FIRST LOOK: KINGS XI PUNJAB

Kings XI Punjab are the dark horses in IPL. They have a good enough side to make it to the semis maybe, but after that they will need a miracle performance from one of their members to put it past their opponents. And the one man who can invariably deliver that performance is Yuvraj Singh. He’s been on and off in the last two seasons, and as a result Punjab have not been able to perform as well as they could have. Perhaps now that the burden of captaincy is off his head, he can concentrate on his batting more and maybe Punjab can shed their tags of under dogs.

Let’s see what Punjab has in store for us this season.

Batting

As before Punjab’s batting will revolve around Yuvraj, Sangakkara, and Jayawardena. Sangakkara has been doing well for them, but it will be interesting to see how he copes with the added pressure of captaincy, especially since the owners of the franchise will finally be hoping for the trophy. Jayawardene has done a good job of seeing the team through till the end on quite a few occasions, and he will be expected to do the same this year. The batting will be opened by either Bopara, who had a good stint last season, or Shaun Marsh, who had a tremendous stint the year before. Though Punjab may just give a chance to Adrian Barath. He was impressive in Australia where he even managed to get a century against them. One of these two will be joined at the top by Karan Goel, though Punjab would like to try to out Tanmay Srivastava at the top. The middle order will be guided by Sangakkara, Jayawardene, Yuvraj Singh, and Mohammed Kaif. Goel got a lot of chances last season but failed to capitalize on them and this maybe a last chance for him. Kaif was sent home halfway through the last season by Rajasthan Royals and will be desperate to prove that he fits in this format of the game. He certainly has the qualities to succeed in the middle order. He’s good at working the ball in the gaps, can run quickly between the wickets, and can find the occasional boundary. The lower middle order will be manned by Irfan Pathan, Ramesh Powar, and Piyush Chawla. For Irfan this will be the last chance to make it to the Indian team before the T20 world cup, Powar has fallen out of favor with the selectors a long time back and may just hope that his good performances here may remind them of his presence. Chawla too has shown that he can throw around his bat. If they decide to rest either one of Sangakkara or Jayawardene then they would have the option of playing James Hopes. One man they might want to give a chance to is Reetinder Sodhi. The all-rounder is one of the many players who have been granted amnesty by BCCI following their renunciation of the ICL. He may not be the most talented players around, but he’s certainly one of the more gutsy ones. All in all the Punjab batting looks sturdy, but not very capable of chasing huge totals unless Yuvraj clicks. But will he click this time? That is the million dollar question.

Bowling

The bowling will be handled by Brett Lee and Sreesanth. Pathan will play the role of third seamer. Sreesanth has had mixed results since his return. But he will still be a force to be reckoned with, since he is such an aggressive bowler, and can cause the batsmen some real problems with the new ball. Pathan may have lost his ability to swing the ball prodigiously, but he can still keep the runs down. The return of Shalabh Srivastava from ICL gives them yet another seaming option.  Yusuf Abdulla, who bowled beautifully last season, also provides a good option in case Punjab decide to rest Lee. Hopes and Sodhi will provide more medium pace options. The spin department will be handled by Piyush Chawla, Powar, and Yuvraj. Chawla has fallen out of favor with the selectors after the advent of Amit Mishra and Pragyan Ojha. He will be keen to make his mark and get back into the selectors’ radar. Powar may lack the variations that one needs in this format, but he is a smart bowler. Yuvraj has grown as a bowler in the past 2-3 years and can not only keep it tight in the middle overs, but can also pick up wickets regularly. Looking at the bowling attack you just get the feeling that despite all the variety that they have, the attack lacks the much needed bite. Their biggest trump card in the series may turn out to be Brett Lee. He’s just retired from test cricket, he’s been displaced from his position as the strike bowler of the Aussie team, and he’s finding it difficult to make a permanent place for himself in the squad. So this will be the perfect launch pad for him. Whether he takes advantage of this opportunity remains to be seen.

Fielding

Kings XI have a pretty competitive fielding unit; in fact one of the best in the tournament.Yuvraj, Kaif, Marsh, and Jayawardene in the infield can really choke up the batsman. Plus they will have the strong throwing arms of Lee, Chawla, and Pathan in the outfield. The interesting thing to see will be whether Sangakkara dons the keeper’s gloves or not. Not doing so will meant that Manvinder Bisla will have to take up the responsibility, which means that they will have to leave out either Powar or Sreesanth. But if Sangakkara stays on as keeper then he will have a tough job on his hands. But then he’s done it before, and can probably do it again for a short span.

Final Verdict

As mentioned before, Punjab will entertain, but they lack that certain punch to take them through. If they are to win this season, they Yuvraj will have to do for Punjab what he did for India in the 2007 T20 World Cup; take on the opposition as only he can.

Kings XI Punjab’s squad

Shaun Marsh	James Hopes
Tanmay Srivastava	Yusuf Abdulla
Kumara Sangakkara	Love Ablish
Yuvraj Singh	Amanpreet Singh
Mahela Jayawardena	Adrian Barath
Mohammed Kaif	Bipul Sharma
Irfan Pathan	Manvindar Bisla
Ramesh Powar	Vikramjeet Malik
Brett Lee	Reetinder Sodhi
Piyush Chawla	Shalabh Srivastava
S Sreesanth	Karan Goel
Ravi Bopara