Tom Moody picks Rohit Sharma as the skipper of his World T20 XI

Tom Moody, the former Australian cricketer, has named his best T20 XI around the world. To start with, he picked the left-right combo of David Warner and Rohit Sharma as his openers. Rohit has been leading the Mumbai Indians (MI) in the IPL since 2013 and has already led them to four titles. Warner, on the other hand, is the leading run-scorer among foreign players in the T20 tournament.

At number three, Moody zeroed in on Virat Kohli, the skipper of the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and the all-time top run-getter in the IPL. However, he appointed Rohit as the skipper of the eleven. Kohli’s RCB teammate AB de Villiers is Moody’s number four.

The former South African has been with the Challengers since 2011 and has a couple of 200 plus stands with skipper Kohli. Moody put forth his eleven during a live chat with Harsha Bhogle on Cricbuzz.

No MS Dhoni in Moody’s lineup

As the wicket-keeper, Moody went for Nicholas Pooran as he felt the need of a left-hander in the eleven. Also having worked with Pooran in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL), Moody understands the damage he can make on his day. It meant that Moody left out MS Dhoni from the list, though he said he’s a big fan of the veteran. Dhoni has three IPL titles to his name as well.

As the all-rounder, he picked Kolkata Knight Riders’ Andre Russell. The hulk-like batsman also has a couple of T20 tons, playing for the Jamaica Tallawahs. As the specialist spinners, Moody’s choices were Sunil Narine and Rashid Khan. On their day, Rashid and Narine are capable of tormenting oppositions also with the bat. As the pacers, he picked Mitchell Starc, Jofra Archer and Jasprit Bumrah.

All of Starc, Archer and Bumrah are known for spearing in yorkers and have been successful in their ploy. However, Moody neither went for Dwayne Bravo and Lasith Malinga nor Chris Gayle, who has the highest individual T20 score in the IPL. For the 12th man, Moody, the former coach of the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) picked up Ravindra Jadeja purely because of his fielding abilities.

Here’s Tom Moody’s World T20 XI:

David Warner, Rohit Sharma (C), Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Mitchell Starc, Rashid Khan, Jasprit Bumrah, Jofra Archer, Ravindra Jadeja (12th man)