IPL 2020 | Irfan Pathan picks his best IPL XI of 2020; leaves out Kohli and Rohit
Virat misses out from the XI
|RCB Twitter
Former Indian all-rounder Irfan Pathan picked his IPL XI of the tournament and left out Indian superstars Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma from the XI. He made Kieron Pollard, who had acted as Mumbai Indians' stand-in-skipper in absence of Rohit Sharma, as the captain of the XI that he picked.
Post the culmination of the IPL, we have been flooded with best XIs from the tournament. Cricket expert Irfan Pathan also picked his best IPL 2020 XI, in which he decided to overlook Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, both of whom had an average IPL season. The left-armer took KL Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan, the top two run-getters from the tourney, as his openers, snubbing the likes of De Kock, Warner and Agarwal, who had good runs this season.
Pathan stated that he can't have SRH skipper David Warner in his XI as a team can only have four overseas slots in an IPL team. “KL Rahul for sure and along with him Shikhar Dhawan. I cannot include David Warner as we can have only 4 overseas players,” Pathan said, reported TimesNow.com.
He also picked Suryakumar Yadav at 3, who has been a constant pick in most of the IPL XIs given his exceptional run in the season, which meant there was no place for RCB skipper Virat Kohli. He picked RCB's AB de Villiers, Mumbai Indians' Kieron Pollard, DC's Marcus Stoinis and RR's Rahul Tewaita in the middle-order.
Pathan, who worked as a commentator during IPL 2020, chose Pollard as his skipper. Interestingly, he didn't pick Hardik Pandya owing to the fact that he didn't bowl in the tournament.
“I will have Kieron Pollard to bat at No.5, and he will also be the captain of my team. I had the option of Hardik, but he is not bowling and Pollard will give me the bowling as well as captaincy. He is an amazing fielder, so I will get a three-dimensional player,” stated Pathan.
Jofra Archer was the MVP of the IPL 2020 with a big margin still he wasn't good enough to find a place in Pathan's XI, which was surprising as he went for Mohammed Shami instead. Jasprit Bumrah and Kagiso Rabada were the other two pacers in his squad, while he took Yuzvendra Chahal instead of Rashid Khan in his side.
Irfan Pathan’s IPL 2020 team of the season
KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Suryakumar Yadav, AB de Villiers, Kieron Pollard (c), Marcus Stoinis, Rahul Tewatia, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kagiso Rabada, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami.
