Apart from Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Delhi Capitals (DC), Punjab Kings (PBKS) remain the only original IPL team to not have won a single trophy in the tournament. However, Royal Challengers Bangalore have qualified for the playoffs seven times losing thrice in the finals. Delhi Capitals have six playoffs entries to their name and one finals appearance in its tally.
Punjab Kings, on the other hand, has only managed twice to qualify for the playoffs.
Despite having some strong squads on paper, dismal performances over the years have inevitably earned the unwanted tag of wooden spoon holders for Punjab Kings. The team’s best performance came way back in 2014 when they enjoyed an incredible run of 11 victories out of 14 league matches before losing to Kolkata Knight Riders in the finals.
Earlier called Kings XI Punjab, the team changed its name in 2021 to make a fresh start after a disappointing run for more than a decade. Unfortunately, it did not turn their luck around with PBKS finishing in sixth place. For the 2022 IPL season, the team has witnessed a massive overhaul by retaining only two players and building a new squad in the mega auction.
Whether or not it will bring a change in its fortunes remains to be seen.
For 2022 IPL, a complete overhaul of the squad was enough to convince bookmakers as Punjab Kings currently have odds of 6.50 to win the IPL 2022 trophy. However, we will analyze whether or not PBKS has a real shot at winning this year’s IPL.
Are IPL odds of 6.50 a good reflection of PBKS? Well, on paper, it doesn’t seem like it. But it is never the same once the team is on the field. Getting themselves into winning positions and then gifting the game away has become an unfortunate trait of PBKS.
The team regularly finds itself in tough spots and nail-biting finishes often ending up on the losing side after the dust settles.
While the IPL is all about entertainment, PBKS looks a little too entertaining for its own good. However, things might not be as bleak as they look right now. The new squad PBKS has assembled is impressive and the team will look to correct their past mistakes.
We believe that PBKS might end up surprising one and all this year but it is not a very safe bet. Therefore the odds of 6.50 seem pretty justified.
Given the inclusion of two new teams, our experts predict that PBKS might not be able to make the playoffs this year as well. They do not lack the talent but neither do the other teams and they are much better in terms of belief and confidence.
Even if they do not make it to the second stage, PBKS can be expected to win some games in the initial phase of the tournament. Their rivalry with Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers will be a treat to watch.
As mentioned earlier, PBKS went all-in the mega auctions building up a squad from the scratch. This decision meant that they had a larger purse in comparison to other teams and they made good use of it. Punjab Kings made good bids for quality players bagging quite a few of them.
PBKS captain KL Rahul decided to make a shift from the franchise being drafted into the newly-added team Lucknow Super Giants (LSG). The management then decided to retain Mayank Agarwal who has performed for them consistently over the years and young pacer Arshdeep Singh who finished IPL 2021 with 18 wickets in his kitty.
The new exciting players PBKS has acquired this year are the Indian opener Shikhar Dhawan, explosive English batsmen Jonny Bairstow, and Liam Livingstone, power-hitting West Indian all-rounder Odean Smith, and South African pacer Kagiso Rabada to name a few.
PBKS also managed to pick quality spinner Rahul Chahar.
Mayank Agarwal, Arshdeep Singh, Shikhar Dhawan, Jonny Bairstow, Kagiso Rabada, Liam Livingstone, Shahrukh Khan, Rahul Chahar, Odean Smith, Sandeep Sharma, Harpreet Brar, Ishan Porel, Rishi Dhawan, Jitesh Sharma, Prabhsimran Singh, Atharva Taide, Ansh Patel, Raj Bawa, Vaibhav Arora, Benny Howell, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Baltej Singh, Nathan Ellis, Writtick Chatterjee, and Prerak Mankad.
A new squad certainly comes with new zeal and vigor and Punjab Kings will be looking to make it count.
There is no dearth of talent in the new squad and if the team plays its cards right, they might very well turn out to be the surprise package of the IPL 2022.
For the last three seasons, the bulk of Punjab Kings’ runs were scored by openers KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal. While Rahul has moved to LSG, Mayank was appointed as the captain for this season and is expected to be among the runs again.
The new fellow opener Shikhar Dhawan top-scored for Delhi Capitals last year. The English duo of Bairstow and Livingston will also be in the reckoning.
But as the openers get to face much more balls than any other batsman in this format, we feel that either Dhawan or Agarwal will end up with the honors again.
Kagiso Rabada claimed six wickets from as many matches as in IPL 2017. In his next three appearances in the IPL, he claimed 25, 30, and 15 wickets respectively in 2019, 2020, and 2021.
The South African pacer will spearhead the PBKS bowling attack in tandem with Arshdeep Singh who is another potential candidate for the purple cap.
A month ago, nobody had heard of West Indian medium pace bowler Odean Smith. Until the series versus Indian where he started swinging his bat around, hitting sixes with ridiculous ease while also claiming important breakthroughs for his team.
In a team replete with power hitters like Livingstone, Bairstow, and young Shahrukh Khan, Odean Smith will be the man to watch out for.
Owing to its poor performances over the years, betting sites such as Paripesa offer high odds for PBKS to win the tournament. It was not without cause as PBKS managed only 6 wins in 14 matches, only better than the Rajasthan Royals and the Sunrisers Hyderabad.
PBKS started their IPL 2021 campaign against Rajasthan Royals (RR) resoundingly posting a massive 223 thanks to captain KL Rahul’s 91 off 50 balls. The Royals responded strongly on the back of a brilliant century by their captain Sanju Samson but eventually fell 4 runs short of the target.
They stood third in the points table after the first match and that was the highest PBKS ranked in the 2021 IPL season.
Losing their next three matches, PBKS slipped to the last place before registering two wins in their next three matches to stay in the hunt for a playoffs berth. But back-to-back defeats against RR and DC left them with too much to do.
They defeated eventual champions CSK in their last league match before crashing out of the tournament.
