Kings eye 'fab' Faf to lead in IPL 2018

KXIP franchise CEO Satish Menon in a recent interview revealed that they will be eying South African captain Faf Du Plessis at the auction which is scheduled on 27th and 28th January.

New Delhi: As the auction dates of the 11th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) are inching closer, franchises are busy chalking out strategies over their team combinations. Most of them have managed to retain their core members around which the team will revolve.

But, there are some franchises, who are looking forward to an entire revamp of their team structure. Kings XI Punjab who failed to make an impact in the past ten seasons is one such bunch.

The Preity Zinta co-owned franchise opted to retain Indian spinner Axar Patel during IPL retention 2018 which was held earlier this month.They signed the left arm orthodox for an amount of 6.75 Crore.

With a total sum 67.5 Crore still left in their kitty, the franchise is looking to bid fiercely at the auction table.

Franchise CEO Satish Menon in a recent interview revealed that they will be eying South African captain Faf Du Plessis at the auction which is scheduled on 27th and 28th January.

Satish told a cricket website that the management is impressed by the performance of the Proteas skipper and looking forward to Faf leading their team in the new season.

The Proteas captain started his IPL stint with Chennai Super Kings but after the ban on the franchise, he was bought by Rising Pune Supergiant in 2016. The stylish batsman only managed to feature in eight matches for the Pune based franchise in the past two years due to injury concerns.

Faf has played 53 IPL matches and has scored 1295 runs at a strike rate of 127.

With a pool of 1,122 players, the team management has been busy marking up their impact players. With a hefty sum still in their pocket, the franchise just might get what they plan.

At the time when franchises are looking to conceal their strategies and are following no-disclosure policy before the auctions, Punjab has gone all-guns-blazing with their intent.