‘It is very difficult…’ – Former India skipper picks between AB de Villers and MS Dhoni in all-time Indian T20 League playing XI

MS Dhoni and AB de Villiers are one of the most successful players in the history of the Indian T20 League since 2008. The former started with Chennai, shifted to Pune for two seasons, and then was back with the Yellow brigade. During this phase, the right-hander has amassed 4978 runs in 234 games and is only 22 runs away from completing 5000 runs in the competition.

On the other hand, De Villiers who started with Delhi shifted to Bangalore in 2011 and retired from the league in 2021. During this, the former South Africa skipper played 184 games and amassed 5162 runs including two hundreds. While both players would easily find a place in anyone’s playing XI, former India Test skipper Anil Kumble found it difficult to pick between one of them.

With only a few months ahead of the Indian T20 League, Jio Cinema organized a show named ‘Legends Lounge’. In the show, the likes of Suresh Raina, Robin Uthappa, Scott Styris, Parthiv Patel, Robin Uthappa, and Anil Kumble were present. While the panel picked Virat Kohli and Chris Gayle as the openers, they picked Raina and Rohit Sharma were picked as the No. three and No.four respectively.

However, while choosing numbers five and six, the former Bangalore skipper, Kumble found it difficult.

I would pick MS Dhoni over AB de Villiers for the wicketkeeper and number five: Anil Kumble

The former India leggie picked Dhoni for the wicketkeeper and number-five slot. The former maintained Dhoni would lead the team with Kieron Pollard playing at six.

“It is very difficult to get AB de Villiers in my team because MS Dhoni comes in at five as captain and wicket keeper and Pollard at six. I would look at the impact the particular player has had at No. 6 in terms of winning matches from difficult positions and of course, titles is something that I looked at as well, at No. 6,” said Kumble.