With IPL 2023 coming to a wrap, Chennai Super Kings face Gujarat Titans in the final, at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Sunday. The ongoing season saw GT, CSK, Lucknow Super Giants and Mumbai Indians qualify for the playoffs. CSK defeated GT by 15 runs in Qualifier 1 to book a berth in the final. Meanwhile, MI crushed LSG by 81 runs in the Eliminator, and then lost to Gujarat in Qualifier 2 by 62 runs.
The ongoing season has had plenty of highlights, especially in the batting front. GT opener Shubman Gill currently leads the Orange Cap race with 851 runs in 16 matches, with three centuries and four fifties. Other than Gill, even there have been other batters who have performed like Virat Kohli, who grabbed two tons this season.
After the league phase, former India cricketer Virender Sehwag selected the top-five batters in IPL 2023, and the names didn’t come as a surprise.
Speaking on Cricbuzz, he said, “Mere 5 Pandavas. Cricket’s Pandav. My pick for five batters in the IPL. I have not picked many openers because they get a lot of opportunities. The first batter who comes to my mind in Rinku Singh. I don’t think you would ask me the reason. Because it has never happened that a batter has won the team a match by hitting five straight sixes. Only Rinku Singh has done it.”
“The second middle-order batter is Shivam Dube. He has hit 33 sixes, his strike-rate is over 160. Last few seasons have not been special but this year he came with a clear-cut mindset that he has to come and hit sixes.
Sehwag also had special praise for Yashasvi Jaiswal, and also his final choice surprised fans. “The third is a brilliant opener. I have to take his name because his brilliant batting has forced me to pick him up. Yashasvi Jaiswal. Then comes SKY. I am taking Suryakumar Yadav’s name because he was not in form. In international cricket he was getting zeroes. In IPL also he was not doing well at the start, but then he started doing well”, he said.
“Last, I can pick anybody by doing a toss because there are so many. But I will pick another middle-order batter and his name is Heinrich Klaasen. The team he was playing for (SRH), he was batting for them in the middle order, he made the most number runs. His ability to hit against spin and pace is rarely seen in a foreign player”, he further added.
Sehwag’s list has two uncapped players and it is interesting to note that it doesn’t include the likes of Gill, Kohli, Faf du Plessis, Devon Conway or Ruturaj Gaikwad.
