Former Australian cricketer Brad Hogg has often hit the headlines for his interesting opinions on the gentleman’s game. Every now and then, he chips in with opinions about his favourite batsmen, bowlers and fielders. The upcoming edition of the IPL will be played in the United Arab Emirates on September 19. As the cash-rich tournament is just around the corner, Brad Hogg named his best XI of the IPL tournament.
To begin with, Hogg picked two dangerous opening batsmen – Rohit Sharma and David Warner. Rohit Sharma is one of the leading run scorers since the inception of IPL whereas David Warner is the leading run-scorer among the foreign player category. In fact, he has also won the Orange Cap three times in his IPL career playing for Sunrisers.
Rohit Sharma has won the title four times as a captain and five times as a player. However, even these staggering statistics didn’t impress Brad Hogg as he picked Sunrisers Hyderabad’s Kane Williamson as the captain of his team. Kane Williamson comes in at number four while RCB captain Virat Kohli is at three. Kohli is the all-time leading run-getter in the IPL and there was no hesitation in picking the world’s best batsman.
Brad Hogg prefers Rishabh Pant to MS Dhoni
Shockingly, MS Dhoni didn’t find his place in Brad Hogg’s XI. Instead of picking the world-class wicket-keeper batsman, Hogg picked Rishabh Pant as the specialist wicketkeeper. MS Dhoni is the second-most successful captain in IPL history. He helped his team win the IPL three times and also steered his team to the playoffs since the inaugural edition of the IPL.
Brad Hogg picked Andre Russell and Ravindra Jadeja as the specialist all-rounders. KKR’s Andre Russell was super explosive in the previous edition of the IPL and was the Most Valuable Player (MVP).
Sunil Narine has been picked in the lower middle-order. Along with him, wrist-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal and Jadeja form the spin-department. Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar were Brad Hogg’s picks.
Here’s Brad Hogg’s XI:
David Warner, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Kane Williamson (C), Rishabh Pant (wk), Andre Russell, Ravindra Jadeja, Sunil Narine, Yuzvendra Chahal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah
