IPL 2018: Journey of the Kings XI Punjab so far

9. 2016 – 8th

After an unsuccessful stint in the previous edition, Punjab once again invested its hopes in a new overseas skipper in, David Miller, who could be providing the desired shift from the shattered results in the past. But the Proteas big-hitting batsman failed big time to live up to the expectation on the captaincy parameters and more importantly suffered a major dip in his form after which he couldn’t find his feet in the entire season. The team management then decided to appoint Indian opener Murali Vijay as the captain in the second half of the competition.

Matches Played – 14, W – 4, L – 10

Squad: Murali Vijay (Captain), Kyle Abbott, Hashim Amla, Anureet Singh, Arman Jaffer, Farhan Behardien, KC Cariappa, Rishi Dhawan, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Mitchell Johnson, David Miller, Glenn Maxwell, Nikhil Naik, Axar Patel, Wriddhiman Saha (Wicket-keeper), Sandeep Sharma, Pardeep Sahu, Mohit Sharma, Swapnil Singh, Shardul Thakur, Manan Vohra, Shaun Marsh, Marcus Stoinis.

TOP PERFORMER (Murali Vijay)

The damaging job had already been done till then, as Punjab once again finished at the bottom stand on the table. The major area of concern in the losing campaign looked to be the lacking of some experienced and most probably they seem to have been missing a skipper who could have led them with consistent performances. However, still their skipper Vijay finished as the highest run scorer for his franchise with a total of 453 runs in his kitty in the season. While Sandeep once again impressed with the ball as he claimed 15 wickets.