No place for Virat Kohli as Vaibhav Sooryavanshi gets the nod in former CSK star's best IPL 2026 playing XII
Subramaniam Badrinath has announced his best IPL 2026 playing XI, notably excluding Virat Kohli and KL Rahul. Instead, he has selected young opener Vaibhav Sooryavanshi to lead the batting order alongside Shubman Gill. The lineup emphasizes an Indian-heavy batting approach while incorporating overseas players primarily in the bowling department.
- ▪Subramaniam Badrinath revealed his best IPL 2026 playing XII, leaving out Virat Kohli and KL Rahul.
- ▪Vaibhav Sooryavanshi was chosen as the opener alongside Shubman Gill.
- ▪Badrinath's team features a mix of players from the top four playoff teams.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","mainEntityOfPage":"https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/no-place-virat-kohli-vaibhav-074300404.html","headline":"No place for Virat Kohli as Vaibhav Sooryavanshi gets the nod in former CSK star's best IPL 2026 playing XII","datePublished":"2026-05-26T07:43:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-26T07:43:00.000Z","keywords":["Subramaniam Badrinath","Shubman Gill","Virat Kohli","Vaibhav Sooryavanshi","Sunil Narine","Bhuvneshwar Kumar","Rajat Patidar","Sai Sudharsan","Heinrich Klaasen"],"description":"Former India batter Subramaniam Badrinath picked his IPL 2026 league-stage best XII, leaving out Virat Kohli and KL Rahul.
…
Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Yahoo Sports.