South African batting maestro AB de Villiers has been missed by Indian fans ever since he decided to call time on his cricketing career and didn’t play in the IPL last season. One of the all-time greatest batters, he even set the IPL on fire for the Royal Challengers Bangalore side, forming a deadly partnership with Virat Kohli.
He is always picked unanimously in most of the IPL batting XIs picked by experts or fans given his excellent numbers in 5162 runs in 184 matches with 3 centuries, 40 half-centuries, an average of 39.71, and a strike-rate of 151.69 with a best of 133*. He hit 251 sixes and 413 fours in his IPL career.
However, while picking his all-time IPL XI, former India and RCB captain Anil Kumble threw a wrong’un and didn’t pick De Villiers as one of his choices.
With the IPL 2023 on the horizon, in a show on JioCinema, stalwarts of the game including Chris Gayle, Suresh Raina, Scott Styris, Parthiv Patel, Robin Uthappa, and Anil Kumble deliberated hard across a two-part episode to select an all-time IPL XI.
Chris Gayle started by picking himself as one of the openers and then Parthiv Patel picked Virat Kohli as his opening partner.
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“It is Chris Gayle first. Always pick yourself first,” Gayle said, to which Parthiv added,” I think Virat Kohli's numbers are unbelievable as an opener. The chemistry between Gayle and Virat makes a huge difference. Gayle is Chris Gayle and there cannot be any IPL team without him.”
Meanwhile, Scott Styris disagreed with Parthiv and instead picked David Warner as Chris Gayle’s opening partner, while Gayle himself chose Virender Sehwag as his fellow opener and after discussion, the group settled with Gayle and Sehwag as openers to start with.
Everyone voted for Raina at No. 3 in the All-Time team. MI captain Rohit Sharma, much like, Raina was everyone's choice at No. 4.
Most of the panelists decided on AB de Villiers and MS Dhoni when it came to the middle-order slots of no.5 and 6. But former India coach and captain Kumble bowled a flipper, by picking Kieron Pollard in place of the Proteas batter.
He 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."
Parthiv Patel agreed with Kumble but picked Andre Russell over Pollard. But the consensus was that ABD and MSD would be the best fit.
At no.7, the names of Dwayne Bravo, Hardik Pandya, and Russell were discussed, with Bravo getting the unanimous nod. His West Indies teammate Sunil Narine was the primary pick for the no.8 spot.
Uthappa said: "What makes it challenging is obviously the mystery factor that Sunil has. His biggest strength is his ability to hit the right length consistently. He can get hit for a six but the next ball, he'll come right there and it will not change."
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Spinner Yuzvendra Chahal was almost a unanimous choice as the second spinner. And Jasprit Bumrah was the unanimous pick for one of the fast bowlers.
For the second pacer, after much deliberation, Lasith Malinga was brought in after sacrificing the all-around abilities of Bravo and replaced him with Hardik Pandya to fit in the pacer and four overseas players in the XI.
"I cannot believe Kohli is not in the final cut. I cannot handle that we do not have him in there. That 973-run season is the greatest batting in T20 cricket that I have ever seen," Styris said.
Gayle wanted his former teammate in somehow, and everyone eventually then decided to replace Sehwag with Kohli as Gayle's partner on top.
The All-Time IPL XI chosen by aforementioned legends:
Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, AB de Villiers, MS Dhoni (captain, wicketkeeper), Hardik Pandya, Sunil Narine, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Lasith Malinga.
(ANI inputs)
