India opener K L Rahul was on Thursday named captain of the Kings XI Punjab franchise for the 2020 edition of the Indian Premier League.
“We are happy to appoint Rahul as our captain for the upcoming season. He has been through a lot in the last year or so and has now come back strongly,” KXIP co-owner Ness Wadia told PTI on the day of the IPL auction in Kolkata.
“He has silenced his critics. You will get to see his ability not just as a batsman but also as a captain. He was our unanimous choice,” he added.
KXIP had bought Rahul for a whopping Rs 11 crore ahead of the 2018 season.
Rahul’s ascendancy to captaincy was expected after Ravichandran Ashwin was traded to Delhi Capitals last month.
Here’s how the Kings XI Punjab looks like after the completion of the IPL 2020 Player Auction on Thursday in Kolkata:
Kings XI Punjab
Retained Players: KL Rahul (wk), Chris Gayle, Mayank Agarwal, Karun Nair, Mandeep Singh, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Sarfaraz Khan, Murugan Ashwin, Mujeeb-ur-Rahman, K. Gowtham, J. Suchith, Harpreet Brar, Mohammed Shami, Hardus Viljoen, Arshdeep Singh, Darshan Nalkande
Players bought at Auction: Glenn Maxwell (Rs 10.75 Crore), Sheldon Cottrell (Rs 8.5 Crore), Ravi Bishnoi (Rs 2 Crore), Prabhsimran Singh (Rs 55 Lakhs), Deepak Hooda (Rs 50 Lakh), James Neesham (Rs 50 Lakh), Ishan Porel (Rs 20 Lakh), Chris Jordan (Rs 75 Lakhs), Tajinder Dhillon (Rs 20 Lakhs)
