The best XI of the IPL for 2018

Looking at the final IPL squads, we have attempted to compile the best XI of the IPL 2018 based on player form, player influence and the reputation of the player in T20, previous editions of the IPL and in T20 internationals.

The IPL has yielded tonnes of talent over the years, more recently producing the likes of Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah, enriching Indian cricket in the shorter format and putting franchise T20 in the limelight while also making it popular in the first place, leading to the creation of leagues such as the the CPL, PSL and BPL. Here we put together the best XI a team could hope to have ahead of the IPL in 2018. We have not included banned or injured players on this list, ruling out players such as David Warner and Mitchell Starc, who I originally chose for a place in this XI. IPL players' whose best is almost certainly past them, such as Chris Gayle, were not considered as this is a team for 2018.

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Openers

Rohit Sharma has mostly

bat

at number four in the IPL despite opening exclusively for India.

The openers, however, are more difficult to choose. Due to the flexibility, Virat Kohli gives the rest of the batting line-up, we decided to go with one classical-minded opener and one ultra-aggressive opener.

Rohit Sharma and Gautam Gambhir, of the Delhi Daredevils, seem to be the obvious options for the classical opening slot, while the more aggressive opening players in contention are Chris Lynn and Aaron Finch.

For the first spot, we though Gautam Gambhir would be the better choice due to him being left-handed, but Rohit is an opener for the national team and is overall more consistent, with a T20I average of 30.86 including two hunderds, so we chose Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma.

For the aggressive opener, we chose Kolkata's Chris Lynn due to his immediate and dynamic impact on the IPL last year, where he averaged 49.16 at a strike rate of 180.96, while Punjab batsman Aaron Finch has been less consistent in the IPL, despite being in good international form in the ODI format.

Middle Order

Suresh Raina is the most capped IPL player of all time.

Royal Challengers Bangalore captain and India number three Virat Kohli has a non-negotiable place in this team. The India captain is a consistent and well-paced run scorer in all-formats, which makes him very able at adjusting to every T20 innings he plays, whether the team loses a wicket on the first ball or fifteen overs into the game. He holds no valid competition for the number three batting spot in the IPL.

Our first middle order choice, Suresh Raina, is the batsman who sums up the IPL the best. Raina's return to prominence, and the India national team has been well documented. Chennai's batting all-rounder has hit an IPL ton and has averaged 34.13 across a stunning 161 matches, with a strike rate of 139.04. Raina is not too old to risk having a very poor season at the age of 34, while his experience would prove very reliable at number four.

Glenn Maxwell is our pick for the number five batsman in our XI, although AB de Villiers was very close to being selected. Maxwell has the slight edge due to consistency and youth as well as having the ability to chip in with some overs of spin bowling, similar to Suresh Raina. The Australian all-rounder has a strike rate of 164.39 with a high score of 95 and 'Maxi', as he's known, has the ability to light up back to back T20 matches as he did in the 2014 IPL, where King XI Punjab were extremely close to a maiden IPL title. Maxwell is now at the Delhi Daredevils.

Our wicket-keeper could have just as easily been Dinesh Karthik of the Kolkata Knight Riders but due to experience and his lightning quick reflexes, we have chosen the India cricketing legend MS Dhoni. Dhoni is a death overs batting specialist with a stunning IPL average of 37.88 since the tournament's conception in 2008. Despite usually batting at number six or seven, the Chennai captain has amassed 3,561 at a strike rate of 136.75. Dhoni has never had an IPL season without a fifty, despite only getting one in each of the last four seasons, picking up seventeen fifties in total.

Spinners

Can Rashid Khan repeat his IPL 2017 success in his second IPL season?

The spinners in our team are also our all-rounders, the first of whom is Sunil Narine. As well as providing valuable, in some cases top order, batting power at a strike rate of 172.30 in IPL 2017's case, the Knight Riders' Narine has picked up 95 wickets from 82 games at an average of 21.37 with an economy rate of 6.32, with three 4 wicket hauls and one 5 wicket haul.

While the West Indian is the team's off-spinner, Rashid Khan is the team's leg-spinner. Before IPL10, the Afghanistan spinner was a little-known associate cricket bowler and was rewarded an IPL contract after a relatively successful World T20. The teenage leggie's statistics for the 2017 competition are incredible. In 14 matches, he has kept his economy down to only 6.62 runs an over; while managing to get 17 wickets at an average of 21.05 with a best of 3/19. At the age of 19, this gives the SunRisers Hyderabad's star overseas player plenty of time to get even better and potentially become the world's best spinner; a title he already could lay claim to.

Fast bowlers

'The Fizz' had a wonderful IPL in 2016 before disappointing in 2017.

Our pace bowling attack consists of two opening bowlers and first-change pacer, following the usual T20 team rhetoric. Bhuvneshwar Kumar is our first option. The India swing bowler has upped his pace, consistency, and effectiveness since his transfer to SunRisers Hyderabad in 2014 and has managed to collect a nelson's worth of scalps, 111 wickets from 90 games to be exact, at an average strike rate of 21.07. With an economy of 7.08, when bowling at the very start and the very end, which usually yields the most runs for the batting, 'Bhuvi' has made himself an easy choice for this IPL XI.

The next player we have chosen is the new star of Indian cricket, Jasprit Bumrah. Despite having an economy of 8.07, the 24-year-old Bumrah has kept it at under eight an over for the last two seasons and has picked 46 wickets at a strike rate of 22.69, with his averages in 2016 and 2017 being 27.06 and 22.20 respectively. Bumrah is widely considered one of the future stars for the national team, and we are expecting him to have his best IPL yet by far in terms of statistics in 2018.

Our third choice was the most difficult choice. We had originally slated Mitchell Starc to fill this role, but due to his injury, Kagiso Rabada, Mustafizur Rahman and Chris Morris were all put into contention. Morris has been more expensive and his batting seems irrelevant due to the all-rounder roles already being covered, while Rabada has also been injured, leaving Mumbai's Mustafizur Rahman as the best possible option to finish the team. In the 2016 IPL, which has been his only full IPL season, 'The Fizz', as he is affectionately known, picked up seventeen wickets at an average of 24.76 with a respectable economy rate of 6.90 for the SunRisers. After his blip in the 2017 IPL and a poor PSL in 2018, he rebuilt with some good performances for Bangladesh against India and Sri Lanka, giving him a contract with the Mumbai Indians and a place in our XI.

Final XI: Rohit Sharma, Chris Lynn, Virat Kohli (C), Suresh Raina, Glenn Maxwell, MS Dhoni (WK), Sunil Narine, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Mustafizur Rahman.