From Being Almost Eliminated To Emerging As Play-Off Contender, KXIP's Resurgence In IPL Season 13 Is Simply Phenomenal

The biggest turnaround in the fortunes of a team in the ongoing Season 13 of the IPL has been that of Kings Eleven Punjab, who have have come out of the jaws being eliminated and now look like serious contender of making it to the knockouts.

Chris Gayle and KL Rahul

The round robin stage in the thirteenth edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2020) is coming to an end and the battle for the play-offs spots is very much up for the grabs. With just over a week to go for the culmination of the league fixtures, the picture still remains quite hazy as to which team will make it to the play-offs and what will be the order in which they will finish. While defending champions Mumbai Indians, Delhi Capitals and Royal Challengers Bangalore are front runners despite being pegged back a little in the business end of thee tournament; Kolkata Knight Riders, Kings Eleven Punjab and Sunrisers Hyderabad are closing in on the gap and stand a realistic chance of making it to the play-offs. The biggest turnaround in the fortunes of a team in the ongoing Season 13 of the IPL has been that of Kings Eleven Punjab, who have have come out of the jaws being eliminated and now look like serious contender of making it to the knockouts. If one were to look at the IPL 2020 points table at the half way stage of the season, KXIP were languishing at the bottom of the table with six defeats in their first seven games. With just a solitary win and 2 points to show, their campaign looked all but over. Losing games from winning positions and choking at critical stages in some nerve wrecking encounters did hurt the team's results but is was not entirely reflective of the team's underlying strengths. Overdependency On KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal With The Willow Hurt KXIP's Campaign Early In The Season With their highly dependable openers KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal leading the run scoring charts in the opening 3 weeks of the season, the rest of the team was faring way below their true potential. There were flashes of brilliance from Windies power hitter Nicholas Pooran but the indifferent form of Glen Maxwell and Karun Nair with the bat continued to be a major cause of worry. There seemed to be lack of depth in the batting unit with Sarfaraz Khan and Jimmy Neesham looking more like floaters without an definitive purpose. KXIP Bowlers Were Pretty Expensive In First Half Of The Season Bowling was more often than not proving to be Achilles heel for Punjab with their front-line bowlers conceding plenty at the backend of the innings. Sheldon Cottrell (8.8), Jimmy Neesham (10.16) and Chris Jordan (9.16) and even Mohammad Shami (8.46) were taken to the cleaners many a times. Individual brilliances rather than team efforts was proving to be rather too costly. Chipping and chopping also did not prove to be a solution provider as Jimmy Neesham and Chris Jordan did not prove to be very effectively in the roles assigned to them. With the backs against the wall, Punjab had been written off by most. However, there was a mind boggling resurgence which came in the business end of the tournament. Five Straight Wins On The Back Of Same Number Of Consecutive Losses Did Turnaround A Horrendous Opening Half For Punjab After enduring five straight defeats, Kings Eleven Punjab registered five straight wins and are very much back in the contention for a playoff berth.. It has been a second lease of life for who were down in the dumps. Gayle's Inclusion In Playing XI Has Been A Game Changing Move For KXIP Punjab-based franchise's fortunes changed with the inclusion of Windies strokemaker Chris Gayle. A well thought out move of having Gayle bat at No.3 worked wonders for Punjab as the Windies opener capitalized on the quick-fire starts by their openers Rahul and Agarwal. Gayle has been taking his own sweet time and then launching an onslaught with deliveries which are in his hitting zone. The 'Universal Boss' has amassed 177 runs in five innings with two half tons. With skipper KL Rahul continuing his purple patch with the willow (595 runs), the youngsters like Mandeep Singh (116 runs)and Deepak Hooda have assumed more responsibility and made noteworthy contribution in the recent spree of wins. Medium Pacer Arshdeep Singh has lessened the burden on Mohammad Shami The dwindling fortunes for KXIP were thankfully changed with medium pacer Arshdeep making the cut regularly into the Playing XI at the expense of Windies seamer Sheldon Cottrell. Arshdeep has played the perfect foil to pace spearhead Mohammad Shami and did an exceptional job at choking the runs at the death overs besides making crucial breakthroughs, Meanwhile, Shami has been in rich wicket taking form (20 in 12 games) all season despite being expensive on a few occasions. Chris Jordan too seems have found his as a death over specialist by bowling yorkers at the death. Punjab's ploy to play the spin duo of Ravi Bishnoi and Murugan Ashwin together has also reaped huge dividends as both spinners have been successful in restricting the opposition from scoring runs freely and also chipping in with wickets in the middle overs. Australian all-rounder Glen Maxwell might have not fired with the bat all season but has been playing his part with the ball by opening the bowling in the powerplay. KXIP Spinners In IPL 2020 Ravi Bishnoi 12 wickets (7.2), Murugan Ashwin 9 wickets in 7 matches (7.44) and Glen Maxwell 3 wickets (8.04) With Rahul and Agarwal's opening salvo, Gayle's game changing knocks, fiery cameos of Pooran and the crafty guile of spin twins Bishnoi-Ashwin, Kings Eleven Punjab are certainly looking a potential threat to beat any team on their day and make a strong case of play-off qualification. With 12 points in the bank, fourth place KXIP can touch the magical figure of 16 if they win their remaining two games against CSK and KKR. They will also hope that Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bangalore falter in their round robin fixtures. If Kings Eleven Punjab happen to qualify for the play-offs, it will be once of the biggest turnarounds in the history of the Indian Premier League since its inception over a decade back in 2008.