From MS Dhoni to AB de Villiers and Lasith Malinga – The unbeatable all-time IPL XI

Picking an all-time XI for any format or team is great fun, but comes with great pitfalls. It’s not about who makes it, but who you’re forced to let go. Even in a league as young as the IPL, the choices can be overwhelming. So if you find your favourite player missing, remember that it was as agonising to make the call to not include them for us too. We’re sticking to only four overseas players for this selection.

Openers

The first name on my list might be surprising, but here’s some numbers about Virender Sehwag. His last IPL season was 2015. The game and scoring rates have grown exponentially since then. But among openers with at least 2000 runs, Sehwag still has the highest strike rate at 157 (as opener). Higher than Chris Gayle, Jos Buttler, Shane Watson, David Warner et al. He was playing an Impact Player version of T20 a decade ago.

Partnering him will be Sunil Narine. Three times MVP, could be picked on his bowling alone. That he can bat is a bonus. That he can slot in as opener is even better. And his ‘hit out or get out’ style is perfect, especially in a dream team.

Middle-order

There’s only one candidate for No.3: Suresh Raina. He was Mr. IPL for a long, long time. And while his returns tapered towards the end of his career, he was beast of a batter for a decade at his peak.

My No.4 is the man who might well end up supplanting Raina as the best Indian batter in the IPL: Suryakumar Yadav. He’s made inventive shot-making routine, and done it across a variety of batting positions too.

Following the best Indian batters in the IPL is the man I think has simply been the best batter. AB de Villiers was quite simply, the most complete batter of his generation. He could block for a day, score the fastest-ever hundred a game later. He could hit pace, finger spin, wrist spin delivered from either hand. He could seamlessly move positions in the batting order. And he looked a million bucks while doing it all.

The next pick is probably as close to unanimous as you’ll get when making IPL XIs. MS Dhoni is in at 6, taking the gloves and the captaincy. Obviously.

All-rounders

Andre Russell. Why him and not Kieron Pollard? There is no ‘right’ answer, except that I feel Dre can be a smidgeon more destructive than even Pollard. And at his best, his bowling certainly offered more than Pollard’s did. Plus, he could access a greater are in his six-hitting, where Pollard’s hits are more in the ‘V’.

And then, Hardik Pandya. His Baroda statemate and spiritual predecessor Yusuf Pathan had a strong claim too. But perhaps by virtue of being one generation later, Hardik showed greater range than Yusuf did. Again, his bowling too offers more.

The spinner

How do you leave out someone like Rashid Khan? The short answer is, because I have only one overseas spot left and it’s earmarked for a pacer. Rashid belongs in the very top tier of IPL GOATs, but because I have the option of picking a Yuzvendra Chahal, I’ll sadly have to let him go. Chahal gives this bowling attack a wicket-taking edge that will only be enhanced since he’ll be part of a high-quality attack. Him and Narine in the middle overs is a daunting prospect.

The pacers

Jasprit Bumrah and Lasith Malinga. The greatest IPL pacer ever, and the man who used to have that title. Good luck scoring against them. They never quite had overlapping peaks, which is just as well. Imagine the plight of batters if they had.

Since we’re in the Impact Sub era, I have room for one more player, though to be honest one isn’t likely to be needed in this XI, which has one of Hardik/Dre/Dhoni at No.8, while also having a whole raft of bowling options. But to keep the bowling workload on Russell and Hardik lower, I’ll go for another pacer in Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Over his career, he’s second only to Bumrah among Indian seamers in the IPL.

All-time IPL XI

Virender Sehwag, Sunil Narine, Suresh Raina, Suryakumar Yadav, AB de Villiers, MS Dhoni (capt, wk), Hardik Pandya, Andre Russell, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Lasith Malinga, Yuzvendra Chahal. (Yuzvendra Chahal/Virender Sehwag as Impact Subs.)