The Punjabi team is one of the three teams that are yet to win an IPL Trophy despite playing all the 11 seasons of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) has been lackluster in last few years, but last year they found new blasting opening pair in form of KL Rahul and Chris Gayle. Towards the end of the last season, they were a force to reckon but failed to take their team into the playoffs. Both of them, are in a decent form currently.
Kings XI Punjab Full Squad for IPL 2019:
The one-time IPL runner-up Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) was the busiest team during the IPL 2019 Auction as they bought a total of 13 players from the auction. Out of them, nine were Indians and the other four were overseas players. However, still, they have needed two more Indian players to fulfill the squad.
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Retained: KL Rahul, Chris Gayle, Andrew Tye, Mayank Agarwal, Ankit Rajpoot, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Karun Nair, David Miller, and Ravichandran Ashwin
Traded In: Mandeep Singh
Purchased in IPL 2019 Auction: Moises Henriques, Nicholas Pooran, Mohammad Shami, Sarfaraz Khan, Varun Chakaravarthy, Sam Curran, Hardus Viljoen, Arshdeep Singh, Darshan Nalkande, Prabhsimran Singh, Agnivesh Ayachi, Harpreet Brar, Murugan Ashwin
Indian contingent:
The most impressive aspect of the Kings XI Punjab team this year has to be their strong Indian batting line-up. Retaining the heavy batting line-up of the Karnataka state team, they have the trio of Karun Nair, KL Rahul, and Mayank Agarwal to bank upon. All have a strong T20 game and will be eager to perform and steal the stage. KXIP also have youngsters like Prabhsimran Singh and Varun Chakaravarthy, who will want to use this an opportunity to prove themselves on a big stage.
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The bowling is led by one of India’s best spin bowlers, R.Ashwin and he will receive apt support from Murugan Ashwin, Ankit Rajpoot, and Mohammed Shami to complete the side.
Foreign contingent:
They do not have a world-beater when it comes to the foreign players but the roster is bad either. One of the best death bowlers going around, Andrew Tye will lead the pace bowling attack. Curran and Henriques can be the link between batting and bowling. Chris Gayle and David Miller will add muscle to the batting line-up. Mujeeb Zadran will be the surprise packages as he did well last season
Probable XI:
Mayank Agarwal/ Chris Gayle $
KL Rahul
Karun Nair
Mandeep Singh/Moises Henriques $
Prabhsimran Singh
Sarfaraz Khan
Sam Curran $
R. Ashwin
Mohammed Shami
Andrew Tye $
Ankit Rajpoot/ Mujeeb Zadran $
$ – Foreign Players
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Variations:
Kings XI Punjab does not have much flexibility in their bowling attack. They are likely to suffer in that area. At the top, they have Chris Gayle and KL Rahul who are expected to fire almost in every game. They have brilliant backup batsmen in Prabhsimran Singh and Mandeep Singh.