Australian spinner Adam Zampa recently picked his all-time best T20 playing XI among the players he has played with and surprisingly ignored his former teammate MS Dhoni, often called the epitome of wisdom and one of the greatest finishers in the shortest format of the game.
Adam Zampa is currently one of the most experienced and renowned spinners in the world, especially known for his tremendous success in white-ball cricket. Zampa has been Australia’s only exceptional spinner this decade.
However, Zampa was one of the notable absentees from the IPL 2026 mini-auction along with England’s Adil Rashid as he could make a move to the PSL after being released by SRH in the pre-season. Zampa has now selected his best T20 XI from among the players he has played with.
MS Dhoni’s former teammate disrespectfully leaves him out of the best T20 XI of all time
Former Rising Pune Supergiant teammates MS Dhoni and Adam Zampa have spent two seasons together in the dressing room and Zampa has also shown ample respect for his former teammate. However, this time, when Australia was asked to pick an all-time T20 XI on the Willow Talk cricket podcast, it surprisingly ignored MS Dhoni.
Instead they picked some of the best players in the world to play the shortest format of the game, but the T20 XI included only one Indian cricketer, and there is no need to guess the name. This is none other than the legendary batsman Virat Kohli.
Every team needs a gloveman, and although Zampa has not featured the former South African as a wicketkeeper, Zampa’s former RCB teammate AB de Villiers remains the only wicketkeeper in the team.
However, this was blatant ignorance from the captain and one of the most accomplished players in the shortest format of the game. Dhoni has won 5 titles in the IPL with CSK and led India to the title win in the first ICC T20 World Cup in 2007.
Adam Zampa selects RCB players by naming the best T20 XI of all time
Apart from the omission of MSD, the selection of the Australian players seemed to be right on the money, as they created an almost unbeatable team consisting of players from different countries. The Australian legend chose Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli as the two opening batsmen in the team.
While Gayle remains the highest scorer in the shortest format of the game with 14,562 runs, Kohli also has an unmatched record in T20 with 13,543 runs. Zampa followed the list with interesting numbers 3 and 4, as he chose former English great, Kevin Pietersen and teammate Josh Inglis for the role.
Other Australian cricketers who have made promising contributions in this format include Glenn Maxwell, Nathan Ellis and Josh Hazlewood. While he summarized his eleven with three big names of West Indies, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine and Samuel Badree.
Adam Zampa’s playing eleven: Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli, Kevin Pietersen, Josh Inglis, AB de Villiers, Glenn Maxwell, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Nathan Ellis, Samuel Badree and Josh Hazlewood.
Adam Zampa is key to Australia’s ICC T20 World Cup campaign
The experienced Australian spinner has been the best for them in the shortest format in the last decade. Adam Zampa has been the key spinner for Australia as they won the World Cup in the ICC T20 World Cup 2021 and ICC World Cup 2023.
Zampa has 330 wickets to his name in international cricket and has never played a red ball game for the Australian team. With 134 wickets in T20Is, Zampa is the leading wicket-taker for them in T20 International cricket.
Since the games will be played in India and Sri Lanka, spinners will play a big role here, with Zampa and Matt Kuhnman expected to dominate for the Australian team. With his experience, Zampa will be crucial to their campaign.
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