IPL 2018 Auction: Decoding Kings XI Punjab’s buys today and pointers for tomorrow 

After finishing a decade, the Indian Premier League (IPL) heads into a new year with all the teams going in for the player auctions. With most teams heading into the auctions with retaining 2 or 3 players, their purse was slighter lighter compared to the likes of Kings XI Punjab.

Kings XI Punjab started this IPL season by just retaining the Indian spinning all-rounder Axar Patel. He has performed well for them in the past and more importantly as an all-rounder he adds balance to their squad.

Speaking of who they went ahead and bought at the auction today, the major highlights would be the purchase of off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin for 7.6 crores, the return of the local lad Yuvraj Singh which would add nativity to their squad and the flamboyant KL Rahul for a whopping 11 crores.

They also were able to buy talented Indian batsmen Karun Nair and Mayank Agarwal who along with the inclusion of the hard-hitting Aaron Finch add lot of aggression and makes their batting line up look very strong.

Going into this IPL, the KXIP franchise were looking to start afresh and get in lot of experienced players who play the T20 version well. The purchases at the auction table have shown that they have gone in for the experienced players to form a solid team.

This team at this moment has to choose between either Ravichandran Ashwin, KL Rahul or Aaron Finch as their captain. Going by his skill, experience and proven match ability it won’t be surprising to see Ashwin be named the skipper of the KXIP team.

Fast bowlers on the agenda for tomorrow

Going into tomorrow with more than 25 crores in their purse, KXIP must focus on getting bowlers for their side. They have lost out couple of them where the other franchises outbid them. But every team needs a solid bowling line-up and apart from Ashwin and Axar Patel at this stage there are no bowlers in their squad.

They missed out on as many as four players to RTM which may have made them a bit apprehensive when the bowlers came up in the auction list. With some fast bowlers like Vinay Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Mohit Sharma, Varun Aaron yet to be snaffled, they may go for them tomorrow.

KXIP need to look at some uncapped, young bowlers tomorrow to build a strong bowling unit. Barinder Sran could come in handy as he is a local and is an upcoming fast bowler. Some of the other options they could look at are buying the unsold players today such as Lasith Malinga, Josh Hazelwood, Ish Sodhi and Mitchell McClenghan.

Unlike other teams, it is pretty evident that KXIP need to pick bowlers with the remaining money available with them tomorrow. It has to be seen whether they go with the predicted trend and pick known players who went unsold earlier or who will they pull off a surprise by picking unlikely options like Irfan Pathan, Praveen Kumar or Munaf Patel from the players yet to be auctioned.

What happens will have to seen as KXIP look to build a solid, balanced looking squad for the upcoming season of the IPL.