The coach for the Kings XI Punjab IPL team, Tom Moody is facing the prospect of going into the tournament with a much depleted side, but he believes that the second edition of the IPL will be more competitive than the inaugural edition. He thinks the teams are evenly matched and that as of now there can be no clear favourite. Captain of the team Yuvraj Singh, though confident did express concerns about a possible deficit in the fast bowling department.

The IPL, due to begin on the 18 will be shorn of as many 7 Aussie players that have been picked for the upcoming international cricket series to be played in the UAE between Australia and Pakistan. The Kings XI Punjab team is probably the worst hit by the exodus of Aussie players and will sorely miss James Hopes and Shaun Marsh. The coach however did express the hope in the cricket news that pacer Brett Lee may yet be available for IPL2.

It isn’t just the Australian players the Punjab team will be missing; it is also West Indian Jerome Taylor who will be absent due injury in a car accident and Sreesanth who will be absent from the squad owing to a back injury that has put him out of action for quite a while now. Coach Moody made light of his troubles by saying it made his job easier not to have to deal with six international cricket players if they were not playing well.
The Punjab team does have consolation in the likes of recently acquired English player Ravi Bopara, Simon Katich who is reportedly in great form currently, and the Sri Lankan duo of Kumara Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene. Another ray of hope for the team would be Yusuf Abdullah from South Africa who just debuted against the Aussies and made a very positive impact.

Though concerned for the pace department of his team, skipper Yuvraj Singh was upbeat about the rest of the team rising to the occasion. He was also happy about the large expat community of Indians in South Africa, particularly the Punjabi community settled there; who he was sure would come out to support his team. He was further hopeful that large numbers of fans would travel from India to South Africa to enjoy the spectacle of the IPL as well as to offer support to their respective teams.

Irfan Pathan, whose forte seems to be the T20 format in recent times is being seen as a key player due to his all round abilities. Having visited the country a couple of times before, he will be in a position to help out his teammates by offering tips and pointers about conditions there.
Source – cricket360.com