Team: Punjab Kings (PBKS)
City: Mohali, Punjab
Ground: Inderjit Singh Bindra Stadium, Mohali
IPL Debut: 2008
Number of IPL Titles: 0
Who Are the Punjab Kings?
The Punjab Kings were actually originally called the Kings XI Punjab. The name was recently changed to the Punjab Kings in February 2021 as the franchise looked to “start a fresh” after not being able to win a title after thirteen seasons.
The Punjab Kings were one of the original teams in the IPL, making their debut in the first edition of the IPL in 2008. The team plays its home matches at the Inderjit Singh Bindra Stadium in Mohali (more commonly known as the PCA stadium) which has a total capacity of 38,0000. More recently the franchise have started playing some of their home games in Dharamsala and Indore.
The franchise is jointly owned by the Dabur group’s Mohit Burman (46%), the Wadia group’s Ness Wadia (23%), Bollywood Preity Zinta (23%), and Karan Paul. In the current 2022 IPL they coached by former Indian spin bowler Anil Kumble and captained by Mayank Agarwal.
Overall, across the 14 editions of the IPL, the Punjab Kings have failed to make the impact they would have liked having never won an IPL title. The combination of a lack of success in the tournament and also the smaller size of its geographical region has meant they are not considered as one of the tournaments more popular teams.
The IPL History of Punjab Kings
One of the oldest franchises of the tournament, Punjab Kings has made only two knockouts appearances in their entire history. They have been perennial underachievers on and off the pitch compared to few other franchises.
Appearance in the semi’s
In 2008, the team started poorly with two back to back defeats before being able to claw back into the competition. They went onto win games as soon as the missing stars arrived to the squad and made it to the semifinals. They bowed out to Chennai Super Kings in the semis.
In 2009, they started off greatly with off the pitch success as they onboarded Emirates as their sponsor. However, due to the absence of Australian internationals, the team failed to qualify for the knockouts.
After five seasons, the team returned to its full glory as they came close to winning the title. They not only topped the table but also were on the verge of winning the competition. However, they bowed down to Kolkata Knight Riders in the finals.
Ever since then, they have failed to qualify for the knockouts. The team also underwent a rebranding exercise in 2021 to change the name to Punjab Kings.
Who Holds the Punjab Kings Records?
Punjab Kings have consistently had a high turnover of players throughout the years. They have unfortunately struggled to keep hold of their best players and so in comparison their batting and bowling records are not as impressive compared to other teams.
Big names
Currently, KL Rahul is one of the biggest names in the IPL. He was part of Punjab Kings from 2018 to 2021 and was one of the teams most impressive players being their all-time leading run scorer with 2,548 runs in only 55 matches at an average of 56.62. In comparison, the Australian Shaun Marsh was the team’s second leading run scorer, making 2,477 runs in 69 innings. KL Rahul also holds the highest individual score of 132 not out in 2020 against the Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Only the bowling front, the Punjab Kings have always had extremely talented local Indian bowlers, with the likes of Mohammed Shami (58 wickets), Axar Patel (61 wickets), and Sandeep Sharma (71 wickets) but it’s the club legend Piyush Chawla who took has taken the most wickets for Punjab with 84 in 87 matches. Young Indian fast bowler Ankit Rajpoot also holds the best bowling figures in an innings taking 5 wickets for 14 runs against Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2018.
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