Sreesanth picks his best IPL 2023 XI; chooses only 1 overseas player

S Sreesanth has picked his best XI of the recently concluded edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2023). Rashid Khan was the only overseas player to make his chosen team.

The Chennai Super Kings (CSK) emerged as the IPL 2023 champions after beating the Gujarat Titans (GT) by five wickets via the DLS method in the final in Ahmedabad on Monday, May 29. Indian players topped both the run-scoring and wicket-taking charts, with Shubman Gill and Mohammad Shami winning the Orange and Purple Caps respectively.

During an interaction on the Star Sports show Match Point, Sreesanth was asked to pick his team of the tournament, to which he responded:

"MS Dhoni will lead my side. (Yashasvi) Jaiswal and (Shubman) Gill are going to open for me. No. 3 will be Virat Kohli. No. 4 - the way (Ajinkya) Rahane has been playing is insane. So I will surely put Rahane."

The former Indian pacer feels either Shivam Dube or Rinku Singh can play the finisher's role at No. 6, elaborating:

"SKY (Suryakumar Yadav) is going to be my No. 5. Then I will have Shivam Dube because of the way he has been performing. It will be slash Rinku Singh. My keeper obviously will be Mahi bhai (Dhoni)."

Dube amassed 418 runs at an excellent strike rate of 158.33 in his 14 innings in IPL 2023. Rinku aggregated 474 runs in as many innings at an impressive strike rate of 149.52. The Kolkata Knight Riders batter became the talk of the cricketing world by smashing sixes off the final five deliveries to help his side stun the Titans.

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"Bowling unit will be literally GT bowling unit" - Sreesanth

Mohammad Shami (R) and Rashid Khan starred with the ball for the Gujarat Titans. [P/C: iplt20.com]

Sreesanth picked two pacers and as many leg-spinners in his bowling attack, stating:

"Bowling unit will be literally GT bowling unit because Mohammad Shami, I will have Rashid (Khan), and I will have Yuzvendra (Chahal) from Rajasthan Royals, and one more bowler will be (Mohammed) Siraj."

The cricketer-turned-commentator was also asked whether teams should focus more on domestic talent rather than big-ticket players considering CSK and GT's success this season, to which he replied:

"Not really, yes, domestic players are important but to get experience, especially for the domestic players who get selected, to be around those international players is very important."

Sreesanth's best IPL 2023 XI: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Suryakumar Yadav, Shivam Dube/Rinku Singh, MS Dhoni (c), Mohammad Shami, Rashid Khan, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammed Siraj

Poll : Do any of the other overseas players deserve to be in the best XI of IPL 2023?

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