Shane Warne picks his greatest England Test XI since 1990
Following up to his announcements of Australia’s greatest Test & ODI XI over the past 25 years, Asutralian spin wizard Shane Warne has come up with his list of arch rival England’s greatest Test XI since 1990. Michael Vaughan has been named the captain of the side which also features Kevin Pietersen while his arch-enemy Andrew Strauss was left out as was present skipper Alastair Cook.
Cook led England to a 3-2 Ashes victory over Australia in the 2015 Ashes series recently and is England’s leading run-scorer in Test cricket. However, that wasn’t enough to persuade Warne as he chose Marcus Trescothick and Graham Gooch as the openers for England’s Test side and claimed that it was a tough call leaving the likes of Strauss and Cook from the eleven.
Vaughan came in at the Number 3 spot followed by Pietersen. Warne revealed that he had a tough time making a call for the No 5 batsman and in the end it was Mike Gatting, who was the victim when the Australian leg-spinner delivered ‘the ball of the century’, who was chosen ahead of the likes of Ian Bell, Graham Thorpe, Nasser Hussain and Joe Root.
The choice of Alec Stewart as the wicketkeeper-batsman was a straightforward one while Warne decided to pick Andrew Flintoff ahead of Ian Botham, who did play on till 1992, as the team’s all-rounder.
“I, unfortunately, didn't play Test cricket against Ian Botham, otherwise of course he would have made it, as to me he was the best all-round cricketer to ever play the game,” Warne wrote on his Facebook page, explaining the rationale behind the decision.
Graeme Swann pipped Devon Malcom and Phil Tufnell for the lone spinner's role while Darren Gough was joined by present internationals James Anderson and Stuart Broad in completing the pace trio.
WARNE'S GREATEST ENGLAND TEST XI (since 1990)
Graham Gooch, Marcus Trescothick, Michael Vaughan (c), Kevin Pietersen, Mike Gatting, Alec Stewart (wk), Andrew Flintoff, Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann, Darren Gough, James Anderson
Continuing the hard but fun excessive re my best Aust Test & One day teams over the last 25 years. Here's my best...
Posted by Official Shane Warne on Wednesday, 9 September 2015