Former West Indies player Nicholas Pooran, who has announced early retirement from international cricket, has picked his all-time favorite T20I XI. He has dropped players like Rohit Sharma, David Warner and the great MS Dhoni from the team.
Nicholas Pooran surprised everyone by announcing his international retirement after the conclusion of IPL 2025. Pooran leads the MI franchise in global competitions, while he currently plays for Lucknow Super Giants in the IPL.
Rohit Sharma expressed displeasure over Nicholas Pooran naming RCB players as openers in his T20 XI
Recently, Pooran was asked to choose his all-time T20 playing XI, as shared via Crictracker Instagram handle. While choosing the starting team, he ignored five-time IPL-winning captain MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma, who led CSK and MI to victory in five seasons.
The experienced Indian pair also led India to titles in the ICC T20 World Cup in 2007 and 2024. He chose former Royal Challengers Bangalore opening pair Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli.
Chris Gayle has made the record of being the highest run scorer in the history of T20 cricket with 14562 runs and 22 centuries in his entire career. Virat Kohli remains the leading run-scorer in IPL with 8661 runs and India’s second-highest run-scorer in T20Is with 4188 runs.
Nicholas Pooran has selected himself among the finishers in his T20 XI.
Two of the greatest batsmen of all time in this format, England’s legendary batsman Jos Buttler and South Africa’s legendary batsman AB de Villiers were placed in the middle order. The former is the fourth all-time run-scorer in T20Is, as he has scored 3869 runs with a strike rate of around 150.
Jos Buttler as captain led them to the title in the 2022 ICC T20 World Cup. ABD, on the other hand, continues to be one of the star performers in the IPL, and the great entertainer holds the record of winning 25 Player of the Match awards.
Nicholas Pooran was among the first players to name himself in the squad, while players like Kieron Pollard and Andre Russell were also named between 5 and 7. Pooran has almost 10000 T20 runs with four centuries, while Pollard has 14000+ T20 runs and 18 titles in his career.
Spin-pace pair selected by Puran in bowling deck
In the bowling deck they had players like Andre Russell, who was ranked at no. 7. Russell is undoubtedly one of the most accomplished talents in the shortest format of the game. He has 9000+ runs and around 500 wickets to his name in T20 cricket.
West Indies legend Sunil Narine has been named in the playing eleven. 8. Narine is third in the all-time list of wicket takers in both T20 and IPL. He is followed by Rashid Khan, who is the bowler who has taken the most T20 wickets among the spinners in the XI.
Mumbai Indians fast bowlers Lasith Malinga and Jasprit Bumrah have both been selected in the playing eleven, as the pair remain the sixth and ninth highest wicket-takers in the IPL.
Nicholas Pooran’s T20I XI: Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli, Jos Buttler, AB de Villiers, Nicholas Pooran, Kieron Pollard, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Rashid Khan, Jasprit Bumrah and Lasith Malinga.
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