As the BCCI and the Indian Premier League (IPL) governing council unveiled the new format and dates for the IPL 2022, Punjab Kings (PBKS) co-owner Ness Wadia said that the franchise had done half the job by picking a "well-rounded" squad at the recent auction, and now its the job of the players and coaches to win the trophy.
The Punjab franchise has underperformed since the IPL’s inception, reaching the final only once so far in the tournament, but after picking a strong squad, Wadia hopes the players and coaches will do the rest of the job to help the franchise bag the elusive trophy in the IPL 2022.
Notably, PBKS brought players like Jonny Bairstow, Shikhar Dhawan, Rahul Chahar, Kagiso Rabada, Odean Smith, and Liam Livingstone at the IPL 2022 auction. They also bought back Shahrukh Khan, Harpreet Brar, Rishi Dhawan, and Sandeep Sharma at the recent auction.
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Wadia told Press Trust of India: “50% of the battle is getting the right team, which is what we’ve done. Now it’s up to the players, coaches Anil (Kumble), Jonty (Rhodes), and Damien (Wright), to really take us to that elusive title we have been waiting for so long. Or at least a place in the top four play-offs because we have had a bad run the last four-five years.”
He further compared the current squad to the 2008 batch which had the likes of Yuvraj Singh, Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, Brett Lee, and Irfan Pathan.
The co-owner added, “We have a well-balanced squad now. We bat all the way down to eight or nine and have the bowlers who can do the job both upfront and at the death. I would say this was the toughest and most successful auction for us since the first edition in 2008.”
Meanwhile, Wadia revealed that the PBKS’ preparation for the IPL 2022 mega auction began in October last year and they had many “intense” mock auctions.
He added, “We had a very good idea of who we would be going for and we were pretty accurate when it came to that. And also, our objective was not to really focus on what others are doing.”
On the preparations for the auction, the co-owner said: “There were several mock auctions. It was very, very intense. If you don’t plan and you’re not prepared, then you won’t be able to deal with the dynamics of a battle. I’m very proud to say that all the planning and effort by everyone including the board has helped us to achieve what we wanted to achieve.”
He added, “Each team has its own way of playing style number one and number two, how to get the right players to meet that style so we were very happy with the players we got. Yes, we would have liked to have kept some of the players (Aiden Markram) which we didn’t retain.”
Wadia revealed, “We wanted to get more Indian bowlers (Shardul Thakur, Harshal Patel, and Deepak Chahar), but I’m happy they went for big money. It was high time our Indian bowlers got their due.”
He is also happy that IPL is back in India. He signed off by saying, “I feel we have seen the worst of the pandemic. It is fantastic that IPL is back in India, where it belongs. If it is held in various parts of India, it is even better. I think for this year, it is best if it is in one state and going forward we can have it all around the country.”
(With PTI Inputs)
