IPL 2019 | Virender Sehwag excludes MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli from his season XI
Virender Sehwag has included two uncapped Indian players in his IPL 2019 XI but his team doesn’t have the likes of MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli in it. In his team, the former Indian opener has Jonny Bairstow and Shikhar Dhawan as his two openers with KL Rahul coming in at No.3.
With as many as 464 runs from 14 matches, Virat Kohli is among the top-10 run-scorers this season with MS Dhoni reinventing his T20 batting to score 414 runs at an insane average of 103 runs. This was enough for the latter to be one of the biggest contributors for the franchise in their final run, and even though Royal Challengers Bangalore floundered, Virat Kohli gave his all. Despite all that, Virender Sehwag couldn’t find a spot for them while picking his season XI in Cricbuzz Live.
He instead picked Shikhar Dhawan and Jonny Bairstow as his openers with KL Rahul of Kings XI Punjab coming at No. 3. In a surprising move, the former Kings XI Punjab manager chose to go with David Warner for the No. 4 position.
“I have seen his performance as an opener, and I have seen his performance as a middle-order batsman. He can play the same at both the slots, can score runs and deliver consistently. I have also made him the captain as he is a smart cricketer which we had seen in SRH’s run to title win 2016,” Sehwag said.
“Everyone must be thinking why I didn’t pick Kohli or AB de Villiers, but I have picked players based on their performance,” he explained.
Sehwag’s middle order comprised Rishabh Pant, Andre Russell and Hardik Pandya, but the Delhite has labelled Pant as his ‘favourite cricketer’ this year. Apart from the trio, Kagiso Rabada and Jasprit Bumrah found a place in Sehwag’s bowling attack along with the young duo of Rahul Chahar and Shreyas Gopal.
Virender Sehwag’s IPL 2019 XI: Shikhar Dhawan, Jonny Bairstow, KL Rahul, David Warner, Rishabh Pant, Andre Russell, Hardik Pandya, Shreyas Gopal, Kagiso Rabada, Rahul Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah.
