India’s mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy has stirred the pot with his surprising dream T20 XI, leaving out several all-time greats from his squad.
In a conversation with former India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin on his YouTube channel, the KKR tweaker picked a bold lineup filled with aggressive players but skipped past the likes of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and MS Dhoni, names who have dominated T20 cricket for more than a decade.
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Chakravarthy’s choices leaned heavily towards players who have excelled in recent years, especially in franchise cricket. His list featured only three Indian players, all known for their explosive or match-winning qualities.
Which Indians made it to Varun Chakravarthy’s dream T20 XI?
Interestingly, Varun included only three of his compatriots in the dream squad. These are Suryakumar Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, and Hardik Pandya.
However, what caught everyone’s attention was the omission of Virat Kohli, a powerhouse batsman across formats, as well as Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni. Both Rohit and Dhoni have won the IPL title five times as captains while Kohli is the leading runscorer in IPL and had won the 2025 IPL.
Varun’s opening pair in the dream XI consists of England’s Jos Buttler and Australia’s Travis Head,both known for playing with high strike rates and giving explosive starts.
The middle order is full of firepower too as it featured West Indies’ Nicholas Pooran and South Africa’s Heinrich Klaasen.
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In the all-rounder section, Varun leaned on his KKR teammates, Andre Russell and Sunil Narine. When it comes to bowling, he added Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan and Sri Lanka’s young speedster Matheesha Pathirana.
What is Varun Chakravarthy’s complete dream T20 XI?
Here’s the full team he shared:
Openers: Jos Buttler, Travis Head
Middle Order: Suryakumar Yadav, Nicholas Pooran, Heinrich Klaasen
All-Rounders: Hardik Pandya, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine
Bowlers: Rashid Khan, Jasprit Bumrah, Matheesha Pathirana