Asia Cup 2018: India-Pakistan Sharjah XI

The Asia Cup is about to get underway tomorrow, with all the matches scheduled to take place in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. However, for most of the 80's and 90's, cricket in the UAE used to take place on a single ground - the Sharjah Cricket Stadium. Sharjah hosted multiple ODI tournaments every year since the 80's, and was home to some of the most exciting and memorable matches ever.

In fact, even to date, the Sharjah Cricket Ground has hosted more ODI's than any other ground, with the MCG and SCG falling behind. Both India and Pakistan regularly toured Sharjah, and many great cricketers from both sides registered some noteworthy performances. If we were to combine an Indo-Pak ODI team that includes some of the best performers in Sharjah, what would it look like?

Let's have a look at what an Indo-Pak Sharjah XI would look like. The list includes players with substantial ODI experience and a good overall record in Sharjah. The minimum qualification criterion is 1000 runs for the batsmen and 35 wickets for the bowlers, all at Sharjah.

Saeed Anwar

One of the most stylish batsmen to have embraced the one-day game, Saeed Anwar could win a match for his team alone on his day. The elegant left hander had wrists of steel, and his trademark shots were the cover drive, square cut, flick and pull shot. He would also occasionally employ the sweep shot against the spinners and could hit sixes at will.

Saeed Anwar would be a sureshot inclusion at the top of the order, and would face the first ball of the innings. In Sharjah, Saeed Anwar has scored 2179 runs from 51 innings at an average of 45.40, including seven centuries.