New Delhi: With just the final encounter between Mumbai Indians and Rising Pune Supergiant left, Australian legend Ricky Ponting revealed his choices for top players in all departments – batting, bowling and fielding - of the Indian Premier Legue 2017 season. (IPL - Full Coverage)
The tournament which historically has favoured batsmen, didn't see as many top scorers emerge as the previous seasons. Surnisers Hyderbad's David Warner was the only batter amassing more than 500 runs in this term while as many as 5 players, including Virat Kohli (973) and Warner (848), had achieved the feat in 2016.
Speaking on his pick for the player of the tournament, Ponting was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au, "I was asked right at the start of the tournament who I thought might be the player of the tournament and David Warner was the one I singled out."
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"I just felt on the back of the Test series in India that he probably wasn’t that happy with (his performance). Being back as captain of a team that won it the year before, I know he likes that extra responsibility as well and whenever he’s been captain or had that extra responsibility, he’s played well."
Here are the former Aussie captain's picks for best players of the season:-
Batsmen
1. David Warner – Sunrisers Hyderabad
2. Gautam Gambhir – Kolkata Knight Riders
3. Shikhar Dhawan – Sunrisers Hyderabad
4. Suresh Raina – Gujarat Lions
5. Steve Smith – Rising Pune Supergiant
Bowlers
1. Bhuvneshwar Kumar - Sunrisers Hyderabad
2. Jaydev Unadkat - Rising Pune Supergiant
3. Mitchell McClenaghan - Mumbai Indians
4. Imran Tahir - Rising Pune Supergiant
5. Jasprit Bumrah - Mumbai Indians
Fielders
1. Kieron Pollard – Mumbai Indians
2. Glenn Maxwell – Kings XI Punjab
3. Ravindra Jadeja – Gujarat Lions
4. David Warner – Sunrisers Hyderabad
5. Hardik Pandya – Mumbai Indians
When asked about what surprised him the most, the former Mumbai Indians coach said that he expected a lot more from Delhi Daredevils and was surprised that they didn't live up to the expectations.
"Delhi have surprised me," Ponting said. "I picked them as a bit of a smoky for the tournament because the last few years they’d put together some really strong squads. They’ve got just about all the best young Indian batsmen with Sanju Samson, Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer.
"They’ve surprised me that they haven’t been a bit more competitive this season. They haven’t been able to really nail down a consistent line-up. They’re one of these teams that likes to mix and match and change to try and get the right matchups, but that just doesn’t work in this format of the game.
