IPL: 5 best buys by Kings XI Punjab over the years
Kings XI Punjab are one of only three franchises who haven't won the IPL though they have played all 11 seasons of the tournament.
KXIP started off brightly, reaching the semifinals in the inaugural 2008 season. However, it was all downhill for them from there on.
It was only in the 2014 season that they managed to reach the finals, courtesy the M&M (Maxwell and Miller) show. Unfortunately for them though, they were beaten by the Kolkata Knight Riders at the last hurdle.
The Mohali-based franchise have kept shuffling their team, and as a result they have failed to click as a unit. KXIP finished with the wooden spoon in three seasons of the IPL: 2010, 2015 and 2016.
In 2018, KXIP started off very well, winning 5 of their first 6 games. But they had a miserable second half of the tournament as they won just one of their last 8 matches to finish at the 7th position.
Punjab have changed their captains regularly and have had as many as 11 different captains in 11 editions of IPL. Ravichandran Ashwin is the current skipper of the KXIP side.
Several greats of the game like Adam Gilchrist, Kumar Sangakkara, Virender Sehwag and Hashim Amla have been a part of KXIP over the years.
Here, we look at the five best buys by KXIP in their history.
1. Shaun Marsh
Shaun Marsh was not very well-known when he was bought by KXIP for an amount of 12 lakh INR during the first-ever IPL auction in 2008.
He missed the first four matches of the inaugural season, yet he scored 616 runs at an average of 68.44. He won the Orange cap in that season, and his contributions helped KXIP qualify for the semifinals - where they lost to the eventual runners-up Chennai Super Kings.
Soon after the inaugural IPL season, Marsh also.made his international debut for Australia.
He missed the 2009 IPL edition and came back in 2010, just to play four matches. He was retained by the Punjab franchise for the next three seasons, where he scored 1080 runs and established himself as the key player for the team.
Marsh was then bought for 2.2 crore INR by KXIP in 2014, but his contributions have dried up since then; having scored only 574 runs in 21 matches. Surprisingly, he remained unsold during the 2018 IPL auction.
Marsh has scored 2477 runs in 71 IPL matches for KXIP at an average of 39.95, with a lone hundred and 20 fifties. He is the longest serving player in KXIP's history, as he played 10 IPL seasons representing the Mohali-based team.