WI to play World XI in Lord's charity T20 tie

London, May 30 (CRICKETNMORE) - A galaxy of former and current stars will be in action at the iconic Lord's on Thursday to play an exhibition match between the ICC World XI and the West Indies and help raise funds for

Morgan was the first name announced, followed by those of Afridi, his compatriot Shoaib Malik and Thisara Perera, the Sri Lanka T20I captain. Next came Rashid Khan, the Afghan leg-spin superstar, and Bangladesh stalwarts Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal, followed by Indians Dinesh Karthik and Hardik Pandya and New Zealanders Luke Ronchi and Mitchell McClenaghan. That completed the XI, but Shakib opted out because of personal reasons and was replaced by the exciting teenaged Nepal leg-spinner Sandeep Lamichhane.  Pandya has also opted out since then, to be replaced by countrymate Mohammed Shami, who has also been swapped with Tymal Mills, while Sam Billings has filled in for Morgan. 

English cricketers Adil Rashid and Sam Curran have also been late additions to the 13-man squad. The squad still wears an extremely strong look. Iqbal, Billings, Karthik, Ronchi and Malik, with Afridi and Perera providing excellent options for a late burst, makes for a mouth-watering batting line-up.  Karthik, Ronchi and Billings are all wicket-keeping candidates, while in McClenaghan, Curran and Mills, there's a good pace department. But the most exciting is perhaps the spin attack, or the leg-spin attack, with the two Rashids and Lamichhane all available for selection, not to forget Afridi himself.  With Samuel Badree on the other side, this one could well be the greatest exhibition of T20 leg-spin bowling ever.