Australia and Hyderabad opener, David Warner has named his ultimate Indian T20 League XI comprising of Indian and as well as the Australian players.
Speaking in an interview with Harsha Bhogle for Cricbuzz, the southpaw, who has a plethora of records to his name in the shortest format, named himself as well as Rohit Sharma as the openers, while Virat Kohli at no.3.
Next in the line was Chennai stalwart Suresh Raina followed by two hard-hitting men in Hardik Pandya and his countryman, Glenn Maxwell. Chennai captain MS Dhoni was named at no.7 while Mitchell Starc, Jasprit Bumrah and Ashish Nehra got the fast bowling nod.
In the spinning department, the 33-year-old named either Kuldeep Yadav or Yuzvendra Chahal.
While this indeed looks like a team of champions, the surprising exclusion was that of Shane Watson, who in 2018, hammered a match-winning ton against Hyderabad. Veteran batsman Yuvraj Singh was also left out of the team.
David Warner’s All-Time Indian T20 League XI Squad: David Warner, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Hardik Pandya, Glenn Maxwell, MS Dhoni, Mitchell Starc, Jasprit Bumrah, Ashish Nehra, Kuldeep Yadav/Yuzvendra Chahal.
Speaking further, Warner also talked about what differs his teammate Steve Smith to the Indian captain, Virat Kohli.
"When it comes to cricket, they both have got the mental strength, the mental capacity to score runs. They both love spending time in the middle. Virat's passion and drive to score runs is different to what Steve's would be," said Warner.
"Steve is going out there for a hit in the middle, that's how he sees things. He's hitting them out in the middle, he's having fun, he's enjoying himself, just does not want to get out. Virat obviously doesn't want to get out but he knows if he spends a certain amount of time out there he's going to score plenty of runs at a rapid rate. He's going to get on top of you. That allows the guys coming in, especially in the Indian team you've got a lot of players who can be flamboyant as well.”
Feature image courtesy: AFP / Noah Seelam
