Aakash Chopra has revealed Mumbai Indians ideal XI for IPL 2021
There are less than 24 hours for the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League. The opening game of the season will be played between the Rohit-led Mumbai Indians and Virat-led Royal Challengers Bangalore at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
Both the teams have faced each other in 29 games where Mumbai Indians tops it with 19 wins whereas Royal Challengers Bangalore have won only 10 out of them.
Fans always get excited when these two heavy batting side lock horns with each other in the cash-rich contest. The five-time champions Mumbai Indians will be looking to set a record of becoming the first team in the history of IPL to clinch the title consecutively three times.
Royal Challengers Bangalore on the other hand, will be keen to grab the trophy for the first time since the advent of IPL. Besides, the former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra has named his Mumbai Indians squad which is expected by him.
Aakash Chopra reveals his possible Mumbai Indians playing XI in a youtube video
Aakash Chopra recently mentioned that Mumbai Indians is expected to win the IPL and Sunrisers Hyderabad will be the other franchise to clinch the title if Mumbai fails to do so.
Currently, the 43-year-old has revealed his ideal playing xi of Rohit's army ahead of the IPL 2021. As everyone's choice, he also picked Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock as the opening pair along with Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan will bat at No.3 and No.4 respectively.
Following that, Aakash Chopra added Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya and his elder brother Krunal Pandya will be the three all-rounders for the side.
"Rohit Sharma along with Quinton de Kock, then Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan, that makes it the top four. Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Kieron Pollard – this makes it seven already. You can move them up and down the batting order," he said.
Jasprit Bumrah and Trent Boult will lead the bowling attack
After that, he named Jasprit Bumrah and Rahul Chahar for the next two spots. With only two overseas players on the top-order, Aakash Chopra added the Australian right-handed pacer Nathan Coulter-Nile and New Zealand's best bowler Trent Boult in the line-up.
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Those players filled the remaining two overseas and the remaining spots. This XI of Mumbai Indians also looks strong which is enough to play against any team in the world.
"After the top seven, you only need to pick four more players and you have picked only two overseas till now. In the four you have Bumrah and Rahul Chahar. So, only two are left in which one you can take Trent Boult and along with him you can play Nathan Coulter-Nile if you want or any other player you wish to play.
"They have a lot of options. If they do not play four overseas also, it will still work out for this team. They are that kind of aside. So one more time, the Mumbai Indians is going to be the team to watch out for and the team for everyone to beat if you are capable of doing that," he further added.
Let's have a look at his ideal Mumbai Indians XI
Aakash Chopra's ideal XI of Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma (c), Quinton de Kock (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Rahul Chahar, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Trent Boult.