Andrew Flintoff picks his Dream T20 XI; Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar included
What’s the story?
Former England cricketer Andrew Flintoff picked his all-time T20 international eleven in an interview with The Metro. He had a few interesting picks in his side as he included a mix of retired cricketers and those who are active on the international circuit.
He picked three Indians in the side in the form of Virat Kohli, Sachin Tendulkar, and Ravichandran Ashwin.
“I’ll go with Kohli at three, who is on a different planet right now, and Sachin at four.You don’t need that much power, you look at the way Sachin played, it’s all about timing and technique and clever batting. You don’t have to hit it into the top tier,” said Freddie about Kohli and Sachin.
In case you didn’t know...
Andrew Flintoff was one of the greatest all-rounders to have played for the England cricket team. He is one of those players who would have probably been an excellent T20 cricketer, but by the time the shortest format of the game got going, Flintoff had already peaked.
He managed to play only 7 T20 internationals for England where he managed to score only 76 runs at an average of 12.66 with neither a half century nor a century to his name. In the same number of matches, he picked up 5 wickets at an average of 32.20.
He was also a part of the Chennai Super Kings side in the Indian Premier League but did not enjoy too much success with them. He retired from international cricket in 2010.
The heart of the matter
Flintoff decided to pick his former England teammate Marcus Trescothick and former New Zealand captain Brendon Mccullum as the openers of the side. He felt Trescothick was the best batsman he has played with and picked Mccullum because he is extremely explosive.
In the middle order, he decided to go with Virat Kohli at number three, and Sachin at number four. Further down the order, as the all-rounder of the side, Flintoff picked former Australian Andrew Symonds, and this year’s most expensive player at the IPL – Ben Stokes.
He picked Adam Gilchrist as his wicketkeeper and Muttiah Muralitharan and India’s Ashwin as his side’s spinners. In the fast bowling department, he picked two stalwarts in the form of Wasim Akram and Darren Gough.
The playing XI
Marcus Trescothick, Brendon Mccullum, Virat Kohli, Sachin Tendulkar, Andrew Symonds, Ben Stokes, Adam Gilchrist (wk), Muttiah Muralitharan, Ravichandran Ashwin, Wasim Akram, Darren Gough.
Extra Cover: Eoin Morgan picks his all-time XI; MS Dhoni and Anil Kumble included
Sportskeeda’s take
Flintoff’s dream XI has quite a few interesting choices, and it would have been extremely interesting to see all these players play together, however, a lot of them did not play during the same time period. The only questionable choice on the side would be Sachin Tendulkar at number four. He predominantly opened the innings both in the ODI and T20 format and achieved a lot of success at that position. Apart from that, Flintoff’s side does seem like the dream T20 XI on paper.