A new season begins, literally and figuratively, for Punjab Kings (PBKS) against hosts Gujarat Titans (GT) in Ahmedabad on Tuesday. And this is because of the decisions taken before, during and after the IPL mega auction last November.

After a decade of failing to make the IPL playoffs, the message from the PBKS owners was clear: enough is enough, change is needed. Thus, they retained just two players in Prabhsimran Singh and Shashank Singh, splurged nearly Rs 27 crore on Shreyas Iyer, used their Right to Match card to get back Arshdeep Singh for Rs 18 crore, overhauled their bowling and batting pool and picked a new head coach in Ricky Ponting.

Since 2014, not a single Punjab team has made the playoffs. In this time, big names came and went and captains and coaches were shuffled. But that winning formula remained elusive. This time around, the PBKS management made some bold choices, at the top of which was the decision to buy Iyer, who won the IPL in 2024 with Kings XI Punjab. The team will rely heavily on Iyer’s tactical brilliance as well as his batting at one-down, where the skipper has stated he wants to be placed. 

Alongside the retained Prabhsimran and Shashank, PBKS now have three young batting talents in Priyansh Arya, Musheer Khan Suryansh Hedge. In Ponting’s words, Arya is “a very special opening batsman” whom PBKS intend to use alongside Prabhsimran at some stage – the Australian Josh Inglis is the frontrunner – while Hegde, who was central to Mumbai winning the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, has been tipped as a starter versus Gujarat. 

In the bowling, Arhdeep has been joined by Marco Jansen, Lockie Ferguson, Xavier Bartlett, Yash Thakur, Kuldeep Sen and Vijaykumar Vyshak. The South African allrounder Jansen is the likeliest of the three overseas bowling options to get into the starting 11 tomorrow, and from the new Indian pool it looks like it will be Thakur. Having a spinner of Yuzvendra Chahal’s experience is massive, and the 34-year-old will probably be Punjab’s Impact Player. 

Looking at GT, they too are in a sense looking at a new start. Shubman Gill – one of five players retained – has been elevated to vice-captain of India’s ODI team but it is in the IPL with Gujarat that he faces his stiffest leadership test. Gill has been a consistent performer in the IPL, but post the exit of Hardik Pandya before the 2024 season his captaincy was patchy last season. If Gill intends to prove himself a credible leader, he will have to have a bumper season as captain and batsman to get GT into the playoffs. 

After retaining Gill, Rashid Khan, Sai Sudarshan, Rahul Tewatia and Shahrukh Khan, the GT management spent big bucks on acquiring Jos Buttler, Kagiso Rabada, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Washington Sundar, Glenn Phillips, Sherfane Rutherford and Gerald Coetzee. 

On paper, this makes for a very good squad, and potentially one for the playoffs. But GT are too reliant on the top order of Gill, Buttler and Sudarshan and then on Rashid in the spin department, with all due respect to Washington and R Sai Kishore. And the pacers chosen have all been guilty of leaking runs in IPLs past, so getting the right bowling lineup is vital to Gujarat’s success. Rababa and Siraj are certainties, and Krishna might end up as GT’s Impact Player. 

I expect PBKS to win this game, based on a more balanced squad and Iyer’s arrival as captain. 

PBKS likely 12: 1 Prabhsimran Singh, 2 Josh Inglis (wk), 3 Shreyas Iyer (capt), 4 Glenn Maxwell, 5 Marcus Stoinis, 6 Shashank Singh, 7 Nehal Wadhera, 8 Marco Jansen, 9 Harpreet Brar, 10 Yash Thakur, 11 Arshdeep Singh, 12 Yuzvendra Chahal

GT likely 12: 1 Shubman Gill (capt), 2 Jos Buttler (wk), 3 Sai Sudarshan, 4 Glenn Phillips, 5 Washington Sundar, 6 Rahul Tewatia, 7 Shahrukh Khan, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Kagiso Rabada, 11 Mohammed Siraj, 12 Prasidh Krishna