Sportsnob – Critics Corner

 

 

 

After previewing the two finalists, it is now the turn of the semifinalists and we look at the Kings XI Punjab in this third edition 

Team: Kings XI Punjab

 Captain: Yuvraj Singh 

Coach: Tom Moody (Australia)  

Trump Card: Yuvraj Singh 

X-Factor: Piyush Chawla

 Whats changed from last season: The addition of Ravi Bopara. Sreesanth and new signing Jerome Taylor miss the whole tournament through injuries. 

Kings XI Punjab were one of the most exciting teams to watch in the first edition of the Indian Premier League. A well balanced side led by Indian internationals and some exciting international recruits. Of course, Punjab also generated a lot of interest off the field – first, because the owner is a certain outspoken Indian actress by the name of Preity Zinta and secondly (and more interestingly) because of the famous ’slap gate’involving Sreesanth and Harbhajan Singh. The team looks a lot weaker this season due to injuries and unavailability of foreign players and should do well to make the semifinals again.

  The Batting:  

The Punjab batting line up looks imposing but will find the going tough in the first two weeks in the absence of two of their best players last season – Shaun Marsh and James Hopes. Shaun Marsh was absolutely brilliant last season ending up on top of the batting charts and getting into the Australian first XI through his consistent performances in the IPL. He made runs at a robust pace without taking unnecessary risks thereby giving good starts to Punjab every single time. Of course, both him and his opening partner Hopes will be away in the middle-east on national duty till the 3rd of March. In their absence much will depend on the foreign recruits such as Jayawardene, Sangakarra and Ravi Bopara. Bopara has done well for England recently and should be a good addition to the squad.

The trump card however remains the captain and arguably the most destructive Indian batsman – Yuvraj Singh. He set some of the South African grounds on fire in the 20-20 world cup in 2007 and should be the key to Punjab’s success. Irfan Pathan will provide some spark lower down in the order. 

The Bowling:  

The short version is that the bowling looks down right weak. The long version is that Kings XI Punjab are without Sreesanth and new signing Jerome Taylor (who was unfortunately injured in a car accident) for the whole tournament. They will also be without Brett Lee and medium pacer James Hopes for the eight matches as they will be away on international duty. Plus, how well Brett Lee performs after coming back from an injury and a poor season remains to be seen. That means there will be a lot riding on the three Indians – Irfan Pathan, Piyush Chawla and VRV Singh. South African speedster Yusuf Abdullah should add some variety to the attack and looked promising in the 20-20 internationals against Australia. It will be interesting to see how Piyush Chawla bowls – the youngster has a lot of variety and has done reasonably well in the shortest form of cricket. The Kings XI also have Ramesh Powar and recently signed Australian rookie paceman Burt Cockley.

  The squad: 

 The Indians: Yuvraj Singh, Piyush Chawla, Irfan Pathan, Ramesh Powar, Vikram Singh, Karan Goel, and Tanmay Srivatsava

The Unknowns: Ajitesh Argal, Uday Kaul, Wilkin Mota, Sahil Kukreja, Burt Cockley and Ryan Ninan 

The Foreigners: Shaun Marsh, James Hopes, Luke Pomerbasch, Simon Katich, Brett Lee ( Australia), Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakarra (Sri Lanka), Yussuf Abdullah (South Africa) and Ravi Bopara (England) 

Image Courtesy: www.iplblast.com 

 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 14th, 2009 at 9:36 am and is filed under Cricket, IPL. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.