Published: Apr 10, 2016, 08:26 PM (IST)
Edited: Apr 10, 2016, 08:27 PM (IST)
Kings XI Punjab face Gujarat Lions in their opening match of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2016 at Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium, Mohali on Monday. It is the third match of the ninth edition of IPL. Gujarat are making their debut in IPL and will look to make an impact in their very first match in the Indian T20 league. While they are led by the most successful player of IPL, Suresh Raina, Punjab have a new skipper in the young South African David Miller. Punjab, whose best season happened to be in 2014 when they made it to their maiden IPL final, finished in the bottom of the table in the next season. With their then captain George Bailey having been released now, Miller has a huge task ahead of him. Here is Punjab’s likely XI for their contest against Gujarat: FULL CRICKET SCORECARD: Kings XI Punjab vs Gujarat Lions , 3rd T20 Match, IPL 2016
Top-Order: Although Manan Vohra had a poor season last year scoring just 82 from seven matches, he more or less will retain the opening slot along with Murali Vijay. The latter was the third highest run-scorer for Punjab in 2015 with 251 runs from 11 innings. With Virender Sehwag now retired from international cricket including IPL, a huge chunk of responsibility falls on this duo to give Punjab the required good starts on regular intervals. They have done in the past and there is no reason why they cannot do in the coming matches. Vohra easily has an upper hand against the opponents since Mohali is his home ground; he has played enough cricket in the venue since his domestic debut.
Middle-Order: Punjab have one of the strongest line-ups in the middle, at least on paper with the likes of Miller, Glenn Maxwell, Shaun Marsh and Wriddhiman Saha. The wicketkeeper-batsman, Saha, had scored a century in the final against KKR in 2014 when the entire team had failed. That knock of his demonstrated his capability of handling pressure and stepping up in crunch situations and that’s exactly what a middle-order batsman is demanded of. Maxwell, who plays the Chris Gayle of Punjab will have to come up with more responsible innings this time around in order to remain at the crease for longer times.
The skipper himself is a power hitter and he is coming off a good World T20 despite South Africa crashing out from the group stage. He was one of the few Proteas who delivered with the bat in most of the occasions. Along with his form, he will have to handle the huge responsibility of the side’s captaincy. It will be interesting to watch how the youngster handles these departments.
Lower-Order and Bowling: The trio of Kyle Abbott, Sandeep Sharma and Mohit Sharma will have to be at their top game to ensure Punjab do not have to chase down big totals whenever they will have to bat second. Akshar Patel being their only full-time spin option with Maxwell chipping in with his off-break. Abbott played three World T20 matches and had picked a total of seven wickets so Punjab have had a good buy in the auction. On the other hand, Sandeep who has been with Punjab since 2013 has been one of the keys players down the order who can even hit the ball hard towards the last overs.
Kings XI Punjab’s likely XI: Murali Vijay, Manan Vohra, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, David Miller (c), Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Mohit Sharma, Akshar Patel, Kyle Abbott, Sandeep Sharma
(Sakshi Gupta, a reporter with CricketCountry, is a sports fanatic whose mantra in life is “do only what you enjoy.” Her Twitter handle is @sakshi2929)
