I have been a long suffering Punjab Kings fan, or as it was called earlier, Kings XI Punjab. I grew up next to their stadium, and I saw every match at the stadium so obviously, this was my team when IPL franchises were revealed, Zinta’s smile did help.
Then year after year I saw Punjab failing. There was Shaun Marsh year, there was Maxwell-Miller year when Saha scored that century in the final. And then of course there was last year’s final. But something has changed with the Punjab franchise.
The thing that has changed is the recruitment, earlier Punjab ran after the newest shiny toy in the market, but things have changed during the last 2 seasons. And the centre of it all is Shreyas Iyer.
Shreyas Iyer can’t break into the Indian T20 side, why, nobody knows. However, he has been astoundingly good in IPL as he carries every team he has led to the IPL finals. And he is well on course of repeating the same with Punjab Kings this year again.
He has been batting like a champion, is fielding like a champion, his captaincy is peerless, yet, Iyer can’t make it to the Indian side.
That brings one question, is he kept out of the Indian side purely for cricketing reasons or there is something else.
His incredible fielding effort in Punjab’s win over Mumbai was just a sidenote, even if it got most views on social media. His captaincy, his calm batting, and his demeanor is what is making Punjab tick.
Shreyas has also performed admirably in every format whenever he been called upon by India, makes it more confounding why he has been totally neglected from Indian squads now.
However, for now, Shreyas has put his head down and is doing what he has to do in the opportunities that he has. As a Punjab fan, lets hope he keeps going like this for long.
