IPL 2018 | Good investment if Yuvraj and Gayle win 2-3 games, claims Virender Sehwag
Virender Sehwag has exclaimed that his team would get a good return on their investment on Chris Gayle and Yuvraj Singh even if they win them 2-3 matches of the season. The former Indian player is confident that captain Ravichandran Ashwin will bring out the best out of their current bowling lineup.
Chris Gayle and Yuvraj Singh were bought by the KXIP for their base prices of 2 crores in the 2018 IPL auctions. Coach Virender Sehwag has said that even if the two guys are able to win the franchise 2-3 games of the season they would get a good return on their investment.
"It is great that they have come to us at their base price. It is surely a bargain. Who knows if there were more bidders, they could have gone as high as $1 million. They are big names and match winners, even if they win two-three games for us, we would get the return on investment,” said Sehwag reported PTI.
With Gayle and Yuvraj in the team, one will always guarantee the duo a place in the starting XI, but the Punjab based franchise have plans of their own, as they revealed that Yuvraj would be a starter for the first few games and not Gayle as the team wants to bank on the Mayank Agrawal and Aaron Finch who have been in good form since their early days in the IPL. But as Finch is set to miss the first game of the IPL due to his wedding, Gayle will be presented with a chance to be in the starting XI
"Finch is not available for the first game so most likely Gayle will play in his place. So the opening game is not a problem but we have a big headache after that. We will all sit together and take the call. I believe Finch is such a player that he can play anywhere," said the former Indian player.
The KXIP had only retained Axar Patel to their squad and used the RTM cards to bring back Marcus Stoinis, David Miller, and Mohit Sharma to the side. With the addition of KL Rahul, Ashwin, and Karun Nair, the former Indian opener feel that his team would fancy their chances to win the IPL this season.
“The kind of team we have this year, we can win the championship. We have spent a lot of money on some of the players, so hopefully, they will do the job. This surely is the best KXIP team in the last 10 years," said the 39-year-old.
And with the addition of Rahul, Agrawal, Nair etc, Sehwag is confident about his team’s chances of winning the title.
"Last few years, our Indian players were not that good except Wriddhiman Saha and Axar Patel. That was one gap. If you want to win the IPL, you have to have good Indian players. We have four to five of them this time. We were also struggling with Indian batting line-up which could hold the innings together. Guys like Rahul, Nair and Manoj Tiwary can hold the middle order. We have explosive openers in Gayle and Finch, and down the order, we have David Miller. Hopefully, they will do well against spinners," said the head coach of KXIP.
Sehwag also admitted that he is counting on Ashwin to bring out the best in the likes of Andrew Tye, Ankit Rajpoot, Barinder Singh
"We don't have an experienced bowling line-up but we have very good one. I am sure Ashwin will bring the best out of them,” said the former Indian captain
"The way a bowler-captain thinks, he can also help other bowlers on the field. That is why I am a great fan of Kapil Dev, Imran Khan