What is the best T20 XI in world cricket at the moment?

Choosing a T20 World XI is something that comes up regularly among cricket fans. The question of 'If aliens arrived on this planet to play a cricket match, which eleven players would you choose is something always in the back of our minds as we see the form of the top players in international cricket.

The best teams in the world at present seem to be India and Pakistan, while Australia are reliable as usual despite recent controversies, which have affected team selection; as both David Warner and Steve Smith would have had a good chance of making this team, as having right and left-handed batsmen always hold an advantage. At number six, we have felt the need to pick a destructive batsman to accompany the solid wicket-keeper while they need to be able to bowl reliably; preferably pace, so that they would be an extra death bowling option if things went askew.

When choosing batsmen, we have gone with a balanced mix of aggressors and more classical batsmen, while we want a solid batsman who is a specialist wicketkeeper to anchor the innings if there was a bad start. In terms of the bowling, we have gone with a traditional set-up, choosing two frontline attacking swing bowlers, a middle-overs pace bowler, preferably able to generate reverse swing, while having a leg-spinner, preferably right-handed, and an off-spinner, preferably left-handed.

Openers

Aaron Finch is one of the world's most destructive batsmen.

Our first opener was a relatively easy choice. While Babar Azam is world number one, he is less experienced than the other candidates and has a poorer six hitting ability so we chose Rohit Sharma. Rohit Sharma has been incredible in recent times in both limited-overs formats, managing to hit 115 against South Africa and 89 in a T20I against Bangladesh as well as having a more than satisfactory Champions Trophy, which is a very cut-throat top quality tournament. Rohit Sharma also always seems to be able to quickly transfer ODI form to T20Is and vice versa, as seen with his IPL form translating into a fantastic Champions Trophy and a fantastic South Africa ODI series translating into a brilliant Nidahas Trophy. Another important feature of Rohit Sharma's game is his experience. He has hit over 7,000 T20 runs since his debut in 2007. Rohit's classical approach has tempted us to pick a more naturally aggressive opening partner, ruling out players like Babar Azam joining him as well as the more classical batsmen Shikhar Dhawan and Hashim Amla to join him.

The second choice for an aggressive partner was incredibly difficult. Two of the contenders were Quinton de Kock and Fakhar Zaman but ultimately the choice came down to Martin Guptill or Aaron Finch. Despite Martin Guptill's recent form, his less than reliable batting when facing spin suggested we should go with Aaron Finch, which also has positives as he has really hit form recently. Finch has been a regular in the Australia team for about five years, managing to hit 1206 runs at an average of 40.20, with a strike rate of 151.69, in 36 T20Is since his debut in 2011, including a brilliant 156 against England. While the Victoria batsman hit two hundreds and a sixty against England in the three ODIs he played, more importantly Finch was among the runs in the T20s as well with scores of 20*, 36* and 18*, all in quick time, batting at 5. A good IPL in 2018 will further solidify his status as a consistent world class T20 batsman after his recent consistency.

Middle Order

Virat Kohli is arguably the world's best batsman.

The middle order starts with one of the easiest players to put in the team, Virat Kohli, although we have not given him the captaincy. Kohli is not only in fantastic form at the moment but has incredible T20I stats. With an international average of 50.84 at a strike rate of 137.32, Kohli has also hit four hundreds and an incredible 52 fifties in T20 cricket, making him the ideal number three to not only control the innings, but act as a backbone for the more aggressive counterparts we have chosen, which leads us to our pick for a number four.

Joe Root, Kane Williamson and Glenn Maxwell all came close but we went with AB de Villiers. De Villiers is not in good form at the moment, but as we chose Rohit Sharma, Aaron Finch and Virat Kohli who are all very consistent and in good form, AB de Villiers seems the obvious option to be the destructor of the team. Even though he may go out early, the rest of the team are reliable enough to keep the team on track for a big score and when de Villiers fires, a colossal score is guaranteed. De Villiers has hit more than 6,000 T20 runs with a high score of 133 not out, at an average of 34.46.

Wicket-keeper and All-Rounder

Hardik Pandya has developed massively in T20 since his debut in 2013.

