IPL 2020: All-Star Game | Strongest playing XI from RCB, CSK, MI and SRH

For the first time in the history of the IPL, an All-Star game will take place before the upcoming 13th edition of the tournament which will formally kick off on the 29th of March, 2020. The All-Star game has been scheduled three days before the kick-off date of IPL 13 and the venue of the match is yet to be announced.

The first team in the All-Star game will be comprised of players from franchises based in northern and eastern India, while the second team will be comprised of players from franchises based in southern and western India.

Some of the English, Australian, and New Zealand players might not be available for this game as England would be playing a Test series against Sri Lanka, while Australia would be playing a T20I series against New Zealand on 26th of March which is the scheduled date of the All-Star match.

Taking that into account, here is the strongest playing XI from RCB, CSK, MI and SRH which are the four franchises based in southern and western India.

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#1 Openers | Shane Watson and Rohit Sharma

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Shane Watson doesn't play international cricket anymore, but he is still active in the T20 leagues across the globe and adds great value to his teams with his power game at the top of the order. Watson is someone who has the ability to tee off from ball one and he can put his team in the driving seat by taking advantage of the fielding restrictions in the power play.

Watson should be accompanied up top by the Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma who has got a completely different kind of game. While Sharma can also play the big shots, he likes to take a bit of time upfront before putting his foot on the gas and he collects boundaries with conventional cricketing shots most of the time, unlike Watson who relies on his power.

Sharma and Watson can be the ideal foils to each other, opening the batting for the South-West team.

#2 Middle Order | Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, MS Dhoni, Kieron Pollard

Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers are probably the two most successful middle-order batsmen in the IPL in the last five years. Kohli can play the sheet-anchor role at no. 3 around whom the rest of the batsmen will play their game. And, Kohli has this ability to score at a fair clip even while anchoring the innings because of the huge range of shots that he can play.

de Villiers has got the combination of touch game and power game. While he can bat in the middle overs and milk the bowling, he can also go on a rampage in the last five overs of the innings and put the ball into the stands on a regular basis.

MS Dhoni and Kieron Pollard are the two most powerful strikers of the ball in the IPL and both of them are ideally suited to finishing the innings batting at no. 5 and no. 6 respectively.

The duo might not be as efficient as some of the other batsmen in terms of rotating the strike, but they are second to none in terms of hitting the ball hard. If they are batting together towards the end of the innings, no boundary in the world is big enough.

#3 All-rounders | Hardik Pandya and Rashid Khan

Hardik Pandya is currently out injured, but he is expected to be fit in time for IPL 2020. He will be the first choice all-rounder for the South-West team because of the way he dominated with the bat in the last season of the IPL.

While Pandya can bat lower down the order at no. 7 and finish the innings with Dhoni and Pollard, he can also be promoted up the order to provide impetus to the innings in the middle overs, as he is an outstanding player of spin.

Rashid Khan primarily plays as a leg-spinner for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and is one of the best tweakers in the tournament, but he is more than capable with the bat as well. Some of the knocks that he has played for SRH over the last couple of years have been game-changers.

The most famous of Rashid’s knocks in the IPL is his cameo of 34 in the second qualifier of IPL 2018 against Kolkata Knight Riders. It proved to be a match-winning knock for SRH eventually, as they advanced to the final. Rashid Khan will probably be slotted at no. 8 in the line-up as a bowling all-rounder.

#4 Bowlers | Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal

Jasprit Bumrah is arguably the best T20 bowler in the world at the moment. While he has been instrumental in India’s success in the shortest format of the game at the international level, he has been equally good for the Mumbai Indians in the IPL as well and his numbers speak for him.

Bumrah has gone at a rate of less than 7 runs per over in his last two seasons in the IPL, which is exemplary. Apart from curtailing the runs, Bumrah is a frequent wicket-taker as well. The 26-year old has got 36 wickets to his name in the last couple of seasons of the IPL.

Bumrah’s fast bowling partner is most likely to be Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Although there is a case for Lasith Malinga as well, who was brilliant in patches for the Mumbai Indians in IPL 2019, the Sri Lankan legend will probably miss out because of the lack of overseas slots in the XI.

Bhuvneshwar can swing the ball up front and is capable of bowling yorkers as well, coming back towards the death. He is an ideal bowling foil for Bumrah.

Yuzvendra Chahal will form the leg spinning duo with Rashid Khan. Chahal who has taken 100 wickets in 84 IPL games so far, at a bowling average of 23.18, is an old-school leggie who believes in getting the ball above the batsmen’s eye-line and beat them in the air.Khan on the other hand is more of a modern day leg spinner who bowls with a flatter trajectory and is more reliant on his googly.

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