Shoaib Akhtar Picks This Legend Ahead Of Rohit Sharma And Virat Kohli As His All-Time IPL XI Captain

Shoaib Akhtar is closely following the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022. The former Pakistan cricket team player himself starred in the T20 cricket franchise league for Kolkata Knight Riders in the initial seasons. And now, he has picked his all-time IPL XI. The XI has four Indians, three from West Indies and one player each from Sri Lanka, Australia, Afghanistan and South Africa. Among the XI, six are currently playing the IPL 2022.

“My number one pick for the opening slot would be Chris Gayle. He is a destructive batter while my second pick would be Rohit Sharma. He is such a great player,” Akhtar said in a video on Sportskeeda Cricket.

“At no. 3 my pick would be Virat Kohli. Yes, he is not going through a bad phase but that does not mean he is not a great player. He has scored so many runs in the IPL.”

However, both Kohli and Sharma were not Akhtar’s choices for captaincy. he picked Ab De Villiers, Andre Russell and Kieron Pollard at No. 4, 5 and 6 respectively.

Then he revealed his captaincy pick. “At no. 7, I would pick MS Dhoni. He is a finisher, he is a hard-hitter too. He is also the captain. He is the leader of the team,” Akhtar said.

He picked Harbhajan Singh and Rashid Khan as his two spinners while Lasith Malinga along with Brett Lee were his two picks for the pacers.

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Akhtar had recently said that he wants Umran Malik to break his record of bowling the fastest delivery (161.3 kmph), adding that Umran needs to stay away from injuries

“I want to see him have a long career. A few days ago, someone was congratulating me as it’s been 20 years since I bowled the fastest delivery but no one has been able to break the record. But I said, ‘There must be someone who can smash this record’. I will be happy if Umran breaks my record. But he needs to ensure that he doesn’t get injured in the process. I want to see him playing for a long stretch without any injuries,” Akhtar said during an interaction on Sportskeeda.