‘Voice of cricket’ Harsha Bhogle has listed down his all-time greatest T20 World Cup XI side amid the ongoing 2022 edition of the tournament. Bhogle highlighted that the list is based only on performances across different editions of the T20 World Cup and that he was “looking for balance”.
Revealing his team in a video shared by CricBuzz, Bhogle started off with the openers and said that while there were many contenders, one cannot look beyond Chris Gayle. The West Indies batting giant 965 runs in 31 innings at an average of 34.46 and strike rate of 142.75 at T20 World Cups. He scored two centuries and seven half-centuries.
For the second opener, Bhogle had a choice between David Warner, Tilakratne Dilshan, Mahela Jayawardene and Jos Buttler. Bhogle went with England star Butler in the opening partnership with Gayle. Buttler has scored 574 runs in 21 innings at the T20 World Cup with an average of 41 and strike rate of 144.58, two fifties and one hundred.
At number three, Virat Kohli features as the only Indian in Harsha Bhogle’s all-time greatest T20 World Cup XI with an unreal average of 76.81, 845 runs in 19 innings with ten half-centuries. At number 4, Bhogle went with Kevin Pietersen who was the player of the tournament at the 2010 T20 World Cup. In 15 innings at T20 World Cups, Pietersen made 580 runs with an average of 44.61 and strike rate of 148.33 with four half-centuries.
For number 5, Bhogle said his first choice was ‘Mr 360’ AB de Villiers. But instead of AB, the cricket commentator picked Australian Mike Hussey who has an average of 54.61 in 16 innings with 437 runs. Yuvraj Singh was another choice but Bhogle highlighted that his stats at the T20 World Cup were somewhat not at par despite the iconic six hitting.
At number 6, he picks Shane Watson (2012 player of the tournament) and Shahid Afridi (2007 player of the tournament with 39 wickets and batting strike rate of over 150 acros T20 WCs) at number 7. For the last four spots, Bhogle picked Umar Gul, Lasith Malinga, Trent Boult and Samuel Badree.
Here is Harsha Bhogle’s complete list of all-time greatest T20 World Cup XI:
- Chris Gayle (WI)
- Jos Buttler (ENG)
- Virat Kohli (IND)
- Kevin Pietersen (IND)
- Mike Hussey (AUS)
- Shane Watson (AUS)
- Shahid Afridi (PAK)
- Umar Gul (PAK)
- Lasith Malinga (SL)
- Trent Boult (NZ)
- Samuel Badree (WI)
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