The 13th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) hosted in UAE has proven to be successful. It was one of the most closely fought IPL in terms of teams wanting to make it to the playoffs. It was only in the last match did we get to know about the 4 teams who would be qualifying for the playoffs.
Mumbai Indians (MI) were surely the team to beat this season and very few teams managed to challenge them. While Mumbai Indians didn’t have much to ponder through the course of the season, things weren’t as simple for other teams. Teams like Kings XI Punjab took a lot of time to arrive at their best possible playing XI. And by the time they eventually did, it was too late then.
What didn’t work for KXIP?
The “big show” Glenn Maxwell was a complete no show this IPL for the Punjab franchise. The star Australian all-rounder was bought for a whopping sum of 10.75 Crore INR. He failed to live up to the expectations. To make matters worse, Maxwell failed to score even a single 6 across all the 13 games he played.
His inability to deliver for the team meant that Punjab were always playing one batsman light. This factor brought in tentativeness in KL Rahul’s game who preferred taking the game deep rather than going hard right from ball one. The Maxwell factor eventually proved to be one of the major reasons why Punjab failed to qualify for the playoffs.
What does cricket expert Aakash Chopra suggest?
In his IPL season review about KXIP, cricket expert Aakash Chopra suggested that Punjab would be better off without the services of Maxwell. If they let him go before the commencement of next season, it would not just lighten their purse but would also help them to scout for talent better with that salary cap.
According to Aakash Chopra, two other KXIP players should possibly be shown the exit door. They are Sheldon Cottrell and Hardus Viljoen. Cottrell lost the faith of team management after conceding 5 sixes in an over against Rajasthan Royals. While Viljoen hardly got a game this season.
If KXIP let go of these three overseas players, they would have more than a decent salary cap to purchase impactful players before the commencement of the next IPL season.
