Former Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar has named his best all-time IPL XI in an interview with Sportskeeda.
The Pakistani Bowler, who played for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the opening season of 2008, disrupted the Delhi batting order and took four wickets in his first match in the IPL..
He recently picked his all-time IPL XI, which features four Indians, three West Indians and one player each from Sri Lanka, Australia, Afghanistan and South Africa.
Akhtar named West Indies’ Chris Gayle as his first opener. Known as the ‘Universe Boss’, Gayle is one of the greatest batsmen of all time.
“My number one pick for the opening slot would be Chris Gayle. He is a destructive batter while my second pick would be Rohit Sharma. He is such a great player,” Akhtar said during an interaction on Sportskeeda.
Akhtar chose India captain Rohit Sharma to start the innings with Gayle. Sharma is the captain of the five-time IPL winning Mumbai Indians team.
“At no. 3 my pick would be Virat Kohli. Yes, he is not going through a bad phase but that does not mean he is not a great player. He has scored so many runs in the IPL.” he said
He also selected Royal Challengers Bangalore batsman Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers as middle oder.
Kohli is the highest run scorer in the IPL so far and AB de Villiers is one of the most destructive player in IPL History.
Akhtar chose two other Caribbean representatives as his all-rounders, namely Andre Russell of Kolkata Knight Riders and Kieron Pollard of Mumbai Indians.
He named Andre Russell and Kieron Pollard at No. 5 and 6 respectively.
Russell has an strike rate of 179 and Pollard 147 in the IPL, both of which have been instrumental in the success of their teams over the years.
Chennai Super Kings skipper MS Dhoni is the captain and wicketkeeper of Shoaib Akhtar’s team. Dhoni is a great captain who led the CSK team to four IPL titles.
He then revealed his choice for captaincy. “At no. 7, I would pick MS Dhoni. He is a finisher, he is a hard-hitter too. He is also the captain. He is the leader of the team,” Akhtar said.
Coming to the bowling department, He picked Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan and IPL’s ninth highest wicket-taker Harbhajan Singh in the spin bowling department.
and Lasith Malinga and Brett Lee were his two picks for the pacers.
However, he said that Brett Lee does not have really great IPL numbers but helped KKR win the 2012 title.
Lasith Malinga is the world’s best Twenty20 bowler, the second highest wicket-taker with 170 wickets in 122 IPL matches.
Shoaib Akhtar’s All-Time XI in IPL,
Chris Gayle, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Andre Russell, Kieran Pollard, MS Dhoni (C&WK), Rashid Khan, Harbhajan Singh, Brett Lee and Lasith Malinga.