Former Royal Challengers Bengaluru and South African cricketer Wayne Parnell selected four Indians in his all-time T20I XI. Parnell also named Dhoni as one of the four most difficult hitters he faced in his career, and he chose him as captain of his all-time XI.
He chose Chris Gayle and Rohit Sharma to open the innings from the left and right sides, respectively. Gayle leads the run-scoring rankings with 14,562 runs and a strike rate of 144.75.
Parnell also chose his 2023 RCB teammate Virat Kohli at No. 3 and had no reservations with selecting the Proteas superstar AB de Villiers at No. 4.
Kieron Pollard and Andre Russell of the West Indies were Parnell’s Nos. 5 and 6, respectively. Pollard and Russell are 20-over veterans, with the former second in the run-scoring charts with 14,145 runs in 716 T20 matches. He is the only batsman in T20s among the top ten leading run scorers to have a strike rate above 150 (151.26). Meanwhile, Russell has 494 wickets in T20 cricket.
Former West Indian all-rounder Dwayne Bravo followed Pollard and Russell in Parnell’s XI. Bravo has picked up 631 wickets in 582 matches and has also scored nearly 7000 runs. Parnell picked Rashid Khan. as the only spinner in the lineup. Notably, Rashid is the leading wicket-taker in T20s with 666 scalps in 490 matches. Parnell concluded his lineup with the pace duo of Trent Boult and Jasprit Bumrah.
Bumrah and Boult have been instrumental in Mumbai Indians’ success in the past. Bumrah also emerged as the Player of the Tournament during the T20 World Cup 2024.
Wayne Parnell’s all-time T20 XI
Chris Gayle, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Kieron Pollard, Andre Russell, MS Dhoni (c), Dwayne Bravo, Rashid Khan, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult (via Cricket.com)
India