The wicket-keeper was a very difficult choice, but in the end, we chose Sarfraz Ahmed. The Pakistan captain's leadership has been awe-inspiring, meaning he is also our captain, while his batting has come along nicely recently. Starting with his T20 captaincy, Pakistan have won 85% of their T20I matches since 2016, 17 wins from 20 matches specifically, in which four of the series in question were against England and the West Indies, who were the two finalists of the World T20 competition in 2016. In terms of his batting, he has a T20I average of 26.73 with a high score of 76 not out over the span of 41 matches. The other two options were Jos Buttler and MS Dhoni. Jos Buttler is good for destructive batting but is less impressive as a wicket-keeper, and as we have AB de Villiers in the team for six-hitting, we wanted a specialist wicket-keeper. MS Dhoni meanwhile has not played regular international cricket, is not consistent enough with the bat and is much older, meaning Sarfraz gets the nod.

The player filling the all-rounder role was a choice between Ben Stokes, Shakib al-Hasan, Hardik Pandya and Chris Morris. We thought at the moment, Ben Stokes is not in good enough form and after recent controversies should probably not make the team, while Shakib is similarly not in form. Chris Morris' batting credentials are not as good as the others and as you'll see, the pace bowling is just about covered so he can't make the team on bowling alone. We chose Hardik Pandya due to his great batting form and useful pace bowling, as he would be a great sixth bowling choice and he is also a very handy finisher in T20 cricket. Hardik Pandya has already amassed 1362 runs in T20 cricket, with a high score of 86 not out and has hit nearly as many sixes as fours in his T20 career, making him an ideal finisher in our team. Hardik's bowling has been possibly even more impressive. With a best of 3/7 in T20 and 3/8 in T20Is, he has an average of 28.77 over 96 games, with 62 wickets in all.

Spinners

Sunil Narine has played almost exclusively in T20 leagues around the world.

The spinners were very difficult to choose. The off-spinner choice was between the West Indies' Sunil Narine, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja of India and Imad Wasim of Pakistan. Ashwin and Jadeja are not in the best form and have been shunned from the national team since the Champions Trophy and while Imad Wasim is very tempting, especially because he is a left-hander, his economy rate is 6.07 in T20Is which is higher than the other candidates, so we went with the mystery spinner Sunil Narine. Aside from Narine's batting prowess, he has a T20 best of 5/19 with an average of 18.96 over a stunning 271 matches, including 371 wickets, with an economy rate of 5.82.

Our leg-spinner is Afghanistan's superstar Rashid Khan. Rashid has been very consistent in keeping an economy of 5.80 an over in T20s while being a natural wicket-taker, meaning he has a clear advantage over the expensive Imran Tahir and a very slim advantage over the sometimes expensive Shadab Khan, who is the only other valid candidate due to Tahir's poor economy rate and age. Rashid has 135 wickets from 91 matches with a stunning best of 5/3 as oppose to Shadab's 72 wickets in only 58 games. Rashid Khan also got the nod due to his T20I rankings of number one at the moment, indicating good form as oppose to Shadab's second-placed ICC ranking. The battle between Rashid Khan and Shadab Khan is sure to ignite over the next decade or so, revitalizing the world of leg spin.

Pacers

Mohammad Amir is one of the most destructive swing bowlers in world cricket.

For the pacers we ideally wanted two very good swing and death bowlers, preferably a right hander and left hander. For the third option, we wanted a quick pacer who bowls in the middle overs. For the opening bowlers we chose Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammad Amir. This opening bowling combination is the stuff of dreams. Bhuvi and Amir are the two best swing bowlers in the world at the moment, hands down. While Bhuvneshwar is very consistent, with an average of 22.07 and a best of 5/24 in T20Is while having a good economy rate of 6.74, Amir is a match winner on his day. When Amir fires he obliterates any top order in the world while keeping an impressive economy rate. Amir has picked up 125 wickets in 108 matches at an average of 20.90 with an economy of 6.64 and a best of 4/13. The discarded options were Jasprit Bumrah, who was very unlucky to miss out, Trent Boult, who is just not consistent enough at the moment and Mitchell Starc, who is yet to get back to his best since his injury.

The middle order pace option was quite easy. While Kagiso Rabada, Andrew Tye and Andre Rus have been very impressive recently, for wicket-taking ability and economy rate, we picked Hasan Ali. Hasan warrants his place in the team after a mind-blowing Champions Trophy and brilliant overall form in recent times, especially recently in T20, where he picked up 5-20 in the BPL while he also got 1-0 from his one over against West Indies in the second Pakistan v West Indies T20I match. Hasan has 84 T20 wickets to his name at an average of 20.78 with an economy rate of 7.41, making him the perfect middle overs pacer and has also hit two fifties, meaning he could also hit some sixes at the end of a T20 match.

Our T20 World XI: Rohit Sharma, Aaron Finch, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Sarfraz Ahmed (WK) (C), Hardik Pandya, Sunil Narine, Hasan Ali, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammad Amir.