Kings IX Punjab team

King IX Punjab represents the state Punjab in the Indian premier league and is a Mohali-based franchise. The team is one of the fan-favorite teams among every team out there in the tournament, and the performance of the team in the previous IPL was exceedingly brilliant. Still, unfortunately, the Punjab Kings did not win any of the IPL titles.

The team’s informed captain KL Rahul and the owner Preeti Zinta is the apparent reason for being one of the favorite teams. The team’s auction went well, as it had the most oversized purse during the IPL auction 2021. Below mentioned is a SWOT analysis of the team Kings IX Punjab so let’s get started.

A brief history of Kings IX Punjab

The team was established in 2008 and is a Mohali-based franchise, the Kings XI Punjab owner are Preity Zinta, Mohit Burman, Karan Paul, and Ness Wadia. The home ground of the team is Mohali and hardly lost any matches occurred at the home ground. The group consists of some folk tale players like KL Rahul, Mayank Aggarwal, Chris Gayle, and Nicolas Pooran. The team is all set to win the title of 2021 as the team’s performance in 2020 was exceedingly excellent.

How did the auction go for the team?

The team’s auction process was pretty impressive as the team had the most significant budget among every other team. The bidders were spotted bidding aggressively on a few players: the team opted for Dawid Malan and two fast-paced Australian bowlers, Riley, Jhye. The news was a bit shocking as both players do not have any experience in the IPL tournament.

Besides that, the team auctioned for many young talents, and it will be exciting to those stars shine. Somehow the team still managed to save a budget of 19 crores in the purse.

Top-order the most significant threat for other teams

The group consists of plenty of lone disruptors who have all the potential of leading the matches to victory alone. The multiple times orange cap holder and the captain of the team, KL Rahul, is in brilliant form, and at the non-striker end, we will see Mayank Aggarwal holding the back of KL Rahul. The deadly duo had a great session in UEA and managed to destroy the other teams.

Talking about the top order, how can we forget about Chris Gayle. The player is known for gigantic sixes, and they have set some unbreakable records in the history of IPL. Chris Gayle managed to destroy the Pune Warriors team by scoring a century in just 30 balls. If these players live up to the strength, nothing is stopping them.

The existence of players like Nicholas Pooran and Dawid Malan in the middle order narrates the middle order’s strength. Dawid Malan is a new addition to the team at a base price of 1.5 crores and has all the qualities to lead a match if the middle order fails to score a challenging score. The form of Mandeep Singh is perfect, and they have considerable experience of IPL matches.

Final Squad of Kings IX Punjab

Indian players

KL Rahul Kings XI Punjab captain 2021, Mandeep Singh, Mayank Agarwal, Sarfraz Khan, Deepak Hooda, Darshan Nalkande, Ravi Bishnoi, Utkarsh Singh, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Shami, Shahrukh Khan, Saurabh Kumar, Murugan Ashwin, Prabhsimran Singh, Harshdeep Singh, Jalaj Saxena, Ishan Porel.

Overseas Players

Chris Gayle, Nicholas Pooran, Chris Jordan, Jhye Richardson, Dawid Malan, Moises Henriques, Riley Meredith, Fabian Allen.

Bowling Unit

The Indian cricket fan might be familiar with Mohammed Shami: the experienced pacer is in great form and has performed brilliantly in the previous test series. Mohammed Shami is the only player that has consistently performed in the team.

The new addition of Aussies pacers like Riley Mederith and Jhyle Richardson are potent in being the team’s leading wicket-takers. The only setback with the players is that they have no experience of the tournament. However, considering the forms of this player, they are expected to perform well.

The team’s emerging talents that are Ishan Porel, Jalaj Saxena, were spotted performing well on domestic grounds. Still, they lack exposure to playing in front of international players. in a nutshell, the bowling line up is a bit weak in contrast to the batting line up.

What can be expected from the team in the upcoming IPL session

The Kings IX Punjab has an annihilating batting line-up: legendary players like KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Chris Gayle, and Nicholas Pooran are known for smashing big innings. The team’s middle-order is firm too; Mandeep Singh and Deepak Hooda are the backbone of the middle order and have a great experience in the IPL tournament.

The primary concern of the team is its bowling line-up, the bowlers of Kings XI Punjab except for Mohammad Shami, were quite expensive. Left-hand fast bowler Arshdeep Singh performed exceptionally well in the tournament’s UAE session and has a significant chance of shining again in the game. The new short pacer have bulky possibilities of acquiring the purple cap and gain the position of leading wicket-takers. The crucial reason behind this is, the players in tournaments are not familiar with the techniques and strategies.

Affect of injuries on winning the IPl trophy

There are plenty of Kings XI Punjab team players who have suffered from injuries and health issues in the past IPL sessions. Mohammed Shami suffered from this issue thousands of times in his entire career and got injured in Australia-Indian test series. However, he recovered now. The concern is how we will perform after his recovery players like Jhye Richardson have missed out even whole tournaments due to health issues and injuries. Moises Henriques and Ishan Portal faced few international matches due to injury issues. Lastly, the wounds of players is a significant concern and can lower the chances of winning the title.

In a nutshell, the team has made some crucial changes in the squad, and if Kings XI Punjab players according to their potential, there is nothing stopping this team.