Sreesanth picks Rohit Sharma as captain ahead of MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli in his T20 XI
Picking his all time XI for the Indian team in the shortest format of the game, S Sreesanth decided to hand the armband to Rohit Sharma over current skipper Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni. The Kerala pacer also singled out Suresh Raina for special praise while naming the 11 players that made the cut.
Whatever might have happened in Sreesanthās career post 2013, no one can look away from the fact that he was a part of Indiaās biggest triumphs since the turn of the millennium. The pacer, who claimed a combined 169 wickets across all formats, was adamant about the idea of maintaining the same side for all formats.
While he started off by naming the big three - Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli - in the top order, Sreesanth picked Suresh Raina to fill in the No. 4 spot in the team. But he didnāt stop there as he went on to imply that the CSK man was highly underrated as a cricketer.Ā
āI firmly believe in one team for all formats. Suresh Raina is someone who deserves a lot more appreciation,ā he said in an interview with WION.Ā
After picking MS Dhoni and KL Rahul to complete the middle order, the Kerala man picked Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja as the all-rounders in the side. Kuldeep Yadav made it in as the specialist spinner while Jasprit Bumrah, along with Sreesanth, formed the pace attack. However, the most surprising pick wasnāt in the selection but rather the name of the leader of the team. Sreesanth decided to overlook both Dhoni and Kohli while choosing his skipper and instead went with MI captain Rohit Sharma.
āAnd with all due respect to Virat, Rohit will captain in T20s and Kohli can take the captainās band in all other formats,ā Sreesanth said.
India XI: Rohit Sharma (C), Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, KL Rahul, MS Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, S Sreesanth.