Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers pick combined India-South Africa XI, MS Dhoni named captain

Virat Kohli and AB De Villiers picked a combined India-South Africa ODI squad during their latest Instagram Live interaction and they both decided on MS Dhoni as the skipper. The Royal Challengers Bangalore teammates talked about a lot of topics during their conversation and the team that they chose featured as many as eight India cricketers. The three South Africans who made the cut were De Villiers, Dale Steyn and Kagiso Rabada.

Apart from Kohli, the other India cricketers in the team were Rohit Sharma, Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal and fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah.

“I have always had world of respect for him, he is always calm and knows the game well,” De Villiers said while naming Dhoni captain of the combined side.

“For me, MS (Dhoni), MS is probably the most balanced choice,” Virat Kohli said.

Kohli also talked about his long association with RCB and said that he does not want to leave the franchise while also expressing his desire to win the Indian Premier League (IPL) title.

“It has been 12 years. It is such an amazing journey, so surreal. You have been here nine years yourself. For a lot of people, it’s all about obvious we want to achieve the ultimate goal for the RCB. We have come close thrice but haven’t made it. That’s always gonna be our dream together and I was just thinking there is no way in any scenario that I can ever think of leaving this team, because of the love and care, the franchise has shown.”

“You can feel emotional about the season going well or not but to have that loyalty with Bangalore, with RCB it’s quite surreal. Till the time I play IPL, regardless of how we play, I’ll never leave this team,” he added.

Squad: Sachin Tendulkar, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Jacques Kallis, MS Dhoni (captain), Yuvraj Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal, Dale Steyn, Jasprit Bumrah and Kagiso Rabada.