Jut a few days before the start of India’s limited overs tour of Australia, a handful of Australian stars were asked to create a combined big three ODI XI, which would feature cricketers from India, Australia and England, which will also be touring Australia for the Ashes right after India.
For one, he picked India’s Rohit Sharma and former teammate David Warner as the openers of his all-time XI while leaving out Tendulkar.
“Rohit Sharma has pretty good stats. he’s got three double hundreds. 32 hundreds, averages 48, struck at 92 (strike rate). And I’m going to go Davey (David Warner) – average 45, strike-rate 97, 22 hundreds. Two pretty clear openers,” Maxwell told Fox Cricket in a video. “Could’ve gone with Sachin, but I’m going to go right-left (combination) to start.”
He would have gone with this opening pairing in his final XI too had it not been for a stipulation from Fox Cricket that the XI only include a maximum of five Australian players. With Maxwell having already named Ricky Ponting, Michael Bevan, Shane Watson, Glenn McGrath and Brett Lee in the side, he realised he would have to drop one, so the axe finally fell on Warner and Tendulkar edged in — on a technicality.
Glenn Maxwell picks Warner over Tendulkar in his all-time XI
“I might have to get rid of Davey. Davey goes, Sachin’s in. To be fair, Sachin’s got three times the runs,” Maxwell said with a chuckle at the end of the video.
Tendulkar has racked up 18,426 ODI runs, which comes up to 11,494 more runs than Warner, who has 6,932 runs. Tendulkar is also the second-highest century-maker in ODIs, having made 49.
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For the record, the Indians in Maxwell’s XI were former India captains Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni (picking him over Adam Gilchrist) besides Jasprit Bumrah and Anil Kumble.
Maxwell’s XI had no players from England. Players like Kapil Dev, Yuvraj Singh, Andrew Symonds, Steve Waugh, Andrew Flintoff, Joe Root, Ben Stokes did not find a place in Maxwell’s team.
Glenn Maxwell’s All-Time XI comprising players from India, Australia and England: Rohit Sharma, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Ricky Ponting, Michael Bevan, MS Dhoni, Shane Watson, Anil Kumble, Jasprit Bumrah, Glenn McGrath and Brett Lee.
