“Kings have landed” - Dawid Malan and Chris Jordan join Punjab Kings in Mumbai 

With the England tour of India coming to an end, England stars Dawid Malan and Chris Jordan joined the Punjab Kings camp in Mumbai, where they will be playing their first few IPL games this season.

Dawid Malan, the number one batsman in the ICC T20I World Rankings, was bought by the Kings in the IPL 2021 Auction, while Jordan was retained on account of his all-round abilities and a few good performances last season.

The Punjab Kings took to their official Instagram account to announce their arrival. “🏴 🦁s have landed! 💥 Welcome to the den, @djmalan29 & @cjrjordan ❤,” the caption for the image read.

Dawid Malan's struggles with form

Dawid Malan in the 2nd T20 international.

Both Dawid Malan and Chris Jordan are an integral part of England’s limited-overs setup, and featured in all 5 games of the T20 series against India. However, they weren’t at their best.

Malan struggled to score in the first 4 games. making only 80 runs at a surprisingly slow strike rate. He did find some form by the end of the series, scoring 68 off 46 balls in the last game. The left-hander will hope to continue the same going into the IPL set up for the very first time.

Jordan also struggled to control runs despite his reputation of being one of England’s best death bowlers, going at an economy of 10.7 and taking only 4 wickets in 5 games.

England captain Eoin Morgan, repeatedly emphasised on how they were looking to learn from their experience of playing in Indian conditions. The players will now look use the IPL to improve their form before the T20 World Cup in October.

The Punjab Kings had a rather flat IPL 2020, finishing 6th on the points table. Going into this season, they have addressed the key issue of death bowling by investing in quality pacers like Jhye Richardson and Riley Meredith to go with Mohammed Shami and Jordon. Their first game is against the Rajasthan Royals on April 12th as per IPL 2021 schedule.