Ashish Nehra, former India pacer, has revealed his picks for his best team of the IPL 2020. The tournament was played in UAE and saw Mumbai Indians winning the title for the fifth time.
There were numerous performers who lit up the tournament with their skills with both the bat and the ball and Nehra has quite a few surprises in his IPL XI for the 2020 edition. Nehra went with Orange Cap winner KL Rahul and Sunrisers Hyderabad captain David Warner as his opening pair while leaving out Shikhar Dhawan of Delhi Capitals, who was the second-highest run-scorer with 618 runs.
“If you go just by the tournament performance, then my openers will be KL Rahul and David Warner,” Nehra said on Star Sports.
He also left out RCB captain Virat Kohli and CSK captain MS Dhoni out of his chosen XI for IPL 2020. Instead, he picked Suryakumar Yadav at no.3 batting position.
“At No.3, I am not choosing Virat Kohli. It’s not that he has not scored runs but the impact runs were scored by Suryakumar Yadav, so I will keep him at No.3. There is no T20 team completed without AB de Villiers. So, he will be No.4,” Nehra said.
“At No.5, I would say Ishan Kishan. I will also keep him as my wicket-keeper although AB de Villiers will also be an option. At No.6, Hardik Pandya. After that Jofra Archer and Rashid Khan, both can bat as well,” Nehra added.
“And then Chahal and Jasprit Bumrah. My final pick will be one of Ravichandran Ashwin or Shami. If three fast bowlers are required, I will go with Archer, Bumrah, and Shami. If only two are required, I will go with Bumrah and Archer and will play Ravichandran Ashwin instead of Shami,” Nehra said.
About leaving MS Dhoni out of his XI, Nehra said, “We also have Kagiso Rabada and Kane Williamson. And my thinking is that I will never make a team without MS Dhoni, but his tournament was not good. So, if you go by the tournament performances, this will be my XI.”
IPL 2020 was Dhoni’s worst in terms of numbers as the CSK skipper managed just 200 runs at an average of 25.
Ashish Nehra’s best IPL 2020 XI:
KL Rahul, David Warner, Suryakumar Yadav, AB de Villiers, Ishan Kishan (WK), Hardik Pandya, Jofra Archer, Rashid Khan, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravichandran Ashwin/Mohammed Shami
