Virender Sehwag picks his IPL XI and it doesn’t have either Virat Kohli or MS Dhoni

The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2019 is all over but for the final which will be played in Hyderabad on Sunday. The two teams who will lock horns for a record fourth title are defending champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Mumbai Indians (MI). This is the fourth time that the CSK and MI will be playing in the final of an IPL with the MI having a 2-1 lead. Meanwhile, amid discussions and debates about the final, analysts and experts also got into the act of picking their best XIs from the tournament. That included former India opener Virender Sehwag.

The XI that Sehwag picked from the best of the players in this year’s IPL included none of India’s two cricketing superstars – Virat Kohli of Royal Challengers Bangalore and MS Dhoni of the CSK. The former hard-hitting batsman instead picked David Warner of Sunrisers Hyderabad as the captain of his side.

Sehwag also abides by the rule of picking four overseas players in his playing XI and said he chose his side, not on the basis of names but the performance of players in the tournament that took off on March 23 because of the ICC World Cup starting May 30. Among the foreigners that Sehwag picked are Jonny Bairstow, who opened with Warner for the Sunrisers before returning to England; Andre Russell of Kolkata Knight Riders and Kagiso Rabada of Delhi Capitals who pulled out of the tournament towards the end after sustaining an injury.

Sehwag picks Warner at No.4

Sehwag’s IPL XI featured Bairstow and Shikhar Dhawan as openers and they were followed by KL Rahul at No.3. Warner was picked only for the No.4 position.

“I have seen his performance as an opener, and I have seen his performance as a middle-order batsman. He can play the same at both the slots, can score runs and deliver consistently. I have also made him the captain as he is a smart cricketer which we had seen in SRH’s run to title win 2016,” Cricbuzz quoted Sehwag as saying over his decision to pick Warner at No.4.

“Everyone must be thinking why I didn’t pick Kohli or AB de Villiers, but I have picked players based on their performance,” he added.

Sehwag’s IPL 2019 XI: Shikhar Dhawan, Jonny Bairstow, KL Rahul, David Warner (c), Rishabh Pant, Andre Russell, Hardik Pandya, Shreyas Gopal, Kagiso Rabada, Rahul Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah.

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