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Rohit, Virat and Dhoni among 8 Indians in Chopra's all-time IPL XI

YB WEB DESK. Dated: 6/30/2020 12:47:18 PM

New Delhi, June 29 Former India batsman Aakash Chopra picked his all-time playing XI from the Indian Premier League which includes the likes of stalwarts like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni. Aakash Chopra named 8 Indian players in his list of 11 with MS Dhoni as the captain and wicketkeeper of his team with David Warner, AB de Villiers, Sunil Narine and Lasith Malinga being his 4 overseas players. Chopra started out with openers David Warner and Rohit Sharma with Virat Kohli coming in at No. 3, followed by Suresh Raina. Interestingly, Chopra didn't include one of IPL's biggest draws, Chris Gayle, in his batting lineup. “My first pick is David Warner, the first overseas player as an opener. You will also think of Chris Gayle, but he is not more consistent than David Warner. He [Gayle] has been explosive but Warner is not behind anyone," Chopra said on his YouTube channel. His top-four batsmen are also the leading run-scorers in the IPL with Kohli (5412 runs) heading the list ahead of Raina (5368 runs), Rohit (4898 runs) and Warner (4706 runs). At No. 5 he named South African legend AB de Villiers while Dhoni was slotted in at No. 6. He chose Dhoni as the team captain ahead of IPL's most successful skipper Rohit because of the former's leadership experience. “Although it would always be 50-50 between Rohit and Dhoni on whom you should make the captain, but when you look at the team Dhoni has got especially in the last few seasons, you will have to opt for Dhoni ahead of Rohit and he also has the experience of 11 years of captaincy and Rohit was not the captain initially. He was groomed as a captain by the Mumbai Indians,” Chopra said. Chopra didn't name any fast-bowling all-rounders in his team, instead included spinners Harbhajan Singh and Sunil Narine in his playing XI. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah and Lasith Malinga constituted his fastbowling unit. He also named Gautam Gambhir and Andre Russell as the 12th and 13th man in his team. Aakash Chopra’s all-time IPL XI: David Warner, Rohit Sharm.