AB de Villiers' All-Star IPL XI: MS Dhoni named captain and wicketkeeper

Bengaluru, July 1: South African legend AB de Villiers selected former India captain and present leader of Chennai Super Kings MS Dhoni to lead his all-time best IPL XI. Dhoni last played for India in the semifinal of the ICC World Cup 2019 in England, and since then remained on a sabbatical from top-flight cricket.

The choice of De Villiers made little surprise that Dhoni is one of the most successful skipper of all times in white ball format. He had led India to the ICC World T20 title in 2007 in South Africa besides the ICC 50-over World Cup triumph in 2011. Under Dhoni, India had also won the Champions Trophy in 2013.

Thus Dhoni remains only captain across teams to bag all three titles - ODI, T20 and Champions Trophy - along with the Maze for the Test Championship. Dhoni had also led Chennai Super Kings to three IPL titles and a Champions League title and they have never failed to reach the knock-out stage of the IPL under Dhoni since the tournament's inception in 2008.

De Villiers had two more captains in his side in Virat Kohli, who leads Royal Challengers Bangalore, and Rohit Sharma, who leads India in white ball formats and Mumbai Indians in the IPL. In fact, Rohit is the most successful IPL captain having led Mumbai to four titles durng his reign. De Villiers picked the team during a chat in Cricbuczz with Harsha Bhogle.

Rohit also is the deputy of Kohli when it comes to India's scheme of things and recently former India opener Kris Srikkanth had named him as the best Indian opener ever in limited-over cricket.

Virender Sehwag, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar are other Indians in the side selected by De Villers, who picked himself to bat at No 4 with Kohli making the No 3 slot, replicating the Royal Challengers batting line-up.

AB's team: Virender Sehwag, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli AB de Villiers, Ben Stokes MS Dhoni (C & WK) Ravindra Jadeja, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kagiso Rabada, Jasprit Bumrah .