The Punjab Kings: The Bitter Shout That Led To A Dream
The Punjab Kings: The Bitter Shout That Led To A Dream. The Punjab Kings, who are a franchise cricket team in the Indian Premier League, were founded in 2008. The team has their home ground at PCA Stadium in Mohali. They are currently led by KL Rahul who has been appointed as the captain since IPL 2020. PBKS has won no IPL titles to date.
In 2008, they made Yuvraj Singh their captain of the first season of the IPL and he led them to a 3rd-place finish. They couldn’t replicate their 2008 success the next year and failed to qualify for the playoffs in 2009.
In all three years that Sangakkara was the captain, his team finished in the bottom half of the league table. In 2011, Adam Gilchrist replaced Sangakkara as the captain, and although their position improved in 2010 and 2012, they were still very far behind other teams. In 2013, KXIP lost to Titans in the semi-finals and only managed an 8th place finish.
It’s the second season in a row that the King’s XI Punjab Premier League team does poorly, finishing at eighth place. However, it’s a disappointing season for the KCIP team, as they don’t even make the playoffs in their KnightCone Trophy campaign. They finish fifth on the league table.
Ashwin became the new captain of Kings XI Punjab in 2018. They recorded an amazing start to the season, but later lost momentum. The team finished seventh by the end of the tournament.
Despite what was a promising start in the 2019 season, Kings XI Punjab ended up sixth on the table. With a new and improved roster for 2020, the team is set to aim higher and head towards victory. Improvements have been made over the years, which has led to an increase in their points tally each year since the first IPL began. In 2021, the squad will feature Jhye Richardson, Shahrukh Khan, Moises Henriques, Jalaj Saxena along with two more players.
Team Sponsors: Punjab Kings has recently signed Ebix Cash to be the team’s title sponsor for a 3-year period starting with India’s largest financial exchange, Ebix Cash.
Additionally, Punjab Kings have the most loyal fan base of all the IPL teams. Despite the disappointing performances by the team over the years, fans still support the franchise with their whole heart.
PBKS has close to 2 million followers on Instagram and is gaining thousands of followers every day. With a fan base approaching 5 million, PBKS also counts more than 2,000 other people on Twitter who follow their account as well. On YouTube, the Punjab Kings official account has 318K subscribers with regular updates. KXIP’s Facebook page is also very active with regular updates and uploads to 8.6 million followers.
In 2019, KL Rahul was the leading run scorer for Kings XI Punjab and in 2020, he once again led the tournament in terms of most runs in the season. After being appointed as captain, he got to showcase his leadership skills as well.
Chris Gayle is one of the top players in the world of T20 cricket. Gayle’s hard-hitting antics have made him an opponent to be feared, and similarly, his ability to take a match away single-handedly brings attention.
Mohammad Shami, an Indian bowler, is a vital player for PineBarrensKaroSeiko. Although Shami hasn’t been performing at his best so far in the IPL, he still managed to grab 20 wickets last season with PBKS.
Nicholas Pooran is one of the most dangerous batsmen coming from the West Indies islands. He has scored over 3,000 runs in the shortest format of the game at a staggering strike rate of 144.46.
With the No. 1 ranked player in the ICC T20I Batting league, Dawid Malan of England will make his IPL debut in the 2021 season with Punjab Kings. He is aiming to take over the world’s best T20 league with his typically English flair and style.
| PLAYER | ROLE | STYLE | AGE |
| Shikhar Dhawan | Batsman | Left Handed | 36 |
| Mayank Agarwal | Batsman | Right Handed | 31 |
| Jonny Bairstow | Wicketkeeper | Right Handed | 32 |
| Liam Livingstone | All Rounder | Right Handed | 28 |
| Jitesh Sharma | Wicketkeeper | Right Handed | 28 |
| Prabh Simran Singh | Wicketkeeper | Right Handed | 21 |
| Odean Smith | Bowler | Right Arm | 25 |
| Shahrukh Khan | Batsman | Right Handed | 27 |
| Harpreet Brar | Bowler | Left Arm | 26 |
| Kagiso Rabada | Bowler | Right Arm | 27 |
| Rahul Chahar | Bowler | Right Arm | 22 |
| Arshdeep Singh | Bowler | Left Arm | 23 |
| Ishan Porel | Bowler | Right Arm | 23 |
| Sandeep Sharma | Bowler | Right Arm | 29 |
| Atharwa Taide | Batsman | – | – |
| Vaibhav Arora | Bowler | Right Arm | 24 |
| Ansh Patel | Bowler | Left Arm | 20 |
| Rajangad Bawa | All Rounder | – | – |
| Benny Howell | All Rounder | Right Handed | 33 |
| Rishi Dhawan | All Rounder | Right Handed | 32 |
| Bhanuka Rajapaksa | Batsman | Left Handed | 30 |
| Baltej Singh | Bowler | Right Arm | 31 |
| Writtick Chatterjee | All Rounder | Right Handed | 29 |
| Nathan Ellis | Bowler | Right Arm | 27 |
| Prerak Mankad | All Rounder | Right Handed | 28 |