 Indian Premier League - Where cricket meets entertainment
17th Apr 2008 23:00 IST
Manish Kumar
Kings XI Punjab: Led by Yuvraj Singh, the designated icon player, Kings XI Punjab will represent Punjab in the IPL.
The owners of the franchise include Bollywood actress Preity Zinta, Ness Wadia (Bombay Dyeing), Karan Paul (Apeejay Surendera Group) and Mohit Burman (Dabur).
The Yuvraj Singh-led team is a very young promising team with only three players being above 30 years of age.
Yuvraj became the first player to hit six sixes in a Stuart Broad over during last year's Twenty20 World Cup match against England. He is a naturally gifted timer of the ball and has the capability of tearing away any bowling attack on any soil.
In Yuvraj, Mahela Jayawardene, Simon Katich, Kumar Sangakkara, and youngsters like Luke Pomersbach, Karan Goel, Uday Kaul and Tanmay Srivastava, the team has a formidable batting line-up.
Australian speedster Brett Lee will be spearheading the bowling attack supported by S Sreesanth, Irfan Pathan and Kyle Mills.
The only weak-link of the team is the absence of a quality spinner. The spin department, with Piyush Chawla, Ramesh Powar and Yuvraj, looks shaky and considering that the slow bowlers played a pivotal role in the Twenty20 World Cup on the fast South African pitches last year, they will be cursing on missing out homeboy Harbhajan Singh.
Lee will definitely a nightmare for batsmen with his sheer ability to run through any batting line-up on any track with lightning pace. Lee's speed allows batsmen less time to react, increasing their chances of making a mistake. Lee has the ability to change the complexion of a game on any surface in six deliveries. Apart from being a tearaway pacer, Lee is also a handy batsman and is good in the outfield. He is averaging just over twenty in both Tests and ODIs.
The Squad: Yuvraj Singh (Captain), Ajitesh Argal, Piyush Chawla, Pankaj Dharmani, Rishi Dhawan, Karan Goel, James Hopes, Mahela Jayawardene, Simon Katich, Uday Kaul, Sahil Kukreja, Brett Lee, Kyle Mills, Wilkin Mota, Irfan Pathan, Luke Pomersbach, Ramesh Powar, Nitin Saini, Kumar Sangakkara (Wicketkeeper), Ramnaresh Sarwan, Vikram Singh, Sunny Sohal, S Sreesanth, Tanmay Srivastava.
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