5 players who should be bought by KXIP next year

The Indian Premier League was an entertaining affair and CSK ended the tournament as champions. Kings XI Punjab was a tale of 2 halves in this year's campaign. They had won 5 of their first 7 matches and looked set to qualify. After the 7 matches, they had a week long break and that might have stopped their winning momentum. They managed to win only 1 of the remaining 7 and as a result were knocked out.

The break also disrupted Chris Gayle's form and KXIP faltered miserably. However, they do have some positives that they can be happy about. The way KL Rahul, Mujeeb and Andrew Tye performed was brilliant. Ashwin's captaincy was good as well. They will look to better their performance next year and that can be done by roping in some better players.

Here's a look at 5 players who could strengthen their squad for next year's tournament.

#1 Joe Root

He is one of the modern superstars of the game and is a part of the "Fab Four". He put his name up for the auction for the first time in his career and everyone thought that he would be sold for a huge amount. Surprisingly, he went unsold and that shocked a lot of the people.

He has scored 1325 runs in 51 innings at a decent strike rate of 126. A part from Mujeeb and Tye none of the overseas recruits performed well. KXIP's slump in the last few games coincided with Chris Gayle's slump as well. They didn't have anybody who could replace him as the other foreigners, David Miller, Marcus Stoinis and Aaron Finch were also out of form. Joe Root could be the solution for their problem as he is a very consistent player.

#2 Travis Head

Travis Head

The South Australian is the mainstay for Australia in the middle order. He has been a consistent performer for them since the last year and a half. He is a hard hitting batsman and can take the game away from the opposition at any given time. He has IPL experience as he represented the Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2016 and 2017. He scored 205 runs in 10 matches at a strike rate of 139.

He has amassed 1516 runs in T20 cricket at an average of 32 and a strike rate of 137. He is a very handy part time off-spinner as he has picked up 16 wickets. He can be there in the squad as a backup. He can be used as a floater in the batting line-up according to the situation as he can bat anywhere from being an opener to finishing off matches.

#3 Ishan Porel

Ishan Porel

The U19 World Cup winning bowler was one of the many shining lights for India in the World Cup. He impressed one and all with his pace, bounce and swing. He picked up 6 wickets in 4 matches including a 4 wicket haul against Pakistan in the Semi-Final.

KXIP's Indian pacers were inconsistent and they had very few Indian pacers which meant that they had to stick with them time and time again. Porel's inclusion could strengthen them as a team.

#4 Kedar Devdhar

The Baroda born-player was brilliant in this year's limited over domestic tournaments this year having scored 274 runs in 7 innings at a strike rate of 83 in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. He also scored 411 runs in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in 8 innings at a strike rate of 137. He had also smashed a century. He has scored 1298 runs in 50 innings at a strike rate of 120.

KXIP lacked good quality Indian batsmen apart from KL Rahul and players like Mayank Agarwal and Yuvraj Singh failed to live up to the expectations. They would have loved an in form and quality batsman at that stage and Kedar might have been perfect. KXIP will look to rope him in as he also provides them with a backup keeping option.

#5 Rajneesh Gurbani

Rajneesh Gurbani

The Vidarbha pacer was instrumental in helping them win the Ranji Trophy this year. He has the ability to move the ball and can be very effective. He picked up 7 wickets in 4 matches in the Vijay Hazare Trophy while he picked up only 2 wickets in 5 matches in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. He has picked up 13 wickets in 14 matches at an economy rate of 7.78.

He can be bought by the Kings XI Punjab franchise as he will help them bolster their Indian pace bowling roster.