Lendl Simmons Leaves Out Lasith Malinga As He Names His All Time T20 XI

West Indian cricketer Lendl Simmons picked his all-time best playing XI in the T20 format and he surprisingly left out the legendary Sri Lankan pacer, Lasith Malinga.

Simmons included four Indian players in his list with former Indian skipper, MS Dhoni, expected to be the choice for the role of the skipper. Windies all-rounders, Keiron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo were also included and the lineup is quite bat-deep.

For the opening slots, Simmons chose fellow Caribbean teammate Chris Gayle, and Indian opener, Rohit Sharma. Virat Kohli was the automatic choice for No.3 followed by his close friend and South African batsman, AB de Villiers.

The middle-order was filled with the power-hitting trio of Pollard, Dhoni, and Bravo. Afghanistan spinner Rashid Khan and West Indies’ mystery spinner, Sunil Narine, were the two spinners part of the list. Both of them are very much capable of lower-order cameos with the bat as well.

Indian swing bowler, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and Protean right-arm pacer, Kagiso Rabada, rounded up the squad as the two pacers on the team. Interestingly enough, Malinga wasn’t part of the team despite having an excellent record in T20Is playing for Sri Lanka.

Other notable exclusions were Kiwi opener, Martin Guptill, who recently became the highest run-getter in the T20I format, and Bangladesh all-rounder, Shakib al Hasan, who is the highest wicket-taker in the shortest format.

Lendl Simmons’ all-time T20 XI:

Chris Gayle, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Keiron Pollard, MS Dhoni (c & wk), Dwayne Bravo, Rashid Khan, Sunil Narine, Bhuvenshwar Kumar, and Kagiso Rabada.

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