Punjab Kings, the erstwhile Kings XI Punjab, are one of the three teams that are still searching for their maiden IPL trophy. Ahead of the 2021 edition of the Indian Premier League, Punjab Kings bolstered their pace attack by grabbing the Australian duo of Jhye Richardson and Riley Meredith.

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Last year, Punjab’s pace department leaked runs in the death overs and their batting lacked firepower in the middle-order with Glenn Maxwell not performing as per expectations. In a bid to fix this, the side shelled out Rs 22 crore for Richardson and Meredith.

They have even drafted world no. 1 T20I batsman Dawid Malan. Malan will add more firepower to a batting lineup that already boasts of Chris Gayle, KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal and Nicholas Pooran.

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Punjab Kings, though, will now have a problem of plenty, with only four foreign players allowed in the playing XI. The team may not be able to play Gayle, Malan and Pooran together, since the fast bowling department is expected to be manned by the two new Aussie recruits. Malan can been seen as a back up to Gayle, who is expected to start from game one unlike last year.

KL Rahul was in great form with the bat last year, and would look for an encore. His captaincy though was what came under the scanner, and the seasoned campaigner would look to guide his side to victory.

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Punjab Kings full squad for IPL 2021: KL Rahul (c), Ishan Porel, Sarfaraz Khan, Murugan Ashwin, Nicholas Pooran, Chris Gayle, Mohammed Shami, Deepak Hooda, Mandeep Singh, Mayank Agarwal, Chris Jordan, Ravi Bishnoi, Harpreet Brar, Simran Singh, Darshan Nalkande, Arshdeep Singh, Saurabh Kumar, Fabian Allen, Utkarsh Singh, Jalaj Saxena, Moises Henriques, Riley Meredith, Shahrukh Khan, Jhye Richardson, Dawid Malan.