File image by Virender Sehwag© Twitter
There is only one match left in the Indian Premier Leagues (IPL) 2023. Over the past two months, all 10 franchises have been in intense competition with some doing better than others. The tournament also saw several great batting performances. This marked the first time that two uncapped batsmen, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Prabhsimran Singh, had scored centuries in one edition of the league. Also, India stars Virat Kohli and Shubman Gill in their two centuries each. After a great show, before the Gujarat Titans’ Qualifier 2 against the Mumbai Indians, Virender Sehwag chose the “top five batsmen” according to him.
“Mere 5 Pandavas. Cricket’s Pandav. My choice out of five batsmen in the IPL. I haven’t picked many openers because they get a lot of chances. The first batsman that comes to my mind is Rinku Singh. I don’t think you would ask me the reason. Because it has never happened that a batsman has won the team a game by hitting five sixes in a row. Only Rinku Singh has done that. The second middle-order batsman is Shivam Dube. He has hit 33 sixes, his strike-rate is over 160. The The last few seasons haven’t been special, but this year he came in with a clear mindset that he had to go in and hit sixes,” Virender Sehwag said on Cricbuzz.
“The third is a brilliant opener. I have to take his name because his brilliant batting forced me to pick him. Yashasvi Jaiswal. Next comes SKY. I take the name Suryakumar Yadav because he was unfit. In international cricket he was getting zeros. In IPL he was also not doing well at the beginning but then he started doing well. Ultimately I can pick anyone throwing because there are so many. But I will pick another middle order batsman and his name is Heinrich Klaasen. The team he was playing for (SRH), he was batting for them in the middle order, he made the most runs. His ability to hit against spin and pace is rarely seen in a foreign player.”
Interestingly, Sehwag’s roster also has two uncapped players.
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