- Name: Punjab Kings
- Captain: KL Rahul
- Head Coach: Anil Kumble
- Home Ground: IS Bindra Stadium, Mohali Punjab
- Squad members: 25
- Best result: Finalist in IPL 2014
- IPL 2020 result: 6th on points table
This team has the batting firepower that can kill any bowling attack on its day. Right at the top, some hard decisions will have to be made but after seeing IPL 2020, it’s likely the side will stick with Mayank Agarwal and KL Rahul as openers. Both come with Team India experience and both scored highly in IPL 2020, with 424 and 670 runs respectively. This means Chris Gayle will be forced down the order, that is, if he’s even in the best eleven!
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The reason we question Gayle’s participation is because they have plenty of overseas options. Given he’s one of the most sought after limited overs cricketers, Nicholas Pooran has to make the side because he’s electric in the field and the big hitting ability is second to none. A record fee of Rs.14 Crore was paid to Aussie pacer Jhye Richardson at the IPL 2021 Auction so we don’t think he’ll be sitting out either, confirming two overseas berths.
Another major competition to Gayle’s spot is Dawid Malan, English batsman who was recently the #1 T20 batsman in the world. He’s likely to make his IPL debut for Punjab Kings (now rebranded) and he’s in good form too, scoring two fifties in his last three international knocks against India. He came to the side at base price in the IPL 2021 Auction which leaves 5 overseas players battling it out for that final slot.
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Riley Meredith and Chris Jordan are unlikely to get a lot of games because PBKS also has a great Indian spin bowling line-up. Given the packed batting line-up, we don’t think Moises Henriques will be a first choice player either. That means that it can be either Gayle or Fabian Allen. If you guys don’t know much about Allen, he’s a much more versatile playing option who will contribute with bat, ball and in the field too.
Talking about that spin bowling department, the likes of Murugan Ashwin and Ravi Bishnoi will be hard to play on Indian pitches. They were good in UAE in IPL 2020 and we think there will be more assistance for them in IPL 2021. However, I would love for them to be more consistent as both of them have plenty of potential but aren’t match-winning options right now, and that’s where a team like Punjab is probably losing out.
Their only bowling in the top 15 in IPL 2020 was Mohammad Shami and he’s going to be out top option again in IPL 2021, in case you want to bet on who will end as the top bowler for Punjab in this season. He’ll get some good company in Jhye Richardson and in case they want to go in for another local medium pacer, we think it could be Arshdeep Brar who got 9 wickets in 8 games last season but picked wickets at most crucial times.
PBKS – IPL 2021 Betting
With Anil Kumble as the bowling coach, we’d expect a lot of wickets from Bishnoi and Murugan Ashwin but it will have to be more of a collective effort. Another major problem for them is that they have no specialist spinner as a replacement in case either of these two need to be swapped out. Jalaj Saxena was purchased this season but he has no IPL experience yet while Fabian Allen is not 100% sure to be in the first eleven.
Some more cons? Moises Henriques doesn’t bowl much and will have to play as a specialist batting option, and they currently have many overseas batters right now. On the other hand, their most expensive bowling pick in Jhye Richardson has only 8 wickets in his last 10 T20s including only 1 scalp in his last three T20 internationals for Australia. It seems unlikely that he’ll just come to India and produce some magic!
PUNJAB KINGS IPL 2021 squad: KL Rahul (C), Chris Gayle, Dawid Malan, Mayank Agarwal, Nicholas Pooran, Mandeep Singh, Fabian Allen, Sarfaraz Khan, Deepak Hooda, Prabhsimran Singh, Jhye Richardson, Mohammed Shami, Chris Jordan, Darshan Nalkande, Ravi Bishnoi, Murugan Ashwin, Arshdeep Singh, Harpreet Brar, Ishan Porel, Shahrukh Khan, Riley Meredith, Moises Henriques, Jalaj Saxena, Utkarsh Singh, Saurabh Kumar.
We’ve been watching Preity Zinta wave that Kings XI Punjab flag with a huge smile on her face for years. Now, she’ll be waving a new flag and if team changes didn’t get her results yet, we hope it’s the new name that will do the charm. We see lots of 180+ totals for them in IPL 2021 but will they go all the way?! The answer is not a hard NO but it’s very unlikely that they even qualify for the IPL 2021 playoffs. For more updates on Punjab Kings in IPL 2021, stay tuned to ReadScoops.com…
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