Ravichandran Ashwin was on Monday named the captain of Kings XI Punjab for the upcoming Indian Premier League season 11 and promised to never be predictable. Ashwin, who played with Chennai Super Kings from 2009 to 2015 and for Rising Pune Supergiant in 2016 and 2017, was bought by KXIP for Rs 7.60 crore in the player auction in January.
Despite former captain Yuvraj Singh in the crease, team director and former skipper of KXIP, veteran batsmen Virender Sehwag and the management chose to go with Ravichandran Ashwin, keeping in mind the age factor. Even though Yuvraj Singh, a former Punjab skipper in the IPL, was also in the reckoning, Kings XI mentor Virender Sehwag said that he always wanted a bowler to lead the side.
"I always thought that a bowler should be made the captain because I was a big fan of Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, and Kapil Dev. I thought a bowler would be the best candidate for our team's captaincy. Yuvraj was also there in our minds. But a lot of votes from our support staff and owners went to Ashwin," Sehwag said.
For Ashwin, who was an integral part of the Chennai Super Kings, captaincy promotion was part of a "natural progression" after his seven-year international career. Ashwin's primary focus as a leader is to build a "sound team culture" and create an ideal atmosphere for his boys to deliver on the field. Over the years, Ashwin has featured under iconic skipper MS Dhoni in CSK and has seen from close quarters some of the other tactically sound skippers such as Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Sehwag himself in IPL.