Suresh Raina Picked Two Legends As His Openers For IPL All-Time XI: The much-awaited 2023 edition of the Indian Premier League is just around the corner and it will kickstart with a thrilling clash between the defending champions Gujarat Titans and four-time IPL champs Chennai Super Kings on March 31 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
This season will see the return of the most-loved league around the world return to its original home-and-away format after a long gap of 4 years.
Also, the 2023 edition will be the 16th season of the world’s richest franchise cricket league and in the last 15 years, several legendary layers from around the world have featured in the cash-rich league and made a big name for themselves.
While the names like MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma, AB de Villiers, Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle, and Sachin Tendulkar made IPL the biggest brand that it is today in the cricketing world, on the other hand, there have been several players including Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav, Andre Russell, among others, who made a career at international level because of their amazing performances in the Indian Premier League.
Suresh Raina Named The Opening Duo Of IPL’s all-time playing XI
Meanwhile, ahead of the upcoming season, several players including the likes of Raina, Robin Uthappa, Parthiv Patel, Aakash Chopra, RP Singh, and Pragyan Ojha came together to pick the two opening batters of the IPL’s all-time playing XI.
While discussing IPL’s all-time playing XI, Raina ditched many legendary players like Rohit Sharma, David Warner, Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan and many more, who have done amazingly well as openers in the IPL, and instead went on to pick two of the most destructive batters to have ever played the game of cricket.
Raina picked former Delhi Capitals skipper Virender Sehwag as the opening batter alongside Chris Gayle. As per Raina, he picked Gayle and Sehwag because of the impact they create in the first six overs of the game. He said:
“Mere liye Chris Gayle aur Viru paa. Kyuki jo impact hota hai naa, David Warner ne acha kiya, pr mujhe lagta hai ki jo domination chahiye hoti hai naa powerplay mein, vo Chris Gayle aur Virender Sehwag se acha aur koi nahi kar skta. Over the years, humne dekha hai ki Chris Gayle kab se khel raha hai, aur Viru paa jaise attacking itne saal khele hai. 6 overs mein agar run banana hai to inse best batsman nahi hai koi IPL mein (For me, Gayle, and Sehwag. David Warner has done well, but for the impact that is needed in the IPL, I don’t think anybody can do it better than Gayle and Sehwag. Over the years we have seen how they have performed, and if you want to make runs in the first six overs, then there’s no one better than these two),”
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