Gautam Gambhir named captain, Sourav Ganguly excluded from Aakash Chopra's KKR XI

Former Indian opening batsman Aakash Chopra is a renowned commentator in the Indian cricketing fraternity. The cricket expert can often be seen commenting in various international fixtures involving India as well as in Indian Premier League (IPL) matches. Aakash Chopra is also an active figure on social media where he frequently expresses his opinions and interacts with fans. Quite recently, the 42-year old took to his YouTube channel and picked his all-time Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) XI.

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Aakash Chopra’s KKR XI features Gautam Gambhir and Dinesh Karthik

On Tuesday, Aakash Chopra took to his YouTube channel and named former KKR captain Gautam Gambhir as skipper of his all-time KKR XI team. Gautam Gambhir was part of the KKR franchise between 2011 and 2017 editions of IPL. During his seven-year stay at the franchise, the former opening batsman led his side to wins in 2012 and 2014. Gautam Gambhir is also a prolific run-scorer at the top for KKR, leading their all-time run-scoring charts with 3,345 runs in 122 matches with 30 half-centuries.

Apart from Gautam Gambhir, Aakash Chopra also included Chris Lynn, Robin Uthappa and contemporary KKR cricketers in the form of present captain Dinesh Karthik and hard-hitting all-rounder Andre Russell. He picked Karthik as the wicketkeeper of KKR XI. Interestingly, Aakash Chopra himself has represented the franchise during his brief-stint in the IPL. He took field under the leadership of Sourav Ganguly in the inaugural edition (IPL 2008).

Much to everyone’s surprise, Chopra did not pick Sourav Ganguly even though the former Indian captain was one of the influential figures of KKR during the initial years of the tournament. Sourav Ganguly captained KKR in IPL 2008 and 2010 and was their leading run-scorer in both the seasons. For that matter, even current KKR and TKR coach Brendon McCullum did not make the cut, despite slamming a memorable 158 in the very first match of the tournament back in 2008 against RCB in Bengaluru.

Incidentally, Chopra himself was part of the KKR squad under Ganguly and McCullum in the 2008 and 2009 editions respectively.

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Aakash Chopra’s KKR XI players

Gautam Gambhir (c), Chris Lynn, Robin Uthappa, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Shakib al Hasan, Andre Russell, Suryakumar Yadav, Sunil Narine, Piyush Chawla, Umesh Yadav, Lakshmipathy Balaji.

KKR in IPL 2020

The IPL 2020 was originally intended to launch on March 29, while KKR’s opening match was scheduled for March 31 against the Royal Challengers Bangalore. However, the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has prompted the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to indefinitely postpone the tournament.

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