The dream team IPL XI – and why Bangalore Royal Challengers have a chance in the finals?

As the IPL carnival draws to an end I wanted to propose a dream team. The criteria is simple. (i) performance in IPL 2009 (ii) Minimum 5 matches played (iii) match winning potential.

So here’s my pick (consistent with the Mumbai team i proposed earlier) . Comments welcome.

Player	Nationality	IPL team	Status
Matthew Hayden	AUS	Chennai Super Kings	Retired
Adam Gilchrist	AUS	Deccan Chargers	Retired
Suresh Raina	India	Chennai Super Kings	Playing
AB De Villiers	SA	Delhi Daredevils	Playing
T Dilshan	SL	Delhi Daredevils	Playing
Rohit Sharma	India	Deccan Chargers	Playing
Andrew Symonds	AUS	Deccan Chargers	Dropped
Yusuf Pathan	Ind	Rajasthan Royals	Playing
RP Singh	Ind	Deccan Chargers	Comeback
Lasith Malinga	SL	Mumbai Indians	Playing
M Muralitharan	SL	Chennai Super Kings	Playing

A dream team always leads to heated debate (comments welcome) so here's some more color.

• Hopefully no debate for first 6 on this list (Sharma could battle with Duminy/Hodge but he’s a proven match winner and hat trick bowler which nudges him in).
  
• Symonds and Y Pathan fill the all rounders slots. (Yuvraj or Irfan Pathan didn't do nearly enough and while Ravindra Jadeja did, he doesn't inspire fear in the opposition).
• The bowlers: Malinga was a clear choice - devastating (18 wickets in 13 games) with an impressive economy rate of 6.3. Muralitharan nudges out Kumble & Warne (who should be in just for captaincy) due to an awesome economy rate of 5.22.
• The closest call: RP Singh vs Ashish Nehra – the two leading wicket takers of the IPL. Strike rate of 15.1 vs 16.1 in RP’s favor and economy rate of 6.8 vs 7.2 in Nehra’s favor. However RP smiles more :-)

So incredibly for all those of us who have marveled at how last years bottom ranked team made it to the final, this table suggests that this should not be a huge surprise. The Deccan Chargers have 4 of their players in there – all match winners – more than any other team. If lightning strikes twice it will be another no contest.

So can Bangalore hope to do it (no entry in the dream team) ?

They can, precisely for the reason that they have no entry in the dream team.

The key difference between the two teams is that Bangalore has , since Kumble took over , played a total team game. Everyone from Kallis, Kumble, Dravid, Boucher , Taylor & Kumar to now Pandey, Kohli, Roelof Van Der Merwe have raised their hand and made it happen in bits and pieces to win 5 on the trot. So tomorrow’s game is between X factor players capable of winning matches on their own against a TEAM. Kumble's Team Bangalore.

Tomorrow's script will confirm whether T20 is about team work or inspired individuality!!!