India and Pakistan very rarely face each other at the international level these days. They lock horns only in the ICC events and Asia Cup and it would be simply impossible to make a team comprising players from both the countries. However, the Indo-Pak Combined XIs from the cricket experts have been doing rounds over the last few days and this time it was Babar Azam’s turn and he selected India-Pakistan combined T20I XI.

Pakistan’s limited-overs skipper has been in the news recently for the suggestions he’s been getting from the former cricketers of his country. His comparisons with India captain Virat Kohli has also continued despite the insistence from the cricketer that the latter is the best and they shouldn’t be compared.

Babar Azam chose his combined T20I XI from India and Pakistan cricketers during a conversation with the commentator and analyst Harsha Bhogle. He chose Rohit Sharma to open the innings with him and picked Virat Kohli to bat at number three. The top three looks solid with each of the batsman having the ability to play a big knock.

There will be no respite for the opposition as Shoaib Malik, MS Dhoni and Hardik Pandya will look after the middle-order and finishing duties. Dhoni, not surprisingly, has also been assigned the wicket-keeper of this XI.

Babar Azam picks three Pakistan bowlers

After going with four Indian batsmen in the top six, Babar Azam made sure to pack the bowling attack with Pakistan players. Interestingly, he went with five specialist bowlers despite having Malik and Pandya as the all-rounders in the line-up thereby giving himself a total of seven bowling options.

Babar went with Shadab Khan and Kuldeep Yadav as the two wrist spinners of the team. Mohammad Amir, Jasprit Bumrah and Shaheen Afridi comprised a potent pace attack and also completed probably the strongest line-up in the shortest format. Though the batting looks a bit short, more often than not, these players will click and play out all the 20 overs.

Here’s Babar Azam’s Indo-Pak combined T20I XI: Rohit Sharma, Babar Azam, Virat Kohli, Shoaib Malik, MS Dhoni (WK), Hardik Pandya, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Amir, Kuldeep Yadav, Shaheen Afridi, Jasprit Bumrah