Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) is an Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise based in Mohali and plays their home matches at PCA IS Bindra Stadium. Since the IPL 2010, the team has been playing some of its home games at Dharamsala and Indore as well. The franchise was founded in 2008 and is owned by Preity Zinta, Wadia Group and Dabur. They reached the semifinals in the inaugural season of IPL, while finished runners-up in 2014. However, the team failed to make any mark in the rest of the IPL editions of IPL, as they consistently remained at the bottom half of the IPL points table.
Ahead of the IPL 2019 players' auction, KXIP released the stalwarts like Aaron Finch and Yuvraj Singh among 11 players. They bought 13 players in IPL auction focussing on uncapped players. KXIP set the trend of buying lesser-known players as they bought leg-spinner Varun Chakaravarthy, and further bolstered their bowling attack by adding Curran and India's pace spearhead Mohammed Shami for Rs 48 million (Rs 4.8 crore).
The Punjab side also bought 17-year-old wicket-keeper Prabhsimran Singh for a whopping Rs 48 million (Rs 4.8 crore) and spent another Rs 42 million (Rs 4.2 crore) for West Indian Nicolas Pooran and Rs 10 million (Rs 1 crore) for Australian all-rounder Moises Henriques.
Kings XI Punjab, under the captaincy of Ravichandran Ashwin, will look to revive their fortunes with a good combination of youngsters and experienced players like Chris Gayle and K L Rahul.
KXIP squad for IPL 2019
Players Retained: Lokesh Rahul, Chris Gayle, Andrew Tye, Mayank Agarwal, Ankit Rajpoot, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Karun Nair, David Miller and Ravichandran Ashwin
Players bought in IPL 2019 auction: Varun Chakaravarthy (Rs 8.4 crore), Sam Curran (Rs 7.2 crore), Mohammed Shami (Rs 4.8 crore), Prabhsimran Singh (Rs 4.8 crore), Nicholas Pooran (Rs 4.2 crore), Moises Henriques (Rs 1 crore), Hardus Viljoen (Rs 75 lakh), Darshan Nalkande (Rs 30 lakh), Sarfaraz Khan (Rs 25 lakh), Arshdeep Singh (Rs 20 lakh), Agnivesh Ayachi (Rs 20 lakh), Harpreet Brar (Rs 20 lakh), Murugan Ashwin (Rs 20 lakh).
IPL 2019: Click here to know the present status of Kings XI Punjab in the 2019 edition of IPL