Ireland batsman Paul Stirling picks his World XI

The Ireland Cricket team has made a remarkable rise in the past one year. And that earned them the very coveted ICC Test status last month along with Afghanistan. It took Ireland 13 years to change their status from an Associate to a Full Member of the International Cricket Council (ICC).

Paul Stirling, one of Ireland cricket’s most recognised players was asked to pick his World XI by the Lord’s Cricket Ground and he can be seen naming his XI in a video uploaded on their official YouTube channel. For the opening pair, he picked out India’s Virender Sehwag and Australia’s Matthew Hayden, two of the most prolific batsmen of all time. They also help him maintain the right-left combination at the top of the order. For the 3

For the all-important No.3 position he chose former Australia captain Ricky Ponting and for the 4th slot came Sachin Tendulkar. At no 5 appears Australia’s Damien Martyn, followed by South Africa’s AB de Villiers at No. 6. The No. 7 position is occupied by one of England’s greatest allrounders Andrew Flintoff and the starting the bowling department is Australian spin wizard Shane Warne, Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan accompanies him to form the perfect pair.

Among the pacers Stirling has named the Australian duo of Mitchell Johnson and Glenn Maxwell to round his team up.

“Sehwag played such attacking cricket even in Test cricket and he is pretty amazing in his work. Sachin Tendulkar was on no. 4 was one of the best batsmen in the world.” he said.

Paul Stirling’s World XI:

Virender Sehwag, Matthew Hayden, Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting (c), Damien Martyn, AB de Villiers(wk), Andrew Flintoff, Shane Warne, Muttiah Muralitharan, Mitchell Johnson, Glenn McGrath.

Paul’s career stats 

Paul has played 83 ODI matches in his career thus far, in which he has scored 2708 runs at an average of 33.85, the highest score being 177. In T20s, he has played 44 matches and scored 975 runs at an average of 24.38. The 26-years old is a useful right-arm off-break bowler as well. He has picked up 38 wickets in his ODI career thus far and 13 wickets in T20s. In the Ireland team, Stirling is one of the most prominent names and a will play an important role in taking his team ahead.