Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) ended the first half of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2017 auction with five players in hand. Though their biggest buy came as domestic bowlers, the most impactful and cleverest buy was that of England’s limited-overs skipper Eoin Morgan. They have, in all probability, found a new man in command for the upcoming season. Apart from Morgan, the Punjab franchise has picked up T Natarajan, Varun Aaron, Matt Henry (their second overseas purchase of the morning) and Rahul Tewatia in the morning session and will look to add more to their squad till the end of the day. Follow the live action here: LIVE, IPL 2017 Auctions updates
Natarajan was their costliest buy, at INR 3 crore. They also bought Aaron for INR 2.8 crores while Henry was bought for INR 50 lakhs and Tewatia for INR 25 lakhs. From the trend, it was clear that they wanted to go for pocket-friendly, effective domestic bowlers. They had released the likes of Mitchell Johnson, Rishi Dhawan and Kyle Abbott the previous season. This also meant they needed an all-new pace attack and solid bench strength. With most of their impactful players being foreigners (like David Miller, Glenn Maxwell, Shaun Marsh, Marcus Stoinis and Hashim Amla), they needed more domestic pacers to fill the slots and that is what they did. READ: IPL Auction 2017: RCB rake up bowling with Tymal Mills, Aniket Choudhary, Pawan Negi
While Natarajan has been in a brilliant form in the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) — he bowls excellent yorkers including six in a Super Over — Aaron was a logic-defying pick. What might work for them is the fact that their home matches will be played at Mohali, where Aaron’s natural ability to generate pace will come in handy. Similar will be the case with Natarajan.
Captaincy had been a major matter of concern for KXIP in the previous season. They could not find an impactful player to hand over the charges and had settled for Miller towards the start of the tournament. They changed the command mid-way, appointing Murali Vijay instead. With Morgan coming into the side this year, they will have their leadership woes settled (though they could have appointed Amla instead).
KXIP’s first half in brief:
Money left in wallet – INR 14.8 crores
Players picked in first half – 5 (Morgan, Natarajan, Aaron, Henry, Tewatia)
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