No Place For Gautam Gambhir, Rohit Sharma, Zaheer Khan As Cheteshwar Pujara Picks India-England XI. List Includes...

Cheteshwar Pujara and former England player Nick Knight took part in a fun contest in picking their combined XI for India and England for the 21st century. Interestingly, Gautam Gambhir, Rohit Sharma and Zaheer Khan did not make it to the list by Pujara. The conetest was conducted by ESPNCricinfo. First a todd was conducted and Pujara won it. He first pick was Ben Stokes. Then Nick Knight picked Alastair Cook and Virender Sehwag as his openers. 

While Rohit Sharma, Gautam Gambhir, Murali Vijay were available Pujara were availabe as openers, Pujara went with England's Alec Stewart as the wicketkeeper opener. His other opener was Rahul Dravid. 

Knight then picked James Anderson and Stuart Broad as his pace pair, though Zaheer Khan was in the officg too. Mohammed Shami was Pujara pick as his second pacer, though Zaheer was still available. Knight was then quick to pick Sachin Tendulakr and Kevin Pietersen in his side in the middle order. Pujara then bolstered the spin department with Ravichandran Ashwin and also picked Joe Root. Knight's next picks were MS Dhoni and Graeme Swann. 

Pujara decided to go with a all-Indian bowling attack in Ravindra Jadeja and also picked Virat Kohli. He also picked VVS Laxman and Andrew Flintoff. 

Pujara's India-England combined Test XI (21st century): Alec Stewart (wk), Rahul Dravid, Joe Root, Virat Kohli, VVS Laxman, Ben Stokes, Andrew Flintoff, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammad Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Matthew Hoggard (12th man). 

Recently, Indian head coach Gautam Gambhir spoke on his mindset as a coach, saying that for him, first-class cricket is the "most important format" and every opinion about the team's dressing room culture matters to him. Speaking to former teammate Cheteshwar Pujara, now handling broadcast duties as a commentator, Gambhir said, "Probably this is the first time that the transition is happening in all three departments. I think for me, first-class cricket is the most important format, back home."

He also expressed that for this team and him, it is about "growing, learning, and competing" every day.

"It is about fighting every day. And it is about representing the tri-colour every day. Gautam Gambhir is not important. Indian cricket is important. Everyone has the right to have an opinion about the culture of that dressing room. And every opinion for me will matter," he added.

Topics mentioned in this article

Gautam Gambhir MS Dhoni Zaheer Khan Cheteshwar Pujara India Cricket Team England Cricket Team England vs India, 2025 Cricket