In the past decade, we didn't have that strong a team and the Indian players were also not that good except Axar and Wriddhiman Saha (wicket keeper). But this time, we have players who are playing regularly for the national team. I think that we have so far the best team and that is why we feel that we could win this edition," Sehwag told the reporters.
In the presence of ace Indian players like Yuvraj Singh, KL Rahul and R Ashwin, captaining the side, along with domestic brilliance of Mayank Agarwal, Karun Nair, Manoj Tiwary and Mohit Sharma, the team looks immensely strong. They are also riding on the added advantage of one of the biggest T20 players, Chris Gayle who was bought at Rs. 2 crores by the franchise.
At the jersey launch, speaking of appointing R Ashwin as the captain, Sehwag said that the bowler could become a good captain because of his ability to read the situations quicker. "The best quality in Ashwin is that he is very smart and he can change the bowlers very quickly. He understands the T20 format better than anybody else because he used to bowl in Powerplay, he used to bowl in slog overs. So, he knows what to do in T20 format," the former batsman asserted.
Kings XI Punjab (squad): R Ashwin (captain), David Miller, Karun Nair, Aaron Finch, Axar Patel, Marcus Stoinis, Yuvraj Singh, Mujeeb Zadran, KL Rahul, AJ Tye, Mayank Agarwal, Ben Dwarshuis, Ankit Singh Rajpoot, Chris Gayle, Manoj Tiwary, Mohit Sharma, Barinder Sran, Akshdeep Nath, Pradeep Sahu, Mayank Dagar, Manzoor Dar