PCA Requests BCCI to Tweak Fixtures of Last Two KXIP Home Games

Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) has requested BCCI to reschedule two of Kings XI Punjab’s home games to be played on May 12 and 14.

The Chandigarh airport is likely to be shut between May 12 to 31 due to maintenance work, the reason behind PCA requesting the board to reschedule the matches.

“We have received a request from PCA and IPL’s governing council will surely look into it because this is a genuine problem,” CK Khanna, BCCI’s Acting President told TOI.

KXIP are scheduled to play Kolkata Knight Riders on May 12 in an afternoon game while they face Royal Challengers Bangalore on May 14 in an evening game.

The most likely change that can be brought is KXIP playing the home game earlier and then play the away game against these two franchises.

If this happens, then the away game for KXIP against KKR on April 21 will be played in Mohali.

The same will be the case between the KXIP and RCB game to be played on April 13. Kings XI Punjab is scheduled to play three of their home games at their second home, i.e. Indore. The franchise had confirmed Indore as its second home ground in January.

Mentored by Virender Sehwag, KXIP recently appointed R Ashwin as their captain for the upcoming season. This will be the first time when Ashwin will lead a franchise in the IPL.

During his eight-year IPL stint, he had just played under MS Dhoni in Chennai Super Kings and Rising Pune Supergiant. He could have played under Steven Smith in IPL 2017 but was ruled out before the start of the tournament.

Ashwin has experience of leading his state, Tamil Nadu, but this will be the first time he will lead an IPL franchise.

In fact, he hasn’t been vice-captain in IPL as well. In CSK, Suresh Raina was the vice-captain while Ajinkya Rahane performed the duty in RPS. Though, he (Ashwin) has been vice-captain of India Test team in the past.

Kings XI Punjab will face Delhi Daredevils in their opening game on April 8 at Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium.

Squad: Axar Patel, R Ashwin, Yuvraj Singh, Karun Nair, KL Rahul, Chris Gayle, David Miller, Aaron Finch, Marcus Stoinis, Mayank Agarwal, Ankit Rajpoot, Manoj Tiwary, Mohit Sharma, Mujeeb Zadran, Barinder Sran, Andrew Tye, Akshdeep Nath, Dwarshuis, Pardeep Sahu, Mayank Dagar, Manzoor Dar.

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