Former Indian opener, Aakash Chopra picked his all-time XI from the Indian Premier League (IPL) and he included the stalwarts like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and MS Dhoni. Aakash Chopra named 8 Indian players in his list of 11 and chose Dhoni as his captain and with David Warner, AB de Villiers, Sunil Narine, and Lasith Malinga being his 4 overseas players.
Chopra started out with openers Warner and Rohit with Virat coming in at No. 3, followed by Suresh Raina. Interestingly, Chopra didn’t include one of IPL’s biggest draws, Chris Gayle, in his batting lineup.
ALSO READ: Aakash Chopra Feels Their No Room For Nepotism In Cricket
Talking about the same on his Youtube Channel, Chopra said, “My first pick is David Warner, the first overseas player as an opener. You will also think of Chris Gayle, but he is not more consistent than David Warner. He [Gayle] has been explosive but Warner is not behind anyone.”
Aakash’s top-four batsmen are also the leading run-scorers in the IPL with Kohli (5412 runs) heading the list ahead of Raina (5368 runs), Rohit (4898 runs) and Warner (4706 runs). At No. 5 he named South African legend AB de Villiers while Dhoni was slotted in at No. 6. He chose the latter to lead the team ahead of IPL’s most successful skipper Rohit because of the former’s leadership experience.
ALSO READ: Chris Gayle Recalls When He Had Decided To Crush Rashid Khan
Describing the same, Aakash Chopra said, “Although it would always be 50-50 between Rohit and Dhoni on whom you should make the captain when you look at the team Dhoni has got especially in the last few seasons, you will have to opt for Dhoni ahead of Rohit and he also has the experience of 11 years of captaincy and Rohit was not the captain initially. He was groomed as a captain by the Mumbai Indians.”
Chopra didn’t name any fast-bowling all-rounders in his team, instead included spinners Harbhajan Singh and Sunil Narine in his playing XI. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, and Lasith Malinga constituted his fast-bowling unit. He also named Gautam Gambhir and Andre Russell as the 12th and 13th men in his team.
Aakash Chopra’s all-time IPL XI: David Warner, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, AB de Villiers, MS Dhoni (c & wk), Harbhajan Singh, Sunil Narine, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Lasith Malinga, Jasprit Bumrah. Extras: Gautam Gambhir (12th man), Andre Russell (13th man).
