Jos Buttler picks all-time IPL XI; leaves out David Warner and Chris Gayle

Players picking their all-time IPL XI was quite a viral trend last year, during the lockdown, and while the trend has died down completely now, England’s Jos Buttler, nevertheless, in interaction with Harsha Bhogle on Cricbuzz, picked what he felt was his all-time IPL XI.  

The Englishman, who has played 65 IPL matches, has enjoyed quite a successful IPL career, averaging 35 and striking at 150.00, and so he picked himself as the first name on the team sheet, as the opener of the side. Naturally, a Chris Gayle or a David Warner, given they are left-handed, would have been an ideal opening partner for Buttler but the right-hander, instead, opted for Rohit Sharma. Rohit, by his standards, has an underwhelming record in the IPL as a batsman, but Buttler, nevertheless, chose his former skipper as his opening partner in the all-time XI.

Unsurprisingly, Buttler picked Kohli and de Villiers as the #3 and #4 batters of his side, and at #5 chose MS Dhoni. Buttler himself can keep wickets, but the 30-year-old, in his all-time XI, handed over wicket-keeping duties to Dhoni, who statistically is the most successful wicket-keeper batsman in the competition’s history. 

At #6 is another former teammate of Buttler, Kieron Pollard, and at #7 is an interesting pick in the form of Ravindra Jadeja. Harbhajan Singh at #8 and Bhuvneshwar Kumar at #9 add plenty of batting depth to the side, while the team is rounded off by the impregnable duo of Lasith Malinga and Jasprit Bumrah, both of whom were Buttler’s teammates in Mumbai. Interestingly, Buttler picked neither Rashid Khan nor Sunil Narine, two players who are considered the best spinners to have graced the competition. 

Jos Buttler’s all-time IPL XI: Jos Buttler, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, MS Dhoni (wk), Kieron Pollard, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harbhajan Singh, Lasith Malinga, Jasprit Bumrah