WTC Final: Wasim Jaffer picks India’s playing XI against New Zealand

Former Indian opener and a domestic giant Wasim Jaffer has picked Virat Kohli’s playing XI for the World Test Championship final. Jaffer revealed his choice in a coded message on his Twitter account, which he decoded in his Youtube video.

Jaffer picked Ishant Sharma to play in the final XI as the fast bowler from Delhi has played more than 100 Test matches and has all the experience under his bag.

“Somewhere I feel like Ishant Sharma needs to play because he’s such an experienced bowler and he has played in England, he had a lot of success, got a seven-for in 2014. He bowls really well against left-handers and New Zealand has quite a few left-handers,” Jaffer said on his YouTube Channel.

The former domestic great Jaffer feels India should go with two spinners in Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja as they will add depth to their batting line-up.

“I would definitely think about playing two spinners because both of them can bat so Jadeja will come at 7 and Ashwin at 8 and both have got Test hundreds. So you have that liberty of playing an off-spinner and a left-arm spinner. The ball will spin on the fourth and fifth day and these guys will come in handy,” Jaffer explained.

On the other hand, Jaffer stated that knowing Virat Kohli and Ravi Shastri, the duo will go with an aggressive approach in the big match and they will play five bowlers in their final XI.

“Knowing Ravi Shastri, Virat Kohli, they always go with an aggressive mindset, with the thinking of winning the Test, I am sure they will go with five bowlers,” Jaffer added.

Wasim Jaffer’s Indian XI for the WTC Final: Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (c), Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah