King XI Punjab retained just one player- all-rounder Axar Patel. And went on to purchase 20 players during the two-day auction in Bengaluru. They made KL Rahul the joint-costliest Indian cricketer by splurging Rs 11 crore on the first day of the auction.
Former Chennai Super Kings and Pune Supergiant spinner R Ashwin was their second costliest purchase at Rs 7.6 crore followed by Australia’s Andrew Tye [Rs 7.2 crore] who grabbed limelight when he took a hat-trick last IPL.
They had let go of Shaun Marsh. At the auction, Preity Zinta seemed to bid for everyone. They do not have a leader and they have to take a tough call for the wicketkeeper’s slot, and they are an Indian fast bowler too short.
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Punjab does not have an obvious captain. They have to select one from Yuvraj Singh, Chris Gayle, David Miller, Aaron Finch, and Ravichandran Ashwin.
Also, they will have to choose one of their two wicketkeepers. The first, Akshdeep Nath, has little credentials of making it to the XI barring the fact that he can keep wickets. KL Rahul, the other option, will make it to batting alone but does little justice to that wicketkeeper’s tag. In other words, Punjab will either have to make Rahul keep wickets or sacrifice a batsman for Nath.
In the past 10 seasons of Indian Primer League, Kings XI Punjab has managed to reach final just once – in 2014 when they were beaten by Kolkata Knight Riders. They will be hoping to go one better this time after spending Rs 67.4 crore from their available purse of Rs 67.5 crore.
Kings XI Punjab squad: KL Rahul (wk), Akshdeep Nath (wk), Chris Gayle, Yuvraj Singh, David Miller, Ravichandran Ashwin, Aaron Finch, Mayank Agarwal, Karun Nair, Manoj Tiwary, Akshar Patel, Marcus Stoinis, Manzoor Dar, Mujeeb Zadran, Pardeep Sahu, Mayank Dagar, Ankit Rajpoot, Mohit Sharma, Barinder Sran, Andrew Tye, Ben Dwarshuis
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