IPL heroes ... !!

As an exception, IPL lived upto its hype if not surpassed it. It had become such a habit to head back home and sit glued to the TV for 3 hours while indulging in a cup of Coffee/Kokam/some X drink and a bowl of snacks. For all its worth, it has been a tremendous success ... atleast for the viewers. Its scary to think about the void left over as a consequence of the curtains coming down on the first edition.

But there have been lots of heroes ... local and non-Indian. Its worth to note I am categorizing even our Indian international players as local. It would be quite befitting to come up with a pool of 20 local and non-Indian players based on their performance in the IPL. Lets start with the local team of XX.

Well, a team should contain 4 openers, 2 wicketkeepers, 4 fast bowlers, 3 spinners, 3 all rounders and 4 batters

Lets start with the wicketkeepers ...

MS Dhoni cant be left out. Though he didnt do justice to his price tag, he was basically trying to cope with the loss of Oram, Hayden and Hussey throughout the tournament. His captaincy stood out again and his team almost won the trophy. The other wicketkeeper would be his team mate from Chennai ... Parthiv Patel. His glove work was great but he surprised with his batting. He raised his game when it mattered in the last 2 league games and in the semis and finals.

Now the openers ...
Gautam Gambhir and Shikhar Dhawan were extemely consistent. Though Dhawan came in at No. 3, he is primarily an opener. I would also pick Virender Sehwag as one of the openers. This format of the game suits him and he played some murderous innings. The 4th opener would be Swapnil Asnodkar. The dimunitive batsman did well whenever he was presented with an opportunity.

Now the fast bowlers ...
Manpreet Gony is the first that comes to mind. Apart from his sharp pace, he also exploded with the bat. Sreesanth would be the next. His opening spells were a joy to watch. Ashoke Dinda was another impressive performer from Kolkata. The last one would be YoMahesh from Delhi.

Now the spinners ...
Piyush Chawla was undoubtedly the best on view. Amit Mishra was the surprise element from Delhi. The third would be Pragyan Ojha from Hyderabad. He did well in patches but his performance was creditable.

Now the allrounders ...
Irfan Pathan can be termed as one of them. He was great with the ball and hit some out of the park when he batted. Laxmi Ratan Shukla was a revelation in all departments of the game. Finally, one of my favourite players of the tournament ... Yusuf Pathan. He rocked with the bat and got crucial wickets when it mattered.

Finally, the batters ...
Rohit Sharma would be an automatic choice. Abhishek Nayar was also a good performer. Venugopal Rao struck gold late in the tournament in an otherwise disappointing team display. The last spot goes to Suresh Raina. I am wondering why this man is still not in the senior team (atleast in Tests).

So the final team would be as follows:

Gautam Gambhir
Virender Sehwag
Shikhar Dhawan
Swapnil Asnodkar
Rohit Sharma
Suresh Raina
Abhishek Nayar
Venugopal Rao
MS Dhoni
Parthiv Patel
Irfan Pathan
Laxmi Ratan Shukla
Yusuf Pathan
Piyush Chawla
Amit Mishra
Pragyan Ojha
S Sreesanth
Manpreet Gony
Ashoke Dinda
YoMahesh

Notable absentees from the World Cup winning T20 team are Yuvraj Singh, Robin Uthappa and RP Singh for obvious reasons.

Now, for the non-Indian team ...

Lets start with the wicketkeepers ...

This one was easy ... since there were just 3 contenders practically ... Gilchrist, Mccullum and Sangakkara ... 2 of these didnt play all the games ... in fact Mccullum played just 3 games ... so I would say it will have to be Gilchrist and Sangakkara.

The openers would be ...

Shaun Marsh without a shadow of a doubt. He was awe inspiring. The next 3 spots are quite straight forward ... Hayden, Jayasuriya and Graeme Smith though Hayden played a handful of games.

Fast bowlers ...

Makhaya Ntini came in late but was magical. Glenn Mcgrath proved that age doesnt matter. Dale Steyn was quick and effective. The last spot would go to Sohail Tanvir. His opening spells as well bowling at the death was phenomenal.

Spinners ...
Shane Warne would be the first. Shahid Afridi purely as a bowler wasnt bad. And you cant leave Murali out.

All rounders ...
Shane Watson of course. Farveez Maharoof would be the next. A toss up between Hopes, Bravo, Morkel and Pollock ... I would go for Morkel since he was more effective with both ball and bat and was instrumental in guiding his team to the finals.

Batsmen ...
Not many options here ... the 2 Husseys will certainly be there. Bravo will be another. The last spot according to me should go to Cameron White. I dont know why he didnt get many opportunities but he is a devastating T20 player.

So the final non-Indian XX looks like ...

Shaun Marsh
Mathew Hayden
Sanath Jayasuriya
Graeme Smith
Micheal Hussey
David Hussey
Dwayne Bravo
Cameron White
Shane Watson
Farveez Maharoof
Albie Morkel
Adam Gilchrist
Kumar Sangakkara
Shane Warne
Shahid Afridi
Muttiah Muralitharan
Makhaya Ntini
Glenn McGrath
Dale Steyn
Sohail Tanvir.


so what about the dream team? well, it can be something like this ...

Gautam Gambhir
Shaun Marsh
Sanath Jayasuriya
Graeme Smith
Rohit Sharma
Dwayne Bravo
Suresh Raina
David Hussey
MS Dhoni
Adam Gilchrist
Yusuf Pathan
Shane Watson
Albie Morkel
Shane Warne
Piyush Chawla
Muttiah Muralitharan
Glenn McGrath
Manpreet Gony
Sohail Tanvir
S Sreesanth

well this is just my dream team ... :) I hope to see IPL going from strength to strength ...

Cheers ... !!