Aakash Chopra snubs Indian greats Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni & Rohit Sharma from IPL 2021 XI

Former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra on Tuesday unveiled his IPL 2021, Team XI, where he has listed seven Indian and four overseas players. Interestingly, Chopra's IPL 2021 Team XI doesn't include big Indian stars such as Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, as all four failed to make a mark with their performances this year. While Kohli and Sharma, two of the world's finest batsmen, managed just one half-century each in the seven games that they played before the suspension of IPL 2021, Dhoni and Bumrah also failed to impress fans in their respective roles. 

Kohli scored just 198 runs in 7 matches at an average of 33.00 and a strike rate of 121.47. Sharma also played 7 matches for Mumbai Indians and scored 250 runs at an average of 35.71 and strike rate of 128.20. Meanwhile, Dhoni scored just 37 runs in 4 innings at an abysmal average of 12.33 and a strike rate of 123.33. Bumrah, who is regarded as one of the best bowlers in the world, scalped just 6 wickets in 7 games that he played for MI this season. Fans could argue that the four Indian superstars couldn't live up to the expectations in IPL 2021. 

Chopra's IPL 2021 XI

As far as Chopra's IPL 2021, Team XI is concerned, he named Punjab Kings (PBKS) skipper KL Rahul and Delhi Capitals (DC) opener Shikhar Dhawan as openers owing to their superb batting in the 14th edition of the cash-rich league, where both of them were neck-to-neck for the Orange Cap race, just like the previous edition. Chopra picked Faf du Plessis for the number 3 slot and kept Australian batting powerhouse Glenn Maxwell at number 4. RCB wicketkeeper-batsman AB de Villiers stole the number 5 position in Chopra's XI. DC skipper Rishabh Pant and CSK all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja grabbed the number 6 and 7 slots respectively, followed by RR's Chris Morris at number 8. 

Chopra picked up Mumbai Indians youngster Rahul Chahar as one of the spinners and gave Avesh Khan and Harshal Patel the final two slots in his IPL 2021 XI. Avesh Khan and Harshal Patel grabbed a lot of attention this year for their premium fast bowling as they kept picking wickets for their respective team in each game that they played. 

Image Credit: AP/IPL/Insta.AakashChopra