Former Indian skipper, Anil Kumble has made a bold call and decided not to include Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) legend AB de Villiers in his all-time IPL XI for Chennai Super Kings (CSK) skipper, MS Dhoni. De Villiers is considered to be one of the best players in the history of the competition as he has scored a lot of runs and has got RCB out of jail in many matches.

The former South African skipper has played in 184 IPL matches in which he amassed 5162 runs at an average of 39.71 and a strike rate of 151.69. De Villiers scored three centuries with his highest score being 133 not out.

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JioCinema tipped off their coverage in lead up to the IPL 2023 with the ‘Legends Lounge’ where stalwarts like Chris Gayle, Suresh Raina, Scott Styris, Parthiv Patel, Robin Uthappa, and Kumble discussed their picks for the best XI in the competition’s history.

During the discussion, the former Indian head coach decided to throw in a googly and decided to pick Dhoni ahead of De Villiers in his IPL XI. Kumble said it was difficult for him to get the RCB legend into his team because Dhoni comes in at No.5 five as the captain and the wicketkeeper.

Anil Kumble further explained why he included Kieron Pollard in his XI and said he looked at the impact the player has had at the position in terms of winning matches from difficult positions.

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Elaborating the same, Anil Kumble said, “It is very difficult to get AB de Villiers in my team because MS Dhoni comes in at five as captain and wicketkeeper and Pollard at six. I would look at the impact the particular player has had at No. 6 in terms of winning matches from difficult positions and of course, titles is something that I looked at as well, at No. 6.”