Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah Ignored; Babar Azam Picks Rohit Sharma in his T20 World XI

Pakistan’s former captain Babar Azam picked his T20 World XI during his conversation on Zalmi TV Podcast. Babar, who is currently leading Peshawar Zalmi in the ongoing Pakistan Super League (PSL), picked his favorite World XI team, which consists of some of the greatest T20 players in the world.

Babar Azam is one of the high-profile players in the cricketing world and probably the most popular cricketer in Pakistan at the moment. He himself has a great T20 record and has been at the pole position in the ranking on several occasions. However, he didn't pick himself in this playing XI and chose his long-time opening partner, Mohammad Rizwan.

Babar Azam T20 World XI

Babar Azam picked two Indians, two Pakistanis, two Australians, two South Africans, two Englishmen, and one Afghan player in his Playing XI. He picked the former Indian T20 captain and a giant of the format, Rohit Sharma, as his opener. Pakistan’s white ball Captain Mohammad Rizwan is picked as the other opener.

Fakhar Zaman is picked to bat at number 3 while the Indian T20 captain, Suryakumar Yadav, will bat at number 4 in his team. At 5, he picked Jos Buttler, and at 6, David Miller was included in his team. Marco Jansen was his fast-bowling all-rounder at number 7, and Rashid Khan was the only spinner in his team at number 8. Babar went on to pick a lethal pace trio of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, and Mark Wood at numbers 9, 10, and 11, respectively. Here is the Playing XI picked by him:

No Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah

The T20 World XI picked by Babar saw many surprises. It did not have the likes of Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah, who have been the top players in this format over the last decade. Virat has played 125 T20 matches in his career and scored 4188 runs at an average of 48.69 and a strike rate of 137.04. He is in third position in the list of batsmen with the most T20 runs.

Meanwhile, he also didn't pick one of the most lethal bowlers of the present generation, Jasprit Bumrah, which is slightly surprising for the fans. Jasprit Bumrah is one of the best bowlers, if not the best, in the current generation. Bumrah has picked 89 wickets in his 70 matches in T20Is at an astonishing average of 17.74 and an impressive economy rate of 6.27.

Rohit Sharma is at the top with 4231 runs, and Babar is in second position with 4223 runs. And as Rohit and Virat have hung up their boots in the T20 format, Babar will soon become the leading run-scorer in T20Is.

Other Players to Miss Out

Babar has possibly missed out on some of the top players of the format, such as Travis Head, Virat Kohli, Hardik Pandya, and Jasprit Bumrah. He was modest enough not to pick himself in his World T20 XI, even though he is soon going to be the leading run-scorer in the format. The sole factor for this consideration might be his strike rate, as he has scored 4,223 runs but at a strike rate of 129.2.

Currently, Babar is second on the list of highest run-getters in T20Is. He has just surpassed Virat Kohli and is just behind Rohit Sharma in this list. However, he is just eight runs behind Rohit and is likely to surpass him in some time. Despite his consistency in the format, Babar has been slammed for his low strike rate, which has often cost his team.