India’s premier off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has been appointed as the skipper of the Indian Premier Franchise (IPL), Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) for the 2018 season. Ashwin was brought by KXIP for a whopping amount of INR 7.6 Cr. The announcement was made on KXIP’s official Facebook page during a live session with Virender Sehwag and Ashwin.

In his IPL career so far, Ashwin has played 111 matches and has 100 wickets to his name, while featuring for Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS).

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Ashwin is tenth KXIP skipper in their long list of many. Others comprises of players like Glenn Maxwell (2017), Murali Vijay (2016), David Miller (2016), George Bailey (2014, 2015), David Hussey (2012, 2013), Adam Gilchrist (2011, 2012), Mahela Jayawardene (2010), Kumar Sangakkara (2009) and Yuvraj Singh (2008). Ashwin in the live session said that he will try to learn Hindi and Punjabi as he wants to guzzle regional culture. He also mentioned that his leadership style won’t be predictable.

Ashwin is a master strategist and his game awareness is phenomenal and will undoubtedly bring his vast array of experience into play while leading the Kings. He has been a part of the IPL winning squad twice in the past, and this season he will be hungrier than ever to add a third title to that list.

With a variety of explosive batsmen like Chris Gayle, Yuvraj Singh and Aaron Finch in the side, it will take someone with a cool head like Ashwin to be able to make tough decisions when the chips are down. His all-round expertise and ability to pull the team out of tough situations with both bat and ball will help KXIP immensely. 

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Just a few days ago, Rajasthan Royal announced their franchise captain over IPL’s official broadcast channel. Shane Warne along with co-owner Manoj Badale announced Steven Smith as their skipper going ahead into IPL 2018.

Kolkata Knight Riders, too are looking to adopt a similar approach to making an official announcement. A tentative date has been set for March 4. The eleventh season of IPL is scheduled to start from April 7 and concludes on May 27. The tournament opener will be played between Ashwin’s former franchise CSK and defending champions Mumbai Indians. KXIP first match is scheduled against neighbours Delhi Daredevils on April 8 at Delhi.