2 min readMar 21, 2026 10:44 PM IST
Former England cricketer has left out Rohit Sharma but picked Virat Kohli in his Dream IPL XI. For the other opener’s slot in his all-time IPL XI from the past 18 seasons of the Indian Premier League, Pietersen picked West Indies dasher Chris Gayle.
For the opening slots, England cricketer Jos Buttler gave Pietersen an option between Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli, David Warner and Rohit Sharma.
Of these, he picked Gayle and Kohli.
Then, he needed to pick three middle order players out of AB de Villiers, Suresh Raina, KL Rahul, Glen Maxwell, Rishabh Pant, Yuvraj Singh, Keiron Pollard.
At this Pietersen immediately said: “Raina for sure.” He also picked De Villiers. He said that he would come back to the final name later on.
In the captain and wicketkeeper role, he picked MS Dhoni calling it a “non-negotiable”. After his final team was picked, Dhoni’s spot in the batting order was fixed at no 5, higher than where he usually turns up.
Then, in the all-rounders’ slot, Pietersen had to pick two players from Hardik Pandya, Sunil Narine, Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, and Andre Russell.
He picked Russell and then added, “Russell would be up there. Narine will play in every single IPL team. And Jadeja is going to play. He has to play.”
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Then, Buttler said that Pietersen could only pick one spinner in the XI from Rashid Khan, Harbhajan Singh, Yuzi Chahal.
Pietersen immediately replied: “Chahal. Chahal’s my guy. The worst decision in IPL history was RCB letting him go.”
He was then offered the chance of picking two pacers to complete his XI. But before Buttler could read any more names after reading out the names of Mumbai Indians’ Jasprit Bumrah and Lasith Malinga, the former England batter said he did not need to hear any more names.
Here’s Kevin Pietersen’s IPL Dream XI:
Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni, Sunil Narine, Ravindra Jadeja, Andre Russell, Yuzi Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah and Lasith Malinga.
