At the beginning of the 2022 Indian Premier League, Punjab Kings made a giant bang. It scored 208 runs within the very first recreation in opposition to Royal Challengers Bangalore, that too in a profitable chase. Thereafter throughout the following 4 video games, Punjab crossed the 180 on three extra events and this speedy scoring included a eager statistic – a highest power-play run-rate of 9-plus per over.
Weirdly sufficient, Punjab gained solely three out of these 5 video games and this streak of inconsistency is witnessed throughout its season. In 12 matches so far, the Kings are but to win back-to-back video games. It will not be a one-off streak, for Delhi Capitals boast of the identical statistic. It too is but to win back-to-back video games in an IPL season marred by inconsistency. No surprise, each groups are on 12 factors after 12 video games, six wins and 6 losses every, and sitting mid-table in a good race for the fourth knockouts’ spot.
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The eager differentiation between the 2 groups is in how this inconsistency has come about. Delhi’s issues are of a Covid-nature – it’s the solely franchise struck down by the pandemic on this season, again and again shedding key gamers and personnel to sickness, which hasn’t allowed them to achieve momentum. At least, it’s a ready-made excuse for the post-season assessment. For Punjab, properly, its issues are of its personal making.
Sample this. In the primary two video games, Sri Lankan batsman Bhanuka Rajapaksa set alight Punjab’s video games. Against RCB, he smacked 43 off 22 balls, together with 4 monstrous sixes and a strike fee of 195.45. It obtained higher within the second recreation – 31 runs off solely 9 balls at a strike-rate of 344.44. The left-hander’s hitting model was a correct throwback to Sanath Jayasuriya’s period – that very same seat-of-the-pants model of hitting, easy, with out creasing his tracks and getting the job executed.
Rajapaksa threatened to set alight the event together with his no-gimmick hitting. Only, he wasn’t allowed to. He scored 9 runs within the third recreation after which was omitted for the following 4 video games. There wasn’t any cause given – he merely made method for England’s Jonny Bairstow on account of 1 poor rating. Perhaps, Rajapaksa was all the time picked because the backup to Bairstow, and but it didn’t make for any smart clarification.
It didn’t assist issues that Bairstow was in torrid kind himself. In these 4 video games, he scored 8, 12, 12 and 9. Punjab misplaced three of these 4 video games. It isn’t responsible these losses on only one participant, however you’ll be able to see the place the momentum was misplaced for the Kings this IPL season. Don’t repair what isn’t damaged, goes the cliché. Coach Anil Kumble and captain Mayank Agarwal did exactly the other.
The stability of energy between these two figureheads is an attention-grabbing one. Agarwal is newly made captain after KL Rahul left the franchise unceremoniously and sought a recent begin at Lucknow Super Giants. Why did a star Indian batsman, a number one IPL one at that, go away so unceremoniously? Did it have one thing to do with Kumble’s teaching stint that started in October 2019 and up to now hasn’t yielded the specified outcomes?
Punjab had completed seventh and sixth in IPL seasons 2018 and 2019. Since Kumble’s inclusion, they’ve completed sixth in each 2020 and 2021. In a ten-team 2022 IPL, the Kings are nonetheless sixth, by no means having made it to the highest half of the desk and will end in the identical spot in every week’s time. With Agarwal solely simply getting the captaincy stint, and Rahul leaving prior, the highlight is skilled firmly on coach Kumble. Where are the outcomes?
It makes for worse studying while you see how properly Punjab did within the auctions this 12 months. Agarwal and Shikhar Dhawan for consistency, Rajapaksa and Bairstow for larger strike charges, and the mercurial Liam Livingstone for middle-order energy hitting – this was, on paper, the most effective batting line-ups earlier than the event started. Now, while you see the likes of Gujarat Titans with their unpredictable batting, or Rajasthan Royals with its over-dependency on Jos Buttler, sitting fairly on the prime, you surprise what went unsuitable.
Livingstone’s case is one other damning instance. Barring Dhawan, he has been probably the most constant Punjab batsman in IPL 2022. With 4 blistering half-centuries, he has gained the Kings video games all by himself. And but, on the very enterprise finish of this event, it’s fairly unclear what his exact position is. Does Livingstone stability the line-up at quantity 4, forward of Agarwal batting at quantity 5? Or, does he play the floating finisher, coming in as little as quantity six now and again?
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The indisputable fact that Agarwal has needed to make method and drop all the way down to the center order simply to accommodate Bairstow’s poor run of kind goes to point out how badly Punjab has mismanaged its assets. It took Bairstow six innings to attain previous 20, eight innings to register his first half-century as Agarwal dropped down, and now he has bagged back-to-back fifties in opposition to Rajasthan and Bangalore on the time of writing. The finish consequence – properly, Punjab nonetheless solely gained a kind of two video games.
The Kings have executed properly to select a constant bowling line-up. But because the likes of Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings have proven this season – it’s the batting that issues extra in a T20-league event. Punjab made all the precise strikes in February, however its scattergun method to crew choice has left an imbalanced batting line-up in April-May.
Can Kumble and firm get their act collectively, making one hefty, final push to the knockouts? We will know in seven days’ time.
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