After a whirlwind season, Kings XI Punjab were finally knocked out by the Rising Pune Supergiant, as the KXIP batting unit dished out a obnoxious batting performance in an all to play for quarter final(virtual, of course).
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Big games call for big characters to step up, and clearly they gone in hiding tonight, as none of the foreign players could muster a good enough performance to help the Kings XI pull through.
Virender Sehwag, the head coach of the Kings XI did not mince any words while talking about the shambolic performance of his side in a must win game. He spoke about how the overseas players didn’t shoulder much responsibility in such a crunch game.
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“I’m very disappointed. I can say that none of the foreign players took responsibility and at least played 12 to 15 overs. Their role was at least one of the top four should bat for 12 to 15 overs, but none of the batsmen took the responsibility.”
“I think they were complaining that the wicket was a bit slow but when you play international cricket so much, you should get used to playing on difficult or good wickets. There are very rare occasions when you get a good wicket to bat on but whatever wicket you get, you have to play at least 20 overs for your side. But Maxwell, Shaun Marsh, Guptill and Morgan were all disappointing”
Sehwag then went onto comment on Maxwell’s no-show during the entire event, and how the team management had expected more from the experienced Australian international.
“We always knew that when Maxwell fires, then he can win the match on his own,” Sehwag said. “But he didn’t fire in most games. That is a big disappointment, especially since he’s experienced, having played for Australia’s Test and ODI teams. He didn’t take the responsibility as a captain and didn’t perform for Kings XI Punjab.”
Sehwag also addressed the fact that Hashim Amla’s absence really hurt the team combination, as Amla was extremely consistent at the top of the order.
“We missed Hashim Amla, for sure,” Sehwag said. “The kind of consistency he showed, none of the other players could do that, an individual couldn’t take responsibility. Saha played one [good] innings, Manan Vohra played one innings but apart from that none of the others played responsibly.
“He is an experienced player and has played more than 100 Test matches and averages close to 50 in Test cricket and also one-day cricket. He knows how to score runs immaterial of the format. And he takes very few risks. Whatever risks he takes, it is always after 12 or 15 overs, when he knows that he has completed his role and there’s a need to score quick runs. Otherwise, for the first 10 overs he takes less risks and remains on 30-40 and converts them into big scores. The two hundreds that he scored were brilliant. The other players in the team have a lot to learn from Hashim Amla, be it international players or Indian.”
