Brad Hogg picks his T20I team of 2019

With 2019 coming to its end, Brad Hogg the former Australia spinner has come up with his best T20I playing XI of the year. The shorter format of the game has gained humongous popularity amongst the fans in last one decade. There were many exciting T20I games held across the globe the year and the former has picked an exciting team.

The first T20I game was played in 2005 between Australia and New Zealand. However, two years later ICC organized the first tournament in the shorter format that attracted a lot of fans towards cricket. Over the years, the popularity of the format has increased multifold which has revolutionalised the game.

Brad Hogg picks Babar Azam and David Warner as the opener of his team

Brad Hogg announced his T20I team for the year on his YouTube Channel “Hoggs Vlog”. He picked six main batsmen and five frontline bowlers in his side. He picked David Warner as the opener, who performed brilliantly this year with the bat while opening for Australia. The southpaw has amassed 584 runs in 12 games at a strike rate of 144 in 2019 and will be partnered by the number one T20I batsman Babar Azam from Pakistan. 

Virat Kohli was the first Indian to get picked up in Hogg’s team. The former Australian player also quoted the Indian skipper as “Mr Consistent”, who has an average of 55 in the shorter format. He is a perfect player to play on number three as he holds the ability to score when the openers fail to amass runs. He is not a hard hitter of the ball like Warner, but he depends mostly on timing the ball.

Brad Hogg also drafted Eoin Morgan into his team, who according to him has performed exceedingly well for England under pressure followed by Glenn Maxwell, who has a strike rate of 160 in T20Is. Moreover, the all-rounder can contribute well with the bat and ball. He has scored three hundreds and seven fifties while playing for his country and he is a clean hitter of the ball.

The former spinner then picked Quinton de Kock as the wicketkeeper. Hogg also said it is well known that the Proteas player bats in top order for his country but he wanted a player, who can support Maxwell in the lower order and can successfully finish the games.

Mitchell Starc leads the bowling attack

In the bowling unit, Brad Hogg included Trent Boult, the left-arm pacer from New Zealand, who can be lethal with the new ball and deceive batsmen with his pace. Mitchell Starc will open the bowling alongside the Kiwi pacer as the former is currently one of the fastest bowlers across the globe and holds the ability to swing the ball at a pace of 150 km/hr.

The first spinner that made into Hogg’s XI was Rashid Khan from Afghanistan, who has proved his mantle in international cricket in the last three to four years. In a surprising addition, Chris Jordan also got a place in his side, who had a brilliant year. However, he didn’t forget to pick the young Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah. Brad Hogg feels that the Indian pacer bowls the best yorker and bouncer in cricket. Moreover, he can bowl like Starc and Jordan across all the formats.

Brad Hogg’s T20I XI of 2019: David Warner, Babar Azam, Virat Kohli, Eoin Morgan, Glenn Maxwell, Quinton de Kock, Rashid Khan, Trent Boult, Mitchell Starc, Chris Jordan, Jasprit Bumrah.

Here is the video: