Steve Finn’s all-time XI doesn’t include some of cricket’s legends

Fans are always eager to know the all-time playing XI of their favourite cricketers. And journalists miss no opportunities to throw that question at the player whenever there is a possibility. In an interesting revelation, England quick Steve Finn has picked his all-time XI, which has some very obvious names but misses out on stalwarts like Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara and Ricky Ponting. Finn picked his XI in a video on YouTube uploaded by the official page of Lord’s Cricket Ground.

Alastair Cook and Sam Robson as openers

Apart from the exclusion of some of the most legendary players, the names of those included do not surprise. For openers, he picked Alastair Cook and Sam Robson. Australia’s David Warner gets a slot at No.3, while England’s Test skipper Joe Root comes on No. 4.

The batting position he picked for Warner was a tad surprising as the swashbuckling Australian has never batted at 3 in either international, domestic or even franchise cricket. Former England captain Kevin Pietersen has been trusted with the number 5 spot.

Adam Gilchrist behind the stumps

The wicketkeeper Finn thought worthy enough for inclusion is Aussie great Adam Gilchrist. Brendon McCullum too found a place and is the only Kiwi player Finn chose. Graeme Swann is the lone spinner in the team, also the all-time best off-spinners for England. The pace attack includes Stuart Broad, Tim Murtagh and James Anderson.

However, some of the cricketing stalwarts, who remain legends in the game’s contemporary times, were missing from Finn’s team – these are Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Brian Lara and Sunil Gavaskar among others. But as they say, to each his own.

Here is the compilation of Finn’s all time XI:

Alastair Cook (C), Sam Robson, David Warner, Joe Root, Kevin Pietersen, Brendon McCullum, Adam Gilchrist (wk), Graeme Swann, Stuart Broad, Tim Murtagh, James Anderson.