Kings XI Punjab

History

In 2008, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) created the cricket tournament Indian Premier League based on the Twenty20 format of the game. Franchises for eight cities were made available in an auction held in Mumbai on 20 February. The team representing Punjab was bought by the Dabur group's Mohit Burman (46%), the Wadia group's Ness Wadia (23%), Preity Zinta (23%), and Karan Paul of the Apeejay Surendera Group (minor stake). The group paid a total of $76 million to acquire the franchise. On 10 October 2010 the franchise agreements for the Kings XI Punjab and the Rajasthan Royals were terminated by the league, but the termination was repealed.

IPL Season 2008

The tournament got off to a slow start for the Kings XI Punjab, with the team losing their first two games. However, 94 runs by Kumar Sangakkara helped them to take game 3. Despite the absence of Brett Lee and Simon Katich (who were committed to tour the West Indies with Australia), the team found its groove. Powered by their balanced bowling lineup and effective top order, the team won 9 of its next 10 matches, clinching a berth in the semi-final, where their run in the tournament came to an end with a comprehensive 9-wicket loss to the Chennai Super Kings.

Shaun Marsh was arguably KXIP's star player in the inaugural IPL. The opener from Western Australia was overlooked in both IPL player auctions and was signed by the franchise on 9 April. He finished the tournament the Orange Cap holder - the award for the player with the most runs across the competition - with an average of 68.44 and a strike rate of 139.68 in 11 innings. Marsh managed to hit 1 century and 5 half-centuries across the course of the tournament. finished last in this season

IPL Season 2009

Finishing as semi-finalists in 2008, Kings XI Punjab started with enormous ambitions to win the trophy. Their ambitions were supported by their new sponsors Emirates Airlines. With two available slots to fill the Punjab Kings made bids on Jerome Taylor and Yusuf Abdulla at the second IPL auction.

The team took a hit as most of their Australian cricketers were not available. The team lacked available pace bowlers after Jerome Taylor backed out at the last minute with an injury.

The team lost badly to Delhi Daredevils and Kolkata Knight Riders, however got back to form by beating the Royal Challengers, Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians. Then the team witnessed a roller-coaster ride in their next eight matches with 4 wins and 4 losses. The team's semi-final hopes were crushed after losing to the Chennai Super Kings in their last match.

IPL Season 2010

Kings XI Punjab lost six matches to Kolkata Knight Riders, Delhi Daredevils, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Deccan Chargers, Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians but managed to win a match against Chennai Super Kings when the scores were level and the match went to a Super Over. Kings XI Punjab were boosted by the return of Brett Lee against Kolkata, but he was not at his best. Shaun Marsh returned in the match against Mumbai Indians. In spite of his good performance, which included a half century, the team lost the match. They ended IPL3 in last position.

Expulsion from the IPL and return

Following the controversy surrounding the BCCI and Lalit Modi the Indian Premier League announced that it had terminated the franchise contracts of Kings XI Punjab and Rajasthan Royals. The teams announced that they would take whatever legal action possible to remain in the Indian Premier League Initially the team tried to negotiate a solution with the league but when that couldn't be reached, they decided to file a case in Mumbai High Court accusing the IPL of getting rid of two teams so that when the bidding process starts for the 2012 IPL season the contract would be given to a more lucrative bidder

Kings XI Punjab was reinstated with involvement from the High Court and IPL 2011 looked promising when they bought a full strength team with Michael Bevan as coach and Adam Gilchrist appointed as captain.

Kings XI Punjab missed out on the play offs by 2 points (or 1 victory). This meant they finished 5th in the points table.

IPL Season 2012

Kings XI Punjab finished in sixth place overall, winning eight matches out of sixteen.

IPL Season 2013

Kings XI Punjab failed to qualify for the play-offs but batsmen David Miller played one of the innings of the tournament in the 51st match against the Royal Challengers Bangalore, as he smashed 101* off 38 deliveries and included 8 fours and 7 sixes. Coming in at 51-3 in the 8th over and chasing a target of 190, Miller rectified the game and led Punjab to a six wicket win with 2 overs remaining.

IPL Season 2014

Australia's T20I captain George Bailey was leading the squad for the 7th season. Other buys featured the likes of Virender Sehwag, Glenn Maxwell and Mitchell Johnson. Kings XI Punjab got the tournament off to a flyer, winning all of their first 5 games. The stand out player was Glenn Maxwell with his unorthodox and powerful hitting, scoring 95, 89 and 95 in his first 3 innings with a strike rate of over 200. Due to a brilliant 122 run knock from Virender Sehwag against Chennai Super Kings in the semifinal, KXIP make their way to the final. In the final, they faced Kolkata Knight Riders where they batted first and set a good target of 199 owing to Wriddhiman Saha's brilliant 115* (which incidentally was the first ton in an IPL final). However, due to Manish Pandey's 94 off 50 balls and his teammates consistently high run rate, including Piyush Chawla's 13 off 5 balls, KKR were able to win the final by 3 wickets in the final over of the match.

Champions League 2014

Kings XI were placed in Group B along with Hobart Hurricanes (Australia); Barbados Tridents (West Indies); Cape Cobras (South Africa) and Northern Knights (New Zealand).

Kings XI's first match was in their home stadium PCA Stadium, Mohali where they beat Hobart Hurricanes by 5 wickets, overhauling Hobart's 144-6 in 17.4 overs. Thisara Perera was named Man Of The Match with 2-17 and 35*, Glenn Maxwell top scored in the game with 43. They also won the second match beating the Barbados Tridents by 4 wickets. They also won their third match of the competition against the Northern Knights and qualified for the semi finals. They continued to win their final group match against the Cape Cobras but were knocked out of the tournament at the semi-final stage with a disappointing defeat against their IPL rivals the Chennai Super Kings, who went on to win the tournament.

Seasons

Kings XI played in the now defunct Champions League Twenty20 once, in 2014 and finished as semi-finalists.

Current squad

Administration and coaching staff

Head coaches

Captains

Sponsors and partners

As of 2015, the official title sponsor of the Kings XI are Tata Motors Prima while they have on board as many as 25 sponsors, the highest for any team in the IPL. Their principal sponsors are HTC, Royal Stag, ACC Limited and DCB Bank while Britannia, BIG FM 92.7, Mountain Dew, Kingfisher Premium, Bookmyshow, Punjab Kesari, The Tribune, Blippar, Smile Foundation and AIDS Healthcare Foundation function as their partners.

Statistics