Senior Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, who made his IPL debut for Chennai Super Kings and then went on to play for the Rising Pune Supergiants, Punjab Kings, Delhi Capitals, and Rajasthan Royals as well, has recently picked his all-time IPL XI. In his best IPL XI, the 37-year-old spinner, who is the joint-fifth leading wicket-taker in the cash-rich league’s history, included four Mumbai Indians stars along with legends like Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni, but there was no place for West Indies greats Chris Gayle, Andre Russell, Kieron Pollard, and Dwayne Bravo.
Ashwin picked seven Indians and four overseas players in his all-time list. Indian captain Rohit Sharma, who is the joint-most successful player in IPL history, was selected as opener by Ashwin along with all-time leading run scorer Virat Kohli. Ashwin picked up his former CSK teammate Suresh Raina at No. 3, and he was followed by MI’s Suryakumar Yadav, RCB’s Ab de Villiers, and Dhoni.
The former Indian captain was also picked up as skipper and wicketkeeper-batter of the all-time XI by Ashwin. The second Indian bowler to take 500 wickets in Test cricket included KKR’s Sunil Narine and Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan as two spinners, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Lasith Malinga, and Jasprit Bumrah were the three pacers.
Bumrah and Malinga have only played for MI in the IPL, whereas Narine has also been associated with KKR since he made his debut in the cash-rich league during the 2012 season. On the other hand, Rashid was first picked up by SRH, and then he joined the Gujarat Titans for Rs 15 crore ahead of the IPL 2022 mega auction.
While finalising his all-time IPL XI with former Indian opening batter Kris Srikkanth on his YouTube channel Cheeky Cheeka, Ashwin had included Warner as opener at first along with Rohit and Russell at No. 7, but due to four overseas slots, he had to leave the legendary duo out.
In the IPL, both Warner and Russell made their debuts for Delhi Capitals (formerly Delhi Daredevils) but achieved success after leaving the Delhi-based franchise and joining SRH and KKR, respectively.
Warner is in fact one of the only three overseas players who has managed to win an IPL title as captain. He achieved the feat during the 2016 edition of the cash-rich league when he led SRH to its maiden IPL title.
Ashwin’s all-time IPL XI: Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Suryakumar Yadav, AB de Villiers, MS Dhoni (C & WK), Sunil Narine, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah and Lasith Malinga.
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