With the IPL Auction due to take place later today, I've just managed to scrape in my analysis of the strengths, weaknesses and potential signings that all 8 of the franchises might need to make in order to be successful in next years competition.
Kings XI Punjab (KXI) had a real chalk and cheese season in 2018 which ultimately saw them drift away from the playoff places and finish 2nd from bottom. The contrast between results from match to match was mirrored by that of the individual players with star turns KL Rahul and AJ Tye amongst the top performers in the competition, while many other senior pros were AWOL.
Fast Starts and Poor Finishes
The entire 2018 season itself was very reminiscent of a KXI innings. They got off to a flier early on with 5 wins in their first 7 games, stumbled about a bit in the middle period and then completely collapsed at the end, losing their final 5 games of the tournament to fall from a position where it looked as though they might challenge for the title to missing out on the playoffs altogether.
KL Rahul was in magnificent form for Kings XI all season finishing as the 3rd highest run scorer in the tournament with a batting average bettered only by MS Dhoni. Beyond just that, he managed to crash the fastest half-century of the tournament against Delhi from just 14 balls and followed that up with another half ton against KKR from just 22 deliveries. His technique in the longer format of the game has been put under serious examination by the likes of England and Australia and it will be interesting to see whether he can bounce back from those tours and continue to play in such a free manner. The 149 he struck in the 2nd innings of the final Test against England this summer, albeit in a losing and ultimately futile cause suggests that he won't be fazed by these early setbacks and there is more to come from him in all formats of the game.
Outside of KL Rahul's exploits, there were some early fireworks from Chris Gayle that helped them establish that good start to the competition and a couple of 50s from Karun Nair but otherwise, the KXI batsmen including such illustrious names as Aaron Finch, Yuvraj Singh, Marcus Stoinis and David Miller all failed to make a single half-century between them. The very best teams always manage to find a player or players in form to help them get the wins but KXI were very much dependent on their opening pair throughout 2018.
More Depth Required in the Bowling
KXI's bowling was very much a similar story to their batting with overseas stars AJ Tye and Mujeeb Ur Rahman playing something of a lone hand in trying to deliver the necessary wickets to win games. In fact, while AJ Tye was the leading wicket-taker in the competition all 4 sides who finished in the play-off places had more bowlers who took 10 or more wickets in the contest compared to them with KXI boasting only 8 players last season who managed to take a wicket compared to eventual winner CSK who had 11 players contribute with the ball.
More depth and more variety in their bowling attack is, therefore, going to be a crucial part of the rebuild that KXI will need to go through this off-season. Equally getting more from their captain and star of the national team Ravi Ashwin will also be crucial to KXI's chances of reaching the playoffs this time around. Ashwin has had something of a difficult year all round during which he has regularly been left out of India's white ball sides and even in the Test arena where he is usually so dependable for India he has had his struggles. The time to drop him from the KXI side altogether probably hasn't come just yet and to be honest it's not like they've got the bowlers waiting in the wings to replace him, however, if he doesn't show an improvement in his performances in T20 cricket then KXI must at the very least consider replacing him as captain so that they can rotate him in and out of the side that much more easily.
Changes in the Dug Out
As well as releasing 12 players after the close of the 2018 season, Kings XI have also said farewell to Head Coach Brad Hodge and Team Mentor Virender Sehwag. Much of the support staff have also been disposed of with Ryan Harris (bowling coach), Craig McMillan (fielding coach), Brett Harrop (physio), Sridharan Sriram (batting coach) and Prasanna Raman (high-performance coach) all supporting new Head Coach Mike Hesson. The former New Zealand coach continues a rich tradition of Kiwis who have worked in the IPL and his experience and man management skills will be crucial in getting the most out of what KXI have at their disposal.
It did make me chuckle a bit to see Craig McMillian working as a supposed fielding coach given that he has never been the most athletic of men and his current day job involves coaching New Zealand's international batsmen. It makes me wonder firstly if Hesson really had full authority in naming his preferred backroom staff and secondly if McMillian isn't there as much for moral support as he is for his supposed expertise in the field.
Potential Signings
With a dozen players having been released Kings XI have the largest purse for today's auction and will certainly be looking to do the kind of crazy last minute Christmas shop that so many of us will be carrying out over the next couple of days.
A top order batsman to either bat at 3 of potentially rotate in and out for the ageing Chris Gayle would be a good start. A few names have already been mentioned in previous blogs and include the likes of Colin Ingram, Luke Ronchi and Jonny Bairstow. Further down the order David Miller didn't get much of a chance last year and while he'll be hoping for more opportunities this time around, I am sure that KXI will also want some competition in that 4/5 slot. Given the Kiwi connections, it wouldn't be too much of a surprise to see KXI in for the big-hitting Corey Anderson who would also add to their bowling options.
The squad in general is very light on Indian bowlers and with the restrictions on overseas players and the likes of Tye and Rahman almost certain to start, KXI are likely to need to balance things up with some home grown talent. A player like Shivam Dubey could provide both wickets and some lofty blows at the back end of an innings
Equally KXI could well be tempted to part with a large chunk of their funds in pursuit of more experienced options in Mohammed Shami or Jaydev Unadkat.
Whatever the results of the auction may be, this time tomorrow we will see a very different Kings XI Punjab squad than we did last year.
Current Best 11
- KL Rahul
- Chris Gayle
- Karun Nair
- David Miller
- Mayank Agarwal
- Mandeep Singh
- Ravi Ashwin
- Indian Bowler TBC
- AJ Tye
- Ankit Rajpoot
- Mujeeb Ur Rahman
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