Punjab Kings scored a competitive score of 195 on Sunday against Delhi Capitals, but once again their bowlers disappointed while defending a high score. In their first game against Rajasthan, even though Punjab won they almost failed to defend a score of 221. However, it seems like they have learned from their mistakes.
On paper, Punjab has one of the expensive pace bowlers in the competition, but they seem to have little to no effect. In the game against Delhi Capitals, Kl Rahul made a lot of strange decisions in the second innings of the match which ultimately led to a comfortable chase for DC.
Riley Meredith was not brought into the attack for the first 10 overs, while Mohammed Shami was not used at crucial junctures of the game. KL Rahul came under fire for not managing the bowlers in an efficient manner.
Former Indian fast bowler Ashish Nehra criticized KL Rahul in Cricbuzz said, “You didn’t give early overs to your most expensive overseas bowlers. Meredith came after 10 overs and picked the wicket of Steve Smith in his first over. Even Shami bowled four overs in four different spells. You preferred Arshdeep to begin with. So, where will you control the game from – frontend or the backend?”
KL Rahul’s batting was also once again came under scrutiny on Sunday as his innings was conservative since Punjab Kings had ten wickets during the second half of the innings. The Indian batsman needs to be aggressive to help Punjab to get to scores that are much more intimidating for the opposition.
Punjab wanted to have a fast start to IPL 2021, but the same old problems persist for them. Rahul and his team will be hoping to make improvements during the game against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Wednesday before things go from bad to worse in the first half of IPL 2021.