Betfacts / Andrew Hughes / 16 April 2009 /

The batting is scary but the bowling is laughable - Punjab are an unbalanced team and should not carry your money, says Andrew Hughes.

Performance Last Year

One of the better sides in the tournament last year, they lost their first two games but were pretty much unbeatable after that, until coming unstuck against Chennai in the semi-final, when they were bowled out for 112. Like the Super Kings, their strength was in their batting with no less than ten players averaging over 20. But ultimately it was their bowling that let them down, with Sreesanth underperforming and Brett Lee only available for four games.

Captain

Yuvraj Singh

Three Key Players

The captain had an ordinary IPL 2008, by his high standards. With the batting weakened by international call-ups for Shaun Marsh and James Hopes, Yuvraj needs to put in the kind of dominant performance with which we are so familiar. Another key batsman is Luke Pomersbach who averaged an incredible 152 in his five innings last year and is likely to be required to replace Marsh. Irfan Pathan is the only pace bowler of any note in the squad and he will be expected to shoulder much of the attacking burden once again.

Strengths

Even with the loss of Hopes and Marsh, this is a strong batting unit and the addition of Ravi Bopara is an excellent piece of business. Assuming that Yuvraj will bring his A game, there is every likelihood that Punjab will entertain the South African crowds with some thrilling batting fireworks.

Weaknesses

New signing Jerome Taylor will be unavailable due to injury and the same goes for the enigmatic Sreesanth, whilst Lee will once more be away on international duty. As a consequence, Punjab looks woefully short in the pace bowling department.

Prospects

Twenty20 may appear to be a batsman's game, but it is just as important to have a cutting edge with the ball. Punjab have been unlucky with the injury to Jerome Taylor but Rajasthan managed to bring in four extra pace bowlers to compensate for the loss of Tanvir and the King's XI's conservative approach at the auction has left them short in an area where they were already struggling. They will have no problem chasing down big totals but their inadequacies with the ball will mean that their batsmen cannot afford any slip-ups. Consequently, they make no appeal at the current [8.0] in the winners market.

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