It’s the endgame and an unfamiliar territory for Punjab Kings and Royal Challengers Bengaluru, who are chasing their first title, being up against each other in the first qualifier and probably in a rematch of it a few days later in Ahmedabad with a spot in the final beckoning.
Something like this was waiting to happen, maybe that’s why the BCCI isn’t trashing the idea of a mega auction after every three seasons. Punjab Kings, a team making the top four only for the third time in 18 years and Royal Challengers Bengaluru, who appear regularly in the playoffs but find themselves playing the first qualifier after nine years, both chasing their maiden title going toe-to-toe in Mullanpur, a venue destined for bigger things in the coming months.
It’s a catch-22 situation for Punjab Kings, who couldn’t find a name or person to be associated with for the longest time until this year with Shreyas Iyer, having the players and their fans request everyone to support the home team rather than the opposition, because the King of North resides there, Virat Kohli. RCB and Chennai Super Kings are probably the only two franchises where not many cities are not their home venues because of the two icons of Indian cricket representing them, being the face of the franchises and maybe, just maybe, Punjab Kings might be on their way to getting one in Iyer.
It was a reunion waiting to happen, the only question was when and not if it would. Ricky Ponting has gone on and on about being willing to pay anything and everything to get back with Shreyas Iyer. He couldn’t do that at Delhi, but both switching franchises at the same time gave the duo, that took the other team from the North to their first and only final in 2020, gave them the opportunity to recreate some of that magic in Punjab, who have had managerial issues, lack of trust in players and coaches, frantic personnel changes and confusion as to from where the information flows.
Ponting is a hard taskmaster. He established credibility last year as a coach by winning the Major League Cricket with Washington Freedom and having parted ways with the Delhi Capitals after no playoff appearances in the last three seasons, he knew he had to get stricter in terms of keeping the ownership and management away from the players and set some ground rules. Getting the likes of Iyer, Arshdeep Singh, and Yuzvendra Chahal was at the top of his list, the main guys to do the job for a team that had to be built from the ground up.
Iyer has had a 500-run season at a strike rate of 170, Arshdeep Singh is the joint-fifth on the wickets leaderboard while Yuzvendra Chahal might have missed a couple of games due to an injury, has 14 wickets to his name, including a hat-trick and a match-winning performance while defending a target as low as 111. The supporting cast, however, is where they won on the auction table – Priyansh Arya, his debut IPL season, has already scored 424 runs, including a century and a couple of more match-winning contributions. Prabhsimran Singh has evolved and matured and repaid the franchise’s faith after being retained, closing in on 500 runs.
The Nehal Wadheras, the Shashank Singhs of the world have now put Punjab Kings in a situation of becoming the favourite human beings in the state. It has been something longed for more than 17 years. Punjab weren’t considered the greatest of the teams to pull bums on seats but if you watched that 111-95 game with Shreyas Iyer being all pumped up against his former team, it felt like the whole Punhab was roaring with the Men in Red.
But there’s also another team in red. Another team which has become the butt of jokes, especially because they have had the biggest of the stars, a face of the franchise, one of the greatest of the games but the title just kept eluding them. In 2016, when they came the closest to finally get their hands on the silverware, Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) won, who till date is the only franchise to win the tournament after being in an eliminator.
What is different for RCB then this year? Like Punjab Kings, the support cast surrounds the big three. Virat Kohli, Phil Salt and Josh Hazlewood are there but there is Rajt Patidar, who won a couple of games while being the captain on his own, Jitesh Sharma played one of the innings of the tournament, Tim David pulled off a couple of sensational games for his side before the injury and Krunal Pandya has turned his IPL career around with RCB.
In many ways, PBKS and RCB are built in similar ways, look and feel a bit equal too, but the difference will be how the big players perform. The big games demand the senior players, who have been there done that to put their hand up and steer their side through and if everything goes well, Mullanpur could give everyone one of the games of the tournament.
Probable Playing XIIs
Punjab Kings: Prabhsimran Singh, Priyansh Arya, Josh Inglis, Shreyas Iyer (c), Nehal Wadhera, Shashank Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Azmatullah Omarzai/Yuzvendra Chahal, Harpreet Brar, Kyle Jamieson, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Arshdeep Singh
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Virat Kohli, Phil Salt, Rajat Patidar, Mayank Agarawal, Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma (c), Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yash Dayal, Nuwan Thushara/Josh Hazlewood, Suyash Sharma
