Suryakumar Yadav Names His All-Time IPL XI; No MS Dhoni In His Team, Picks Four Mumbai Indians Players

The IPL 2021 is Suryakumar Yadav’s 11th IPL season having first being picked in 2011 by Mumbai Indians. He got just one chance there in three seasons and moved to Kolkata Knight Riders where he impressed everyone with his lower-order contributions.

The right-hander was then again bought by Mumbai Indians ahead of IPL 2018. He was promoted in the top middle-order at MI and has been tremendously successful. On the back of his thunderous numbers for MI and in domestic Suryakumar Yadav has also made it to the national side, and sparkled in his two innings for India so far.

Recently, while in Sri Lanka for the white-ball matches, Suryakumar Yadav was asked to pick his all-time IPL XI in a conversation with Harsha Bhogle on Cricbuzz’s chat show.

However, Bhogle gave him two necessary conditions to follow: that he has to pick himself in the XI; and that a maximum of four Mumbai Indians players could be selected in the XI.

Suryakumar Yadav started off with Rajasthan Royals’ dynamic wicketkeeper-opener Jos Buttler and Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma at the top. Virat Kohli unsurprisingly slots in at number 3 followed by Suryakumar Yadav himself and superstar batsman AB de Villiers at number 5.

The 30-year-old had to omit Chennai Super Kings captain and three-time IPL winner, MS Dhoni from his eleven as he chose a total of three all-rounders – Mumbai Indians’ Hardik Pandya, Kolkata Knight Riders’ Andre Russell, and Chennai Super Kings’ Ravindra Jadeja, all making strong cases for their selection over Dhoni.

With the luxury of three all-rounders in his side, the MI batsman had no qualms in picking just three genuine bowlers: arguably the most unhittable T20 spinner in the world, Sunrisers Hyderabad’s Rashid Khan; arguably the best pacer in the world Jasprit Bumrah; and senior India and Punjab Kings’ seamer Mohammed Shami.

Suryakumar Yadav’s all-time IPL XI:

Jos Buttler (WK), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, AB Devilliers, Hardik Pandya, Andre Russell, Ravi Jadeja, Rashid Khan, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami.

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