Over-reliance on Tye, Mujeeb a Cause of Concern for Punjab

Ravichandran Ashwin-led Kings XI Punjab started things off brilliantly in the ongoing season of IPL winning five games from their first six matches. But in the next six, they have won only one encounter. A part of that failure could be attributed to battling failure. But if one looks closely, even in bowling, except for Andrew Tye and Mujeeb Ur Rahman, none of the bowlers have fired in the last few games.

Axar patel, who was retained by KXIP, has only bagged three wickets in the seven matches he has played. While skipper Ashwin has 6 scalps in 12 outings. This means that the bowling responsibility is being shared between Tye and Mujeeb. The duo have been phenomenal this season picking up a massive 34 wickets between them, the most by a pair of any side in IPL 2018.

The other 8 bowlers used by KXIP have accounted for just 29 wickets between them, meaning Mujeeb & Tye have picked up 53.97% of team’s wickets this season.

Despite being used in the death, Tye & Mujeeb have a combined economy of 7.54 while all other KXIP bowlers have an economy of 9.31.

They have also picked up wickets at regular intervals, managing a combined bowling average of 19.82, while the other bowlers have a poor average of 44.10.

Now that the race for qualification in playoffs has become so tough—with five teams in contention—KXIP would look to end their bowling woes and produce a combined effort against Mumbai Indians on Wednesday.

As far as the points table is concerned, Punjab are on the fifth spot, with six wins and as many losses under their belt. To secure a sure-shot qualification in last-4, they need to win their remaining matches.