The cricketing world is missing the Indian Premier League right now. It was scheduled to start on March 29 in Mumbai, but a couple of weeks ago, before the IPL could start, the BCCI suspended the league till April 15 in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
The former Rajasthan Royals coach picked the star-studded side during a live video session on Instagram.
The former Australian Legendary leg-spinner, who led Rajasthan Royals to the historic first-ever title in 2008, named his IPL XI, comprising players only from the host nation India. Warne started off his side by naming two of India’s most explosive openers Virender Sehwag and Mumbai Indian’s captain Rohit Sharma. The duo has the ability to decimate any world-class bowling attack.
The legendary leg-spinner snubbed some big names like Suresh Raina, Sachin Tendulkar, and Gautam Gambhir as he named his squad.
Coming on to number three spot, it was not a tough choice for Warne as he went with current Indian skipper Virat Kohli who is prolific run-machine for India and has been a rock-solid force of Royal Challengers Bangalore. For number four, he picks Yuvraj Singh.
The spin legend picked his former Royals teammate Yusuf Pathan at number five. Explaining the reason behind picking Pathan, Warne said in his Instagram live video: “Yusuf scored one of the best hundreds against Mumbai Indians, and he also played a great knock in the IPL final in 2008.”
He then picked MS Dhoni as the finisher of the side while Ravindra Jadeja was picked as the allrounder. In the spin department, Shane Warne went for Harbhajan Singh. He then surprisingly included Siddharth Trivedi and Munaf Patel alongside Zaheer Khan in the pace department. Both Trivedi and Munaf played with Warne at Rajasthan Royals during their title-winning campaign in 2008.
Here is the Shane Warne’s all-India IPL XI:
Rohit Sharma, Virender Sehwag, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan, MS Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, Siddharth Trivedi, Munaf Patel, Zaheer Khan.
