CHANDIGARH: A day after rebranding themselves with a new name and logo, the
Punjab Kings
made their intentions clear during the mini IPL auction on Thursday. The Mohali-based franchise were in the hunt for a middle order batsman to finish off games and a couple of fast bowlers.
In their quest for a turnaround in fortunes, Punjab Kings went all out in the bidding war for Aussie quick
Jhye Richardson for a whopping Rs 14 crore, besides acquiring uncapped Australian pacer
Riley Meredith for Rs 8 crore. Richardson is expected to share the new ball with
Mohammed Shami at Punjab Kings in the 14th edition of the IPL.
The franchise further bolstered their all-round department by going for the mercurial Moises Henriques for Rs 4.20 crore.
In the batting department, Punjab Kings added more firepower by roping in the top-ranked T20I batsman Dawid Malan for his base price of Rs 1.50 crore, besides shelling out Rs 5.25 crore for uncapped Shahrukh Khan. The 25-year-old Tamil Nadu right-hander, who had a base price of Rs 20 lakh, attracted eyeballs recently for a swashbuckling 19-ball 40 in a quarterfinal match of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.
Punjab Kings came into the auction with the highest salary cap of Rs 53.2 crore and have wisely used the sum to strengthen their bench by roping in the likes of West Indian power-hitting all-rounder Fabian Allen (Rs 75 lakh), Jalaj Saxena (Rs 30 lakh), Utkarsh Singh (Rs 20 lakh), and uncapped all-rounder Saurabh Kumar (Rs 20 lakh).
Saxena and Singh, who are right-arm off-break bowlers, can turn out to be good budget buys who will add to the squad depth of the franchise.
Squad: KL Rahul (Captain), Mayank Agarwal, Chris Gayle, Mandeep Singh, Nicholas Pooran, Sarfraz Khan, Mohammed Shami, Murugan Ashwin, Arshdeep Singh, Harpreet Brar, Darshan Nalkande, Deepak Hooda, Ishan Porel, Ravi Bishnoi, Prabhsimran Singh, Chris Jordan, Dawid Malan, Jhye Richardson, Shahrukh Khan, Riley Meredith, Moises Henriques, Fabian Allen, Jalaj Saxena, Utkarsh Singh, Saurabh Kumar
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