IPL 2019: The best XI of retained players

In the last few days, there has been a lot of chatter about the upcoming IPL season. All the eight franchises have released the list of players they would retain on Thursday putting curtains on all the speculations. It is quite obvious that the franchises wanted to maintain the core of their sides and would fancy some valuable picks in the upcoming auction.

Most of the retained players have been continuing with the same team for a very long time now and are invaluable assets to their respective side. On a given day, these players can win games for the teams just on their own. It is an onerous task to pick the best XI of these retained players. They are all great in their own respects and hence taking nothing away from the other players, the all-time records in the league are taken into consideration to form this XI.

Here is the best-retained XI for IPL 2019:

1. David Warner | Sunrisers Hyderabad

David Warner might be small in stature, but he is just a livewire on the field. He could easily be considered one of the greatest players to have featured in the IPL and his records are a testimony for the same. The pocket-sized dynamo is the fastest to 4,000 IPL runs and has got there in only 114 innings although Chris Gayle is on the verge of breaking this record. Warner finds an edge over the ‘Universe Boss’ in this XI considering the consistency factor.

With an average over 40 combined with a strike rate of 142, he is tough to contain even for the best of the bowling units when he is on song. After nearly two years, he will be playing an IPL game and will be extremely determined to make up for it.