IPL 2019: Sridharan Sriram replaces Venkatesh Prasad at Kings XI Punjab

The overhaul keeps coming in for Kings XI Punjab as Venkatesh Prasad followed the footsteps of Virender Sehwag to take an exit from the franchise. Venkatesh Prasad was the bowling coach of Kings XI Punjab, who will now be replaced by Sridharan Sriram. He has served as the bowling coach of Delhi Daredevils as well as the spin bowling coach of Australia. Prasad, who is very well noted for bowling combination with Javagal Srinath in his playing days, joined Kings XI Punjab in the previous season.

Former New Zealand coach Mike Hesson had also been brought in to replace Brad Hodge and has been installed as the head coach of the franchise. The Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise have also secured the services of Prasanna Agoram as their high-performance coach.

He has served as the Technical Strategy Analyst of Cricket South Africa (CSA) and is the mastermind behind transforming South Africa as the team to beat in Cricket. The stalwarts of Cricket South Africa including Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers, Hashim Amla, and Dale Steyn have acknowledged his role in rebuilding the Proteas as one of the greatest teams.

Kings XI Punjab, in the very first year, had made into the semi-finals and had shown plenty of promise. However, since then, they have been they have been inconsistent, as a result of which, they have been lingering in the bottom of the table. Yuvraj Singh, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Brett Lee, Adam Gilchrist, Shaun Marsh, George Bailey, Glenn Maxwell have been some of the notable players of the franchise.

In the 2014 season, they were flawless in the first half of the season which was held in the UAE. They had grown slightly inconsistent in the second half of the season, however, made it to the finals of the season for the very first time. In the finals, they had missed out on their maiden IPL title marginally to Kolkata Knight Riders.

Inconsistency an issue for the Kings XI

They had a rollicking start to their 2018 season. As the season progressed, their dependency on the opening pair on KL Rahul and Chris Gayle grew increasingly. The middle order couldn’t hold the innings together in cases where the opening pair couldn’t get going.

Kings XI need to get a reliable batsman or two to slot in the middle order and a hard-hitting all-rounder, who can provide the finishing touches. The finds for them in the last season were Andrew Tye who snapped the purple cap with 24 wickets and Mujeeb Ur Rahman, the Afghanistan off-spinner.