IPL 2023: Will Sam Curran provide ‘stability’ to Punjab Kings?

In a recent interview, Chris Gayle had made a scathing attack on the franchise. He said: “They chop and change a lot and they never have a set playing XI even if you win.”

Cut to the present, Punjab Kings are again looking like a team to beat. They have all the bases covered, and surprisingly even after the injury to Jonny Bairstow, they are looking for the most exciting team.

One of the reasons is they are stacked with all-rounders. They have Sam Curran, the most expensive player in IPL history. The all-rounder starred in England’s successful T20 World Cup campaign this year, picking up the player of the tournament award after collecting 13 wickets, including a spell of three for 12 against Pakistan in the final.

This is Curran’s second stint with the franchise after making his IPL debut for the Kings against Rajasthan Royals at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in 2019. He took 10 wickets and scored 95 runs in nine matches that season.

Curran’s bowling speed of 80mph might be viewed as cannon fodder. However, this would be underestimating the all-rounder’s street smarts and feisty approach towards the game.

Across the World Cup, Curran has been remarkably consistent in every phase of the game: two wickets in six overs in the powerplay (overs one to six), costing 6.42 an over; nine wickets in 10.4 overs at the death (overs 16-20), costing 6.56 an over; and two wickets in five overs in between, costing 6.60. The only real blip on his statistics is the single over in the semi-final against India from which Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya plundered 22.

In his two seasons with CSK, he was asked to perform a variety of roles with both bat and ball, and he did it with perfection.

This is precisely the kind of impact Punjab Kings would be hoping for from Curran.

In 2019, for all the obvious talent, he was still all promise, all clear blue sky.

In 2023, he is a force to be reckoned with, and there’s clearly no ceiling for him.

Punjab Kings Predicted Playing XI: Shikhar Dhawan, Prabhsimran Singh, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma, Rishi Dhawan, Sam Curran, Rahul Chahar, Kagiso Rabada, Arshdeep Singh, Vidwath Kaverappa

Punjab Kings squad: Shikhar Dhawan (c), Shahrukh Khan, Matthew Short, Prabhsimran Singh, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Jitesh Sharma, Raj Bawa, Rishi Dhawan, Liam Livingstone, Atharva Taide, Arshdeep Singh, Baltej Singh, Nathan Ellis, Kagiso Rabada, Rahul Chahar, Harpreet Brar, Sam Curran, Sikandar Raza, Harpreet Bhatia, Vidwath Kaverappa, Mohit Rathee, Shivam Singh.

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