'Mere 5 Pandavas' - Virender Sehwag picks his top five batters of IPL 2023

The 16th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 will conclude on May 28 following an almost two-month run. Over the last two months, the ten franchises competed fiercely, with some performing better than others. Several batters put up a phenomenal show during the tournament to emerge as the best over others. There have been instances where teams struggled to go above 140 runs and others where 200+ runs totals were successfully chased.

Chase master Virat Kohli and Shubman Gill have two and three hundreds, respectively, this season. Suryakumar Yadav, Cameron Green, Venketesh Iyer, Harry Brook, and Heinrich Klaasen all scored one centuries each to outshine one other. Moreover, this was the first time that two uncapped batters, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Prabhsimran Singh, scored hundreds in the same edition of the league. Following such strong performances, Virender Sehwag picked his top five batters of the tournament.

"Mere 5 Pandavas. I have not picked many openers because they get a lot of opportunities. The first batter who comes to my mind is Rinku Singh. I don't think you would ask me the reason. Because it has never happened that a batter has won the team a match by hitting five straight sixes. The second middle-order batter is Shivam Dube. He has hit 33 sixes, his strike-rate is over 160. Last few seasons have not been special but this year he came with a clear-cut mindset that he has to come and hit sixes," Virender Sehwag told Cricbuzz.

"The third is a brilliant opener. I have to take his name because his brilliant batting has forced me to pick him up. Yashasvi Jaiswal. Then comes SKY. I am taking Suryakumar's Yadav name because he was not in form. In IPL also he was not doing well at the start, but then he started doing well. Last, I can pick anybody by doing a toss because there are so many. But I will pick another middle-order batter and his name is Klaasen. His ability to hit against spin and pace is rarely seen in a foreign player," he added further.

Of the five players in Sehwag's list, three managed to score a century this season, while KKR's Rinku and CSK's Dube put up some terrific performances for their teams, helping them win crucial games. Notably, the former India cricketer missed out on Kohli and Gill from his list and instead named the emerging players.

Speaking of the tournament, Gujarat Titans, on Friday, outplayed Mumbai Indians by 62 runs in Qualifier 2 of the IPL 2023 to set up a final clash with Chennai Super Kings. Mohit Sharma registered a five-wicket haul as GT bundled out MI for 171 runs in their chase of 234. Earlier, Shubman Gill scored 129 runs off 60 balls as GT posted 233/3 in 20 overs.