Punjab Kings (PBKS) are gearing up for the 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL) season under the leadership of Shikhar Dhawan. Punjab will look to end their search for the elusive IPL trophy after spending Rs 24.95 crores at the mini-auction in Dubai last year. In the previous season, Punjab Kings finished eighth on the points table, winning six matches and suffering eight losses. They haven’t made the IPL playoffs since 2014 and it is something PBKS will look to make right in the upcoming campaign.
PBKS will enter the 2024 season with a mix of anticipation and scrutiny. After a high-spending mini-auction in December 2023, PBKS bought Harshal Patel, Chris Woakes, Rilee Rossouw, Ashutosh Sharma, Vishwanath Pratap Singh, Shashank Singh, Tanay Thyagarajann and Prince Choudhary.
England’s top-order batter Jonny Bairstow will also be up for selection after being ruled out due to a freak injury last year.
With the release of this year’s schedule by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), PBKS will face Delhi Capitals (DC) in their tournament opener at Punjab Cricket Association New Stadium, Mullanpur on March 23.
As Punjab Kings prepare for the upcoming IPL season, we take a look at their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
Strength
PBKS have a star-studded batting lineup with top-order batters like Shikhar Dhawan, Jonny Bairstow and Rilee Roussow in their ranks. They also have all-round firepower in Liam Livingstone, Sikandar Raza and Sam Curran at their disposal.
Jitesh Sharma’s performances in recent seasons for PBKS also showcase his strong finishing capabilities where he can take any bowler to the cleaners on his day.
Apart from a strong batting lineup, Punjab boast a quality pace attack. The addition of Harshal Patel to their powerful bowling arsenal of Kagiso Rabada, Arshdeep Singh and Sam Curran offers them plenty of variety as far as their pace battery is concerned. The Shers also have Chris Woakes, who is capable of taking wickets with the new ball.
Weakness
In a competition where spinners play a pivotal role in steering their team to victory, Punjab Kings seem to have limited options in this department.
With only Rahul Chahar and Harpreet Brar among their prominent spinners, PBKS aren’t exactly spoilt for choice when it comes to frontline spinners. The duo managed to take 17 wickets in the IPL 2023 collectively and will be hoping to produce better returns in 2024.
Punjab do have a couple of part-time spin options in Livingstone and Raza but their economy rates of 13.4 and 9.9, respectively, demonstrate why these options cannot be relied upon.
Opportunities
With Bairstow returning this season, Punjab’s top-order will want the Englishman to fire even though he hasn’t played much T20 cricket in the recent past.
Bairstow missed out on playing IPL 2023 due to a freak injury. Nevertheless, he is capable of taking apart any bowling attack on his day and PBKS will be hoping that Bairstow can deliver with the bat after a season on the treatment table.
Apart from Bairstow, the addition of Rilee Rossouw will be a boost to the team. The South African was swooped up by PBKS for a whopping INR 8 crores after failing to find a buyer at the mini-auction.
Threat
One of the biggest threats for Punjab Kings in this IPL could be the lack of Indian all-rounders. Even though they have a few quality overseas all-rounders, it will be interesting to see if they can perform for the team on a consistent basis.
PBKS skipper Shikhar Dhawan will be back in action after almost a year. The 38-year-old batter had a decent IPL campaign last year as amassed 373 runs at an average of 41.44. But how he performs this season will be interesting to watch out for, given that he hasn’t played a competitive game since IPL 2023.
The Punjab Kings are yet to fix their struggling middle order which consists of Livingstone, Raza and Curran. Last year, none of the three were able to score past 300 runs with their batting average remaining in the low 30s.
Probable Playing XII
Shikhar Dhawan (c), Jonny Bairstow, Prabhsimran Singh, Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Sam Curran, Harpreet Brar, Harshal Patel, Kagiso Rabada, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh, Rishi Dhawan (impact sub)
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