IPL 2020: 3 Players Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) may target on the advice of Anil Kumble

The underachievers of the Indian Premier League (IPL), Kings XI Punjab – KXIP have never won an IPL trophy despite having a stellar side every year. They had assembled one of the best squads last year with the likes of KL Rahul, Chris Gayle, Karun Nair, Mayank Agarwal, Ravi Ashwin, Andrew Tye, Nicholas Pooran and Mujeeb Ur Rahman in the team. However, they finished at the sixth position with just 6 wins in 14 matches.

This below-par performance forced the team owners to change their coaching staff as they ended their association with Mike Hesson and brought the former Indian head coach, Anil Kumble in their coaching personnel. Kumble will be the head coach of KXIP in IPL 2020 and since the coaches play a major role in the auction room, expect the Mohali-based franchise to target a selected bunch of players on Anil Kumble’s advice.

Here are the 3 players that KXIP may target in the IPL 2020 Auction on the instructions of their head coach

1. Zahir Khan

Anil Kumble is someone who loves to have left-arm chinaman bowlers in his team. The fans had witnessed the rise of Kuldeep Yadav in international cricket when Kumble was the head coach of the Indian side hence, expect the former Indian Test captain to bring a left-arm unorthodox bowler in KXIP’s squad.

Talking about the chinaman bowlers, Afghanistan’s 20-year-old Zahir Khan will be the first name on Kumble’s list as the Afghan player has a fantastic record in T20s. He is yet to make his T20I debut for Afghanistan but, in the 40 T20 games that he has played, Zahir has scalped 51 wickets at an impressive economy rate of 7.09.

Khan has a bowling strike rate of 17.0 in T20 cricket which shows that he takes wickets at regular intervals. Besides, he was even picked up by the Rajasthan Royals in the IPL Auction before an untimely injury ruled him out of the competition.  Zahir’s inclusion would definitely bolster the spin bowling attack of Punjab.