Former Australian spinner Shane Warne recently focused on not including players like Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar in his all-time IPL XI. Now, Warne has come out with an explanation as to why he didn’t pick the players mentioned above in the team.

The 50-year-old played for the Rajasthan Royals in the IPL from 2008 to 2011. Surprisingly, he guided his inexperienced team to win the first season of a cash-strapped league. He has taken 57 wickets in 55 games in his successful IPL career. Later, Warne mentored the Royals in the tournament, and he still invested his shares with former IPL champions.

Shane Warne defended his IPL XI

Recently, in an Instagram live session, Warne revealed his all-time IPL XI, where he picked only Indian players. He picked Rohit Sharma and Virender Sehwag as openers for the team. Spin all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja followed by Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan, and MS Dhoni for the middle order. The former player only made one major spinner in his team – Harbhajan Singh. Meanwhile, in the fast bowling line-up are Munaf Patel, Siddharth Trivedi, and Zaheer Khan.

He praised Yusuf Pathan in a live Instagram session. In 2008, Pathan scored against the Mumbai Indians at Wankhede Stadium, scoring 56 off 39 balls in the final against Chennai Super Kings and helped Rajasthan Royals to win the IPL opening season.

After Warne revealed his IPL XI, fans were trolling him for not including players like Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sachin Tendulkar, and Gautam Gambhir. Some have questioned Shane Warne on Twitter as to why he didn’t pick the best players in the Indian Premier League in his preferred XI.

Now, Shane Warne has come out clarifying his selection. The former Aussie player said that he played in IPL from 2008 to 2011. So, he has picked only those cricketers that he found best in that particular period. The 50-year-old took to his Twitter handle and wrote, “FYI – In the 4 yrs I played IPL between 2008-11 & didn’t include any internationals!.”