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The Best XI of IPL 2015

Before the playoffs begin, our reporter picks his best team from the league stages of the T20 tournament

The Indian Premier League playoffs start tonight, with the clash between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings for the first spot in Sunday's final. But before that, our reporter who has watched every ball of every one of the 56 matches played so far, selects the competition's best XI.

David Warner (Sunrisers Hyderabad):

Hyderabad all but made it to the playoffs, falling short at the final hurdle. A lot of credit must go to the way Warner batted at the top of the order. He was one of the many Australians to have entered the competition with form under his belt but one of the few to leave the season exhibiting the same, as he ended the season on 562 runs at 43.23.

Warner wears the competition's orange cap for leading run-scorer, and is 64 ahead of the nearest rival, Ajinkya Rahane, who is still active in the tournament with Rajasthan.

Warner’s batting at the top of the order was a careful mix of aggression and maturity and he did that with the added responsibility of captaincy to go with it – something of a first for him. Augurs well for Hyderabad next season and definitely for Australia.

Ajinkya Rahane (Rajasthan Royals):

Rahane is one of the few modern-day batsmen whose technique is a chip off the previous generation’s block yet he can still score runs aplenty in the Twenty20 format. This season he has scored 498 runs at an average touching 50, and a more than healthy strike-rate of 133.15.

And that means this likely won’t be the first season he gets to a tally 500 runs in an IPL, having also gotten there in 2012. In 2013, he had made 488 runs batting at the top of the order.

Virat Kohli (Royal Challengers Bangalore):

The India captain-in-waiting didn’t have a good start to the season but over the second half of the IPL cranked it up. Kohli’s decision to open the innings with Chris Gayle hadn’t reaped too many benefits in the first couple of games but once they decided that will be the way to go along with AB de Villiers batting at three, things changed for the Bangalore skipper.

He’s not far from the 500-run mark too and having remained unbeaten in five of his innings, he is the only batsman with a minimum of 100 runs to have an average of above 50 (53.44).

The presence of Gayle and de Villiers around him has obviously helped but we have seen many a batsman fall away to the pressure of being in such elite company. Not Kohli.

And yes, he bats at No.3 in my line-up ...

AB de Villiers (Royal Challengers Bangalore):

... with de Villiers coming at four.

De Villiers made his customary ravaging century, continuing from his excellent form at the international level and smashing an unbeaten 133 off only 59 deliveries against Mumbai.

Even apart from that, there were a few delightful 40s in the first half of the season and a fifty to boot and his ability to get going even without getting his eye in makes him a useful bat at the number four spot.

De Villiers’ strike-rate this season has been 176.98, second only to Andre Russell among players with at least 200 runs.

JP Duminy (Delhi Daredevils):

The South African middle-order batsman and a useful off-spinner captained his side reasonably well but without support in their batting and with injuries to a few of their senior bowlers, the Daredevils side struggled to win many matches.

Still he ended with more than 400 runs with four fifties and a strike-rate of 131, while also turning his arm over to pick up eight wickets.

It must be said, however, he didn’t bowl too often in the second half of the tournament, which was a surprise given how well things had gone for him earlier.

On account of being the only spinning all-rounder of note in the tournament, he makes it to my XI.

MS Dhoni (Chennai Super Kings):

If Brendon McCullum had been captaining and keeping wickets, I would have brought him in. And of course, if he was batting in the middle-order too. Other than the Black Caps skipper, AB de Villiers is the only ‘wicketkeeper’ who deserves a place in this side.

But given we don’t want to burden his back with those responsibilities, and the fact Dhoni has continued to lead the Chennai Super Kings to continued success, scored 328 runs at 36.44 and has been decent behind the stumps, he will make the team as a keeper-batsman-captain.

Andre Russell (Kolkata Knight Riders):

He ran manic with the bat this competition, almost like he was announcing himself to the world. When he hit them, he didn’t just hit them, he battered them like he was on a ball-murdering spree. And he did it enough number of times to score 326 runs at a strike-rate of 192.89, with an average of 36.22 batting down the order quite often.

That wasn’t all. He bowled 40-odd overs and scalped 14 wickets in the season to go with his runs, making him not only a useful all-rounder but also one to watch out in the seasons to come.

Dwayne Bravo (Chennai Super Kings):

The third all-rounder of the side, Bravo, didn’t have a good time with the bat. There was one fifty but his overall record was poor, ending with just 166 runs and part of the issue stemmed from the fact Dhoni didn’t trust him enough to bat him higher than he did.

But speaking of trust and the Chennai captain bowled Bravo consistently enough in the death overs. The West Indian medium-pacer did enough with his off-spinning variations to bamboozle the opposition batsmen and ended the league stage with the Purple Cap for the most number of wickets with 20 victims.

Lasith Malinga (Mumbai Indians):

Malinga was to Mumbai what Mitchell Starc was to Bangalore. Without Starc, Bangalore struggled. Without Malinga’s form, Mumbai were toothless. And then he struck gold, which unsurprisingly coincided with Mumbai’s change in fortunes. He bagged 19 wickets in the league stage, of which he took six from the first six games and 13 from the next seven. And the result was there for everyone to see – Mumbai won six of those seven matches in which his form was back.

Mitchell Starc (Royal Challengers Bangalore):

Refer to Malinga. Similar story. Once he returned to the side from his injury, Bangalore were a different side. 18 wickets from 11 games was only a part of the story, batting against him at the top of the innings and in the death overs was tough for most batsmen and his economy-rate of 6.91 is the best for bowlers who have picked up at least 12 wickets and second-best among those with a minimum of 10.

Yuzvendra Chahal (Royal Challengers Bangalore):

Among the few spinners who managed to do well this season, Chahal went for a few runs but also managed to pick up wickets at difficult times. His captain Kohli used him well too, as an aggressive option rather than attempting to stifle the opposition run-flow and Chahal responded with 19 wickets - the second-highest in the competition.

It was a tough choice between Chahal and South Africa's Imran Tahir, but in the end, his 19 from 13 games pipped Tahir’s 15 wickets from 10 with Delhi.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar (12th man, Sunrisers Hyderabad):

Coming back from an injury, because of which he played just one game in the 2015 World Cup, Bhuvneshwar found enough swing with the new ball and enough yorkers in the death to trouble opponents. As a result he ended with 18 wickets in the tournament and can easily replace any of the aforementioned bowlers if the situation demands.

Suneer's IPL XI:
Warner
Rahane
Kohli
De Villiers
Duminy
Dhoni (wk, c)
Russell
Bravo
Malinga
Starc
Chahal