Legendary Australia cricketer Allan Border picked his Australia XI for the upcoming Ashes series. Australia are scheduled to play five matches against recently-crowned World Champions England starting August 1. Border feels Australia should go with their best batsmen in the line-up and not think about what is their dominant hand.
In his top three, Border picked David Warner, Marcus Harris and Usman Khawaja – all of whom are southpaws. The former Australia skipper stated much is being made of Australia’s top-order consisting of left-handers and if the team was dominated by right-handers, no one would have batted an eyelid.
“The top three batsmen are left-handers, which is not necessarily the wrong thing,” Border was quoted as saying by foxsports.com.au. “A lot of people jump up and down about picking too many left-handers but if they are your best players then go with them. If they were right-handers, no one would say anything.”
Border also stated that Australia should go in the Ashes with six regular batsmen and there is no need to play an all-rounder at number 6. He also batted for Matthew Wade to come into the side considering his good domestic form.
“I’d be very tempted to go Wade. You talk about picking the guys in form, and he’s in great form. Labuschagne might get that guernseys in that he can bowl some pretty handy legspin and he’s good in the field too,” Border said.
“Wade can bowl some medium pace. He can get it through alright, you could sling him half a dozen overs if you had to here and there.”
“I wouldn’t go the all-rounder at No.6. I’d pick a straight out-and-out batsman. England’s conditions are a bit softer underfoot and temperature wise. There’s not as much physicality and stress on the bowlers.”
Border’s Australia XI: David Warner, Marcus Harris, Usman Khawaja, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Matthew Wade/Marnus Labuschagne, Tim Paine (c,wk), Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood
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