The ongoing 2023 season of the Indian Premier League is arguably the best IPL edition played to date. Till the final league stage match, the top four teams were not confirmed, which is enough to prove the intensity of competition this year. In the 2023 IPL, many players have impressed with their individual performances, be it with the bat or the ball. And they were not just overseas stars or established Indian players; many uncapped players also ruled the roost.
The likes of Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rinku Singh, Tilak Varma, Tushar Deshpande, and Dhruv Jurel, among many others, were the ones who made it a season to remember for them, along with the likes of Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli. The star Indian batting duo impressed everyone with their superb show with the bat.
But despite being in the top-three leading run-getters list this season, they weren't included in the top-5 batters list of the IPL 2023 by former Indian opening batter Virender Sehwag. The ex-Delhi Capitals skipper snubbed both of them and instead picked two uncapped players and one overseas star in his list of top-five batters in IPL 2023.
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"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 that comes to mind is 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, and his strike rate is over 160. The 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 said on Cricbuzz.
"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 zeros. In the IPL, he was not doing well at the start, but then he started doing well. Last, I can pick anybody by tossing a coin 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, and he made the most runs. His ability to hit against spin and pace is rarely seen in a foreign player," he added.
While there is no question over Sehwag's picks, his decision to leave Kohli and Gill has raised eyebrows, especially when Gill has scored 851 runs in 16 matches and Virat has hammered two centuries and six fifties in 14 matches.