IPL 10: Steve Smith part of Ravichandran Ashwin's fantasy team, but Virat Kohli doesn't find a spot

The recently concluded India-Australia series was full of action, both on and off the field. While the cricket was top class, the war of words between players from both teams managed to leave a bitter taste for everyone involved.

One man who was in the thick of things was India's ace all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin. From guiding India to victory in the second Test in Bengaluru to brutally trolling former Australian cricketer Brad Hodge on Twitter, the Tamil Nadu lad has constantly been in the news.

Ashwin, though, seems to have turned over a new leaf with the Indian Premier League (IPL) about to commence on Wednesday. The off-spinner, who represents Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS), has been ruled out of this season's IPL due to injury. However, that hasn't stopped him from being involved with the T20 extravaganza.

On Tuesday, Ashwin announced his fantasy IPL team for Gen Next Cricket Academy, an academy mentored by him. And surprise surprise, the first name on his list was that of Australian (and RPS) captain Steve Smith. Add to that, Team India skipper Virat Kohli found no place in Ashwin's XI.

Here's Ashwin's tweet declaring his fantasy team:

Smith,Maxwell,fizz,stokes,kedhar jadhav,vohra,kuldeep,Mishra,mayank,Saha and krunal pandya.My team @gennextcricket #GenNextFantasyAuctions

— Ashwin Ravichandran (@ashwinravi99) April 4, 2017

Now before you start sweating over why Ash picked Smith over Kohli, let us clarify that the fantasy team was picked "after some serious bidding". This is probably the best team Ashwin could put together.

Had a great time playing the @gennextcricket fantasy auctions for this IPl. After some serious bidding managed to get a decent team I guess.

— Ashwin Ravichandran (@ashwinravi99) April 4, 2017

Here is the entire fantasy team picked by Ashwin:

Steve Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Mustafizur Rahman, Ben Stokes, Kedar Jadhav, Manan Vohra, Kuldeep Yadav, Amit Mishra, Mayank Agarwal, Wriddhiman Saha, Krunal Pandya.