Former Australian cricketer Tom Moody is currently one of the most sought out coaches in world cricket. Known for his much famous stint with SunRisers Hyderabad, Moody was involved with many other franchise cricket teams around the globe. Being a keen observer of the modern-day game, he was asked by famous cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle to pick the current World T20 XI on the latest Cricbuzz interview.
Moody started picking his team by clarifying that this is the current best World T20 XI, a team that could possibly play in the span of the next three to four weeks.
“So, we are talking of a team that is playing now. Not a team that we have seen play in the last ten years. So I am picking a team that is playing in a tournament in the next three weeks,” Moody said before naming the players.
He had no doubt regarding fixing the openers of his team. The former SRH coach went with the SRH captain and a seasoned T20 opener David Warner and the successful Indian opener Rohit Sharma for his opening slot.
For the most important number three and number four positions, he decided to go with the RCB duo of Virat Kohli and AB Devilliers. This was a no brainer as the records of both these legends speak for themselves.
Moody added that even though he has the services of Indian captain Virat Kohli and SRH captain David Warner, he would like to name the successful Mumbai Indians Skipper Rohit Sharma as the captain of his side due to his unmatchable IPL title wins.
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For the number five position he wanted to have a wicketkeeper-batsman, he was keen on going with Jos Butler but decided against it as he wanted a better right-left balance in the team. So he decided to go with young West Indies batsman Nicholas Pooran. He added that he has seen Pooran play a lot during the Caribbean Premier League and clarified that he is a talent for the future.
“Five, this is a difficult one. I am keen on going with Jos Buttler, but I recognise that if I have a coach’s hat on, I need a left-hander. So I am going to go with Nicholas Pooran. I need a left hander in that middle order and just to give me a balance between left and right…” he clarified.
He also made it clear that he was a big fan of former Indian captain MS Dhoni and decided not to include him in the XI as it was a team for today.
“I just want to clarify that it is a team for today otherwise Dhoni is a no brainer. I am his number one fan. I think what he has done, from a captaincy point of view and from a playing perspective it has been unbelievable,” he added.
To finish up his batting line up he went with the West Indian all-rounder Andre Russell.
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Tom Moody picks a star-studded bowling line up
To round up his eleven Moody went for a star-studded bowling line-up. He decided to go with the spin combination of Rashid Khan and Sunil Narine, to bring in mystery and accuracy to his spin bowling department. For fast bowling unit, he went with three strike bowlers in the form of Mitchell Stark, Jofra Archer, and Jasprit Bumrah. He named the gun Indian fielder Ravindra Jadeja as his 12th man purely for his fielding abilities.
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