Virat Kohli Snubbed In Ex-CSK Star's Best IPL 2026 XII; Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Shubman Gill Included
Former Chennai Super Kings batter S Badrinath picked his best 12 players from the IPL 2026 league stage.
Former Chennai Super Kings batter S Badrinath picked his best 12 players from the IPL 2026 league stage. The two most prominent names missing from the list were Virat Kohli and KL Rahul. Although both batters scored more than 550 runs in the league stage, they did not find a place in the team. Nine out of the 12 players were from the four sides that qualified for the playoffs. For the batters, Badrinath went with the opening pair of Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Shubman Gill, followed by Sai Sudharsan at No. 3. At No. 4, Heinrich Klaasen was included, while Badrinath picked Rajat Patidar as the No. 5.
Coming to the all-rounders, Royal Challengers Bengaluru's Krunal Pandya and Kolkata Knight Riders' Sunil Narine were included. He went with another spinner in the form of Rashid Khan after he took 19 wickets for Gujarat Titans.
In the bowling department, he included Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jofra Archer, and Kagiso Rabada, while his other pace option was a toss-up between Kartik Tyagi and Prince Yadav. CSK spinner Akeal Hosein was included as the Impact Sub.
Meanwhile, Royal Challengers Bengaluru will carry the quiet confidence of defending champions into Qualifier 1 when they face Gujarat Titans in a high-stakes clash at the HPCA Stadium on Tuesday. The winner goes straight to the final in Ahmedabad on Sunday, while the loser will need to take the longer road to get into the title clash.
Both sides ended the league stage on 18 points from 14 matches, with RCB claiming top spot on net run rate, as a reward for being the most consistently good side across the full league stage. When RCB cruised to a chase of 206 against GT in their backyard on April 24, the Shubman Gill-led side were still a conservative side stuck in the middle of the points table.
From that point, GT have surged to be the best bowling side in the competition and now find themselves in the running to get their second IPL title. But they run into an in-form RCB who have got a lot of things going in their favour - captain Rajat Patidar is in good nick, so as Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Venkatesh Iyer and Tim David.
Consistent returns from the new-ball pairing of Josh Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar Kumar along with Krunal Pandya being frugal have helped RCB too. Meanwhile, GT's late-season surge, though, has been built on bowling. Mohammed Siraj, Kagiso Rabada and Prasidh Krishna have struck hard with the new ball, while Rashid Khan and Jason Holder have controlled the middle overs with quiet authority.
S Badrinath's IPL 2026 league stage 12: Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Shubman Gill, Sai Sudharsan, Heinrich Klaasen, Rajat Patidar, Krunal Pandya, Sunil Narine, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jofra Archer, Kagiso Rabada, Prince Yadav/Kartik Tyagi Impact
Sub: Akeal Hosein
Virat Kohli