IPL 2021: Power in their bank, Punjab Kings look to make play-offs this time

For the last six seasons Punjab Kings known as Kings XI Punjab till last year have not made the playoffs even once finishing eighth twice and seventh once Last season they had finished sixth Although they were in contention for the playoffs a couple of losses in the end to Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings saw them crash outA change of name could however might bring them some luck Ahead of this season the biggest challenge for the Punjab franchise was powerhitting in their batting lineup especially towards the end of an inningsWhile both skipper KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal did well last season and Chris Gayle also performed well to make their toporder very strong their middleorder struggledGlenn Maxwell on whom they relied heavily disappointed and was therefore released ahead of this season The Australian was picked by Royal Challengers Bangalore for a hefty sum However Punjab Kings have made some expensive purchases to solidify not just their middle and lateorder but also their pace bowling attackThe Mohali franchise has bought Englands world No 1 T20 batsman Dawid Malan and also included Tamil Nadu wunderkind Shahrukh Khan who impressed in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 with his powerhittingThey also bought Australia pace bowlers Jhye Richardson for a whopping Rs 14 crore and Riley Meredith for Rs 8 crore Malan Nicholas Pooran Shahrukh Khan along with the top three who were already there and mentioned above make Punjab Kings batting lineup very formidableThey have also bought allrounder Moises Henriques a white ball cricket specialist who performed really well with the ball against India in the recent limitedovers series in AustraliaThe only problem will be the combination since there are only four foreigners permitted for a franchise in an IPL game Punjab Kings will have to strike a balanceTheir bowling looks formidable even with Indian talent alone Spinners Ravi Bishnoi and M Ashwin did a good job last season The fact that they have Anil Kumble as director of cricket operations at the franchise shows the spinners have great guidanceAll eyes will be on pace bowler Mohammed Shami who was the franchises most successful bowler last season The rightarm pace bowler is making a comeback after recovering from a fracture on his forearm that saw him miss the last three Tests in Australia as well as the entire series against England in IndiaShami exuded confidence in a recent interview with IANS Another aspect to watch out for would be KL Rahuls leadership The righthanded batsman struggled in recent limitedovers games against England before coming into form lateSunil Gavaskar praised his leadership a lot at the end of the last season Punjab Kings play their first match of the season on April 12 against Rajasthan RoyalsPunjab Kings squadKL Rahul captainwicketkeeper Mayank Agarwal Chris Gayle Mandeep Singh Prabsimran Singh Nicholas Pooran wicketkeeper Sarfaraz Khan Deepak Hooda Murugan Ashwin Ravi Bishnoi Harpreet Brar Mohammed Shami Arshdeep Singh Ishan Porel Darshan Nalkande Chris Jordan Dawid Malan Jhye Richardson Shahrukh Khan Riley Meredith Moises Henriques Jalaj Saxena Utkarsh Singh Fabian Allen Saurabh KumarPunjab Kings support staffAnil Kumble director of cricket operations Andy Flower assistant coach Avinash Vaidya general manager cricket operations Wasim Jaffer batting coach Jonty Rhodes fielding coach Damien Wright bowling coach Ashish Tuli team analyst Andrew Leipus physio Adrian Le Roux strength and conditioning coach Naresh Kumar masseurThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever