Having finished the last year in the 7th position, Kings XI Punjab would be looking to have a change of fortunes this season. They were the franchise in this year’s player auctions, having made the maximum number of acquisitions(13).
Kings XI have added some quality foreign players to their side. Nicolas Pooran, Sam Curran and Henriques being a few of them. In Nicolas Pooran, Sam Curran and Sarfaraz Khan, Kings XI Punjab have got in players that can change the complexion of the game in a matter of a few overs. All of them are quite exciting to watch in the shortest format of the game. In addition to these players, the experienced heads of Henriques as well as Shami have also been roped in. Henriques will be expected to provide the calmness required in the middle-order while Shami will want to continue his good run in white ball cricket.
Team after 2019 Player Auction
In:- Mandeep Singh(traded), Simran Singh, Sarfaraz Khan, Nicolas Pooran, Harpreet Brar, Agnivesh Ayachi, D Nalkande, Sam Curran, Moises Henriques, V Chakravarthy, Murugan Ashwin, Arshdeep Singh, Hardus Viljoen, Mohammad Shami
Out:- Marcus Stoinis, Axar Patel, Aaron Finch, Mohit Sharma, Barinder Sran, Yuvraj Singh, Ben Dwarshuis. Manoj Tiwary, Akshdeep Nath, Pardeep Sahu, Mayank Dagar, Manzoor Dar
Strengths
Rahul and Gayle’s opening combination. Gayle has been in sensational form since making a comeback to the Windies’ ODI team, while Rahul has been performing quite consistently in the shortest format of the game. If Kings XI harbour hopes of going into the play-offs, a lot will rely on the performance of these two at the top of the order.
Tye, Mujeeb and Viljoen are proven performers in T20 cricket. So Kings XI have been wise enough to buy quality T20 bowlers. If the Indians in the team bat well enough facilitating Ashwin to pick atleast 2 out of these 3, Kings XI can restrict teams to chasable totals.
Weakness
Having won 5 of their first 6 games, Kings XI completely lost steam in the second half of the season, winning just 1 out of their last 8 games. They need to ensure that this does not happen again and that they are able to sustain their momentum throughout the season.
Lack of a quality wicket-taking leg-spinner. Leg spinners play a vital role in the success of most T20 sides and there are high chances that the absence of one will come to hurt Kings XI. Not considering Ashwin and Mujeeb as leg-spinners. Though both of them will bowl a lot of leg-spin, they do not give the ball enough loop to make them as threatening as regular leg-spinners.
Predicted Starting XI
Lokesh Rahul(wk)
Chris Gayle
Mayank Agarwal
Moises Henriques
Karun Nair
Nicolas Pooran/Sarfaraz Khan
Mandeep Singh
Ravichandran Ashwin(c)
Ankit Rajpoot/AJ Tye
Mohammad Shami
Mujeeb ur Rahman
Kings XI Punjab – IPL Schedule
Kings XI look set to have a better season than the previous year atleast going by the talent at their disposal.
Expected position after the group stage: Bottom half