England vs India 2018: Modern India-England Combined Test XI
India, with such a large population, tends to produce cricketers on a regular basis. This also goes without saying that India has probably the largest talent pool for cricket in the world. Even though Hockey is widely acknowledged as our national sport it is cricket that makes our blood rush.
It is followed as a religion in our country which makes it hard for selectors to select the best team among millions that is to be sent to play against the tough International level teams. And then there is England who invented the sport for the sturdy elite and royals that has transformed itself into a world-beating sport.
It took some time for them to catch up in the limited overs formats but they have always been fairly dominant at the sport in the longest format of the game that is the Test Match. So here is an interesting XI that picks up best from both the countries and combine it to make a world-beating XI-
OPENERS
#1 ALASTAIR COOK
In the documented history of Test Match Cricket, the first match was played between the future Ashes rivals England and Australia from 15-18 March 1877. Since then over 141 years later, England have only been able to produce one batsman with a run tally of over 10000 test runs who is none other than Alastair Cook.
He was first Englishman and the youngest batsman to reach there. He is still going strong as of now and with his uncanny ability to score big when he gets to triple digits is unmatched by anyone around him.32 test centuries and 5 double centuries is a testament to his superior run-scoring ability.
RECORD:159 TESTS/ 287 INNINGS/ 12225 RUNS/ AVG:45.11/ 32 100's