Former Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Kevin Pietersen recently picked his best playing XI from IPL 2022. Pietersen made some interesting picks as he left out Rashid Khan and Dinesh Karthik. He also ignored players from Mumbai Indians, Delhi Capitals, and Chennai Super Kings while picking his playing XI.
IPL 2022 Orange Cap winner Jos Buttler was the first player in his playing XI. Buttler was the highest run-scorer in the tournament with 863 runs to his name. He set a new record for the most runs by an overseas batter in a single IPL season.
Opening the innings with Buttler is Lucknow Super Giants’ wicket-keeper batter Quinton de Kock. His opening partner KL Rahul bats at number three in Pietersen’s playing XI.
“[Quinton de Kock] hit an unbeaten 140 as he and KL Rahul batted the entire 20 overs unbeaten against KKR (and helped the team enter the IPL playoffs). That innings, combined with some other solid contributions, means he warrants a place in this team [KL Rahul] Continues to be one of the most consistent batters across all formats,” Pietersen said about the two Lucknow Super Giants batters in a blog post for Betway Insider.
Kevin Pietersen picked 3 more foreign players in his playing XI
Pietersen did not follow the IPL rule for seven Indian players and four foreigners. He added Liam Livingstone and David Miller to the batting department and then named Josh Hazlewood as one of his fast bowlers.
Hardik Pandya was named the captain of the team. The two Indian all-rounders were Rahul Tewatia and Ravichandran Ashwin, while the two Indian bowlers were Umran Malik and Yuzvendra Chahal. Here is the full playing XI selected by Kevin:
Jos Buttler, Quinton de Kock, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya (c), Liam Livingstone, David Miller, Rahul Tewatia, Ravichandran Ashwin, Umran Malik, Yuzvendra Chahal and Josh Hazlewood.
