IPL 2018 Team Preview – Does Ashwin have necessary firepower in his Kings XI Punjab

In our IPL 2018 Teams preview today we are taking a look at the Kings XI Punjab which has a colorful history in the tournament of mostly flattering to decieve having only once made it to the playoffs apart from emerging runners up in the 2014 edition.  The team has a new captain in the form of Ravichandran Ashwin and the old fox of Australian and T20 cricket Brad Hodge as the coach.

Ashwin has a good choice for opening depending on whether he has to go all guns blazing or a few , with specialists Chris Gayle, Lokesh Rahul and Aaron Finch at his disposal.  The middle order lineup is more than pretty impressive with veteran Yuvaraj Singh, Mayank Agarwal, Manoj Tiwary and the explosive “If its in the V it goes atop the tree” David Miller.  Then come the big hitting allrounders Marcus Stoinis, our own Pardeep Sahu and the winner on his day Axar Patel.  The bowling too is sort of balanced with Ashwin himself all set to try leg breaks, left arm spinners Axar and Yuvi, the Dhoni mentored Mohit Sharma with his nippy pace and Andrew Tye or Barindar Sran opening perhaps.

There are also fresh little seen colts in the bowling department like Afghanistan’s breakthrough sixteen year old Mujeeb Ur Rahman and the twenty three year old Australian Ben Dwarsius. 

With this interesting team it looks like the new look Kings XI would give their pretty owner Priety Zinta a lot more to cheer than ever.  They play the first match of the tournament this year at 4pm on 7th April against Delhi Daredevils and could draw first blood.