Mohammad Kaif, the former Indian cricket player, has dropped a list of his all-time IPL XI, which includes several star players such as MS Dhoni and Chris Gayle. The list included six foreign players and five Indian players.
Kaif’s all-time IPL XI
From his list, Kaif first named Rohit Sharma and Chris Gayle. Sharma is undoubtedly a great player, with over 5000 runs and 100 and 40 fifties throughout his IPL career. The batsman belongs to the Mumbai Indians, who just got their maiden victory against Rajasthan Royals. Kaif noted Sharma as "an excellent short-format player" and acknowledged his years of experience as a cricket player.
While Gayle is a dangerous batter, according to Kaif. "He has been a game-changer and has scored a lot of runs," Kaif said. Gayle possesses great hand-eye coordination that helps him hit good-length deliveries for boundaries. The Jamaican batter is the only player in T20 who has scored over 14,000 runs.
Next, Kaif named Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, AB de Villiers, and MS Dhoni in the middle order. Kohli is an experienced player who has played in 217 matches and recorded 6,469 runs. He also helped the team win IPL titles five times in the previous seasons. With such a record, Kaif called Kohli a "running machine" who has inspired many people.
Raina is a former Chennai Super Kings player who retired from the IPL to pursue a new career in the commentary box. Throughout his cricket career, Raina scored 5,528 runs. As with Raina, de Villiers also left the IPL matches and had a new role as the Royal Challengers Bangalore’s mentor. He had 5,162 runs in total before finishing his IPL career in 2021.
The list continued with Andre Russell, Rashid Khan, Sunil Narine, Jasprit Bumrah, and Lasith Malinga as the all-rounders. Russell and Nurine belong to the Kolkata Knight Riders. Russell was a two-time MVP winner, and Kaif recognised him as a destructive batter. While Narine contributed to KKR’s middle-overs and had a total run of 2,963.
Bumrah belongs to MI and has played with the team for 10 years. He is India's no. 1 bowler in all formats and has scalped 135 in 115 games. While Malinga has played in 122 matches and taken 170 wickets, Malinga is currently a bowler/all-rounder for Rajasthan.
Questions regarding Kaif’s list
While it’s true that Kaif mentioned players with impressive records throughout their careers, when the list was revealed, a question about David Warner emerged, as he was not included in the list.
