IPL 2020 | Brad Hogg names his IPL XI of league phase; leaves out Rahul, Kohli and Warner

Former Australia spinner Brad Hogg named his IPL XI from the league phase and overlooked some big names like KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, David Warner, Kieron Pollard and Trent Boult. However, he ended up making a very sound XI, at least on paper. Shikhar Dhawan was an automatic pick in his side as he not only has 525 runs but a strike-rate of 145.02, which is far better than Warner (136.69), Rahul (129.34), and de Kock (138.00). In fact, it is second only to Mayank Agarwal, who has the best strike-rate among top ten batsmen of the IPL 2020 thus far. 

He picked Agarwal to open with Dhawan, saying, "I just love the way that Agarwal has played for Kings XI Punjab. If it wasn't for him, they would have not been even close to getting to the playoffs. He was dynamite opening the batting for them." He left out Rahul, who has 670 runs but a rather poor strike-rate. The chinaman spinner also had special mentions for RCB's Devdutt Padikkal and MI's Quinton de Kock.

For no.3 position, he picked Suryakumar Yadav over Virat Kohli. SKY has had a strike-rate of 150.18, far better than Kohli's 122.01, though RCB skipper's average of 46 has been better than SKY's 41. He slotted in AB de Villiers, Eoin Morgan and Hardik Pandya in the middle-order. While the first two were automatic picks, taking Hardik over Pollard was a tad surprising, given the former hasn't bowled this season.

However, the cricket analyst feels, "At No. 6, this is a big one. I hope Pandya could bowl, he is a great fielder. He is very athletic. He is an entertainer. It is Hardik Pandya from the Mumbai Indians. Strike rate of over 200 and that is what you want from your No. 6."

Hogg has lined up a strong bowling attack with Archer, Bumrah and Shami as the pacers while he picked Rashid and Chahal as two spinners. For Shami's selection, he reckoned that, "Shami has a great wicket-taking ability, not really happy with his economy rate but you can't have the cake and eat it too. So I am happy with him getting wickets with the new ball. He is sensational with a bit of reverse swing at the end of the innings. He is another reason why KXIP were searching a place in the playoffs till the very end."

Hogg's IPL XI: Shikhar Dhawan, Mayank Agarwal, Suryakumar Yadav, AB de Villiers, Eoin Morgan, Hardik Pandya, Jofra Archer, Rashid Khan, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal.