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The Indian Premier League (2020) has reached its business end and fans as well cricket experts have started coming up with their ideal fantasy XI for the crucial games.
Following the pattern, former India opener Gautam Gambhir has picked his fantasy XI for the 49th match of the ongoing season between Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK).
Both the teams will meet at Dubai International Cricket Stadium for the second time in the league stage. Last time when they locked horns, KKR were able to defeat the three-time champions by 10 runs.
The Knight Riders are still in the playoff race while CSK recently became the first team to be eliminated from IPL 2020.
Speaking at Fantasy Centre show on Cricket.com, Gambhir picked five CSK players and remaining from KKR to make his fantasy XI. He named Sunil Narine as captain of his side while Sam Curran as the vice-captain.
Gambhir selected Shubman Gill, Faf du Plessis, Eoin Morgan and Ambati Rayudu as proper batsmen. At the same time, he picked Deepak Chahar, Pat Cummins and Lockie Ferguson as seamers of his team. Varun Chakravarthy, who has been named in India’s T20I squad for Australia, got a place in Gambhir’s fantasy team as well.
Gambhir named MS Dhoni as wicket-keeper
The former Delhi opener went with MS Dhoni when he was asked to name one wicket-keeper between CSK skipper and Dinesh Karthik.
“The reason why I picked MS Dhoni is that he can captain the side better than Eoin Morgan and at the same time he’s in a reasonable better form than Dinesh Karthik,” said Gambhir.
Gambhir also spoke about Karthik’s struggle with the bat even after leaving the captaincy in the ongoing thirteenth season of the cash-rich league. The former KKR skipper gave an example of himself, stating that responsibilities help the player to grow more.
“It just shows the mindset. You left captaincy because you wanted to concentrate on batting, but then it hasn’t worked, so probably sometimes it’s good when you take up responsibilities. That’s what I’ve realised when I was through a worse phase in 2014. I got three ducks in a row when we started the tournament. It was captaincy that helped me that I could get back into form,” the 39-year-old added.
“And the reason why because when I was not batting, I was thinking about how to make the team win through my captaincy and the decision making. But when you’re not captaining, you’re thinking even more about your batting,” Gambhir added further.
.@msdhoni can captain the side better than @Eoin16 and is in reasonably better form than @DineshKarthik. He is the wicket-keeper batsman choice in my fantasy XI.
Watch me everyday on @weRcricket during #IPL2020 as I pick my best Fantasy XI. #CSKvKKR #GambhirFantasyXI pic.twitter.com/IY8QUmp5NE
— Gautam Gambhir (@GautamGambhir) October 28, 2020
Here is Gambhir’s fantasy XI for CSK vs KKR match:
MS Dhoni (wk), Eoin Morgan, Shubman Gill, Ambati Rayudu, Faf du Plessis, Sam Curran (vc), Sunil Narine (c), Varun Chakravarthy, Lockie Ferguson, Deepak Chahar, Pat Cummins.
