Soon after Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) mentor Virender Sehwag announced India’s premier off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin as captain of the KXIP team for the Indian Premier League (IPL) season 11, fans across the globe couldn’t stop reacting on social media over the decision.
While there are few who supported KXIP’s decision to make Ashwin their leader, the majority were opposed to the move, and suggested a different name for the KXIP franchise.
“Rename your team to Kings XI Madras and stop embarrassing us,” one of the KXIP fans commented on Facebook.
Here's @virendersehwag explaining the reason why @ashwinravi99 was chosen as the player to lead the team! #KingOfTheNorth #LivePunjabiPlayPunjabi pic.twitter.com/rFcYhYSqGE
— Kings XI Punjab (@lionsdenkxip) 27 February 2018
Sehwag on February 26 went live on KXIP’s official Facebook page to announce this decision and here’s how some of the fans reacted:
Earlier, during the IPL 11 player’s auction on January 28, KXIP paid a whopping Rs 7.6 crore to purchase Ashwin after his former franchise, Chennai Super Kings (CSK), sent him into the auction pool.
Ashwin owns superb stats in India’s own T20 league. In 111 matches played so far in the IPL over the years, Ashwin has claimed 100 wickets with best bowling figures of 34/4.
Kings XI Punjab full squad:
Axar Patel (Retained, Rs 6.5 crore), Ravichandran Ashwin (Rs 7.6 crore), Karun Nair (Rs 5.6 crore), KL Rahul (Rs 11 crore), David Miller (3 crore Retained via RTM), Aaron Finch (Rs 6.2 crore), Yuvraj Singh (Rs 2 crore), Marcus Stoinis (Rs 6.2 crore Retained via RTM), Mayank Agarwal (Rs 1 crore), Ankit Singh Rajpoot (Rs 3 crore), Manoj Tiwary (Rs 1 crore), Mohit Sharma (Rs 2.4 crore Retained via RTM), Mujeeb Zadran (Rs 4 crore), Barinder Sran (Rs 2.2 crore), Andrew Tye (Rs 7.2 crore), Akshdeep Nath (Rs 1 crore), Ben Dwarshuis (Rs 1.4 crore), Mayank Dagar (Rs 20 Lakh), Pradeep Sahu (Rs 20 Lakh), Chris Gayle, (Rs 2 crore)
