IPL XI

IPL 2020: The Dream Teams

by Nitesh Mathur | Nov 13, 2020 | IPL, Miscellaneous

With the end of IPL 2020, fans and experts chipped in with their choices of the Dream Teams. Recently, social media went ablaze with Virender Sehwag’s highly debated IPL XI. Virat Kohli and David Warner at 4 and 5—it is easy to see why that was the case.

So I decided to join the party!

Here is my IPL XIs, with a couple of twists, of course.

Today’s Twist:

I will build two IPL Dreams today—the Obvious XI and the Non-Obvious XI. The goal is to see if my team could beat the Obvious Team of the Tournament. Here are the rules:

Have at least one uncapped player in each team
The IPL rules apply – 4 foreign players maximum
A wicketkeeper and 5 bowling options are necessary
The Obvious XI will contain the winners of the Orange Cap, Purple Cap, and MVP awards
The two teams should not have any overlap.

The Catch:

In IPL 2020, the foreign fast bowlers were on fire—Jofra Archer, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, but how many can you fit in? Additionally, the Indian squad have prolific wicketkeeper batsmen, but will all of them make it?

Tough choices to make…

IPL XI – The Dream Teams

The Non-Obvious XI

Here is my choice — the not-so-obvious Dream Team.

*Note: Bolded players represent the foreign players

Mayank Agarwal
Wriddhiman Saha (WK)
David Warner (C)
Suryakumar Yadav (U)
Kane Williamson
Sam Curran
Rahul Tewatia (U)
Anrich Nortje
Thangarasu Natarajan (U)
Varun Chakravarthy (U)
Mohammad Shami

*WK – Wicketkeeper, C – Captain, U – Uncapped

In the batting front, this team has sparkling openers, the experience of Warner and Williamson, Suryakumar Yadav’s flamboyance, and Sam Curran/Tewatia as floaters.

With Sam Curran and Shami as the opening swing bowlers, Nortje as the pace spearhead, Natarajan as the designated death bowler, the mystery of Varun, and the leg-spin of Tewatia, the bowling line-up is balanced. If necessary, even cool Kane Williamson can role over his arm.

The Obvious XI

Shikhar Dhawan
KL Rahul (WK)
Devdutt Padikkal (U)
AB De Villiers (C)
Ishan Kishan
Hardik Pandya
Rashid Khan
Jofra Archer
Kagiso Rabada
Jasprit Bumrah
Yuzvendra Chahal

*Orange Cap (Most Runs), Purple Caps (Most Wickets), Most Valuable Player (MVP)

With left-right hand combination (overrated but still) till No. 6 and bowling line-up of the decade, this is a pretty strong team. So, you decide, can my team defeat the Obvious XI?

Jofra Archer vs. David Warner, anybody? COMMENT BELOW AND LET US KNOW! Let us know of your IPL XI as well!

Honorable Mentions:

Quinton De Kock, Trent Boult, Jason Holder, Ben Stokes, Marcus Stoinis, Faf du Plessis, Kieron Pollard, Chris Gayle, Abdul Samad, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi

I had a tough time leaving QDK and Boult out. Both were magnificent, but the 4-foreign player quota came into the equation.

Notice something? None of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, or Shreyas Iyer (captains of 3 of the top 4 teams) make it into either of my XIs or the honorable mentions.

Would love to hear your thoughts on this…COMMENT BELOW AND LET US KNOW! Also share ahead and subscribe to our email list below:

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Conclusion

This was a peculiar tournament in terms of player performance. While the foreign players and the Indian uncapped players impressed, the current and former Indian players disappointed.

Although Dhawan, Kohli, and Iyer were among the runs, none of them looked consistently convincing. Similarly, former IPL stars like Robin Uthappa and 2019 World Cup squad members — Rishabh Pant, Dinesh Karthik, MS Dhoni, Vijay Shankar, Kedar Jadhav, and Kuldeep Yadav — all had a sub-par season.

On the other hand, a 15-member squad could be created out of the impressive uncapped youngsters themselves:

Padikkal, Gaikwad, Kishan, Suryakumar, Garg, Samad, Sharma, Nagarkoti, Mavi, Bishnoi, Varun, Natarajan, Arshdeep, Tyagi, Prasidh Krishna

IPL 2020 was the beginning of the end of the 2007 T20 World Cup and IPL 2008 era. The early stars are slowly fading away in the background, while the newer generation are storming to the forefront.