Virat Kohli or Babar Azam?
A: Virat Kohli.
Q: Shaheen Afridi or Jasprit Bumrah?
A: Jasprit Bumrah.
Q: Rahul Dravid or Younis Khan?
A: Rahul Dravid.
Q: MS Dhoni or Javed Miandad?
A: MS Dhoni.
Q: Rohit Sharma or Fakhar Zaman?
A: Rohit Sharma.
Q: VVS Laxman or Misbah-ul-Haq?
A: VVS Laxman.
Q: Mohammed Shami or Mohammed Amir?
A: Mohammed Shami.
Q: Virender Sehwag or Shahid Anwar?
A: Shahid Anwar.
Waqar was also asked to choose between Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, the 15-year-old Indian batting prodigy and Sameer Minhas, a 20-year-old from Pakistan. He passed on making a choice saying he hadn’t seen enough of either youngster to judge.
What’s happening in Indian and Pakistani cricket
Right now, Indian cricket is focused on a tour of New Zealand. Shreyas Iyer’s team has already won the T20I series with a 3-0 lead. Next up are a five-ODI match series and two Tests.
Pakistan, meanwhile is playing in a home ODI tri-series with England and Sri Lanka. The team’s on a roll with three wins and has booked its spot in the final against Sri Lanka coming up Saturday.