Harsha Bhogle picks his IPL team of the decade; names MS Dhoni as the captain of the side
What’s the story?
By concluding this year’s IPL season, we have completed 10 grand editions of India’s most loved league and one of the country’s finest cricket analysts – Harsha Bhogle – has picked his IPL All-Time XI, comprising of some of the most consistent performers in the last 10 years of the IPL.
“Now depending on which way you look at it, picking an IPL (Indian Premier League) team of the past 10 years can either be great fun or it can be enormously difficult...can be gut-wrenching and you are sitting there almost as if you think ‘wow I own these careers’, at which point I decided it’s just a fun exercise. So I’ve treated it as a fun exercise.” Harsha Bhogle said in his video for Cricbuzz.
Sl. No. | Player Name | Role |
1 | Chris Gayle* | Batsman |
2 | Rohit Sharma | Batsman |
3 | Virat Kohli | Batsman |
4 | Suresh Raina | Batsman |
5 | Shane Watson* | All-rounder |
6 | Mahendra Singh Dhoni(c)(wk) | Wicketkeeper batsman |
7 | Dwayne Bravo* | All-rounder |
8 | Ravichandran Ashwin | Spin bowler |
9 | Bhuvneshwar Kumar | Seam bowler |
10 | Lasith Malinga* | Seam bowler |
11 | Amit Mishra | Spin |
*Overseas player
In case you didn’t know...
On Sunday, the Mumbai Indians, courtesy of a splendid bowling performance, defended a meagre total of 129 runs in the final against Rising Pune Supergiant, eventually winning the game by 1 run and becoming the first side to win the competition on three occasions.
The heart of the matter
Coming to Bhogle’s XI, the top six are run machines who can set or chase any target. There are no doubts the left-handed Chris Gayle will open the innings with Rohit Sharma to provide the right-left opening combo and following them will be Virat Kohli, who can provide the balance in the middle-order.
Joining him there is Suresh Raina, who blends in to give the team a left-hander in between right-handers. The side will be led by MS Dhoni and the middle order is further strengthened in the lights of top notch all-rounders like Shane Watson and Dwayne Bravo.
The bowling department comprises of daunting names such as the witty R Ashwin and Lasith Malinga, prominent for his toe-crushing yorkers. Bhogle has gone with Bhuvneshwar Kumar as his second seam who proves to be very handy at the death and Amit Mishra as the leggie for his knack of peeling wickets.
Parallels from history
Recently, former India pacer Ajit Agarkar also picked his all-time IPL XI, which had four out of the eleven players that Bhogle has in his XI.
Author’s take
Picking an all-time XI is equally fun and tricky. Bhogle’s IPL team of the decade has a formidable batting order and the advantage of such an order its tremendous flexibility as anybody can bat anywhere. Although, I would like to make one change to replace Gayle with David Warner as he would prove to be a better fit with his consistency with the blade and his remarkable fielding.
The bowling cartel is filled with specialists in every segment of an innings. It is a perfect mixture of seamers and spinners.