During the IPL 2023 mini-auction last December, England all-rounder Sam Curran was snapped by Punjab Kings (PBKS) for a whopping sum of INR 18.50 Crore, making him the most expensive buy in the history of auctions.
As PBKS are gearing up to open their IPL 2023 campaign against KKR in Mohali on Saturday (April 1), team’s head coach Trevor Bayliss expressed his delight on having Curran in the squad and expects the Englishman to take the tournament by storm this season.
"I think before I came on board, they recognised, after the last season, that they need someone to finish the innings off and our tactic at the auction was to get an all-rounder who could bat towards the end of a batting innings but is also able to bowl," Bayliss told reporters on Friday (March 31).
"The idea was to get an international all-rounder and we are hoping that Sam Curran will be that player for us. He has done pretty well in international cricket and in the last (T20) World Cup. We are quite happy that we got him on board,” he added.
Punjab Kings will be without some key overseas players in the initial stage of the cash-rich event. While Jonny Bairstow is ruled out for the entire season due to an injury, Kagiso Rabada is on national duty and Liam Livingstone will join the squad after a delay since he couldn’t get fitness clearance from ECB.
"We have got about three guys who are unavailable from the original squad at the moment who would be hard to replace and these are good international players. But it is an opportunity for other players to make a name for themselves," Bayliss said.
Besides Curran, the coach is hopeful that Livingstone and India's Shahrukh Khan will do well for PBKS in the tournament.
"Shahrukh looks in good form, he is hitting the ball well and hard. Livingstone is one of those players who is not with us here just at the moment but we are hoping to have him with us very shortly," he stated.
When asked about the newly introduced Impact Player rule, Bayliss said: "We have had a few meetings about it. At the start we want to keep it simple, not try to complicate it. Yes, it is a new rule and I think we can make it as simple as possible."
"The main thing is that you want players to be concentrating on what they do. And that is not (with the) XI that is out there but the five reserves as well, concentrating on how they might play because we could call them at any time. We have just been trying to organise it or prepare an XI and (approach it) with a degree of flexibility with how the game is going.”
"It will certainly be interesting to see how the other teams use it as well. I would like to think that if you have an impact player, he should be in the XI to begin with. It will be interesting to see how many teams with the toss and bat first. I think most of the teams winning the toss will bowl first."
(With PTI Inputs)
