IPL 2023: Best XI from third week of tournament

7. Sam Curran (PBKS)

The English all-rounder was picked up by PBKS at a huge price of INR 18.5 crore in the auctions and the allrounder has been able to live up to the expectations of the management with the ball. Sam Curran, in the absence of Shikhar Dhawan, was handed the responsibility of captaining the PBKS side and he has been able to do decently in that role as well.

In the third week of IPL, Curran had been captain of the side for a couple of matches and has a 50-50 ratio in the win loss section. However, his bowling has been absolutely top notch and has helped contain the batters from hitting boundaries and scoring freely. In the match against LSG, which PBKS won by two wickets, Curran bowled his share of four overs and gave away only 31 runs and took three crucial wickets.

His timely strike at the end of the innings restricted the LSG batters from accelerating and posting a huge total. The brilliant bowling display helped stop LSG at a score of 159 and PBKS were able to comfortably chase down the target. In the next match, even though Curran went wicketless, he was able to bowl economically and gave only 27 runs in his four overs and recorded the second-best economy rate of 6.8 in the match. Although PBKS lost the match, the tight bowling and good strategic thinking while captaining the side was a positive for the English all-rounder.