In a rather surprising move by the Kings XI Punjab management, David Miller was axed from captaincy and replaced by M. Vijay. Miller, who failed to stimulate the Kings XI unit in this edition of the IPL, was removed midway through the tournament as the skipper of the side. M. Vijay now shall take over the reins of the team with a challenging situation ahead of him as the Kings XI are positioned at the last spot in the points table.
Sanjay Bangar, coach of the Kings XI Punjab confirmed that Vijay would lead the side for the remaining games. The former Indian all rounder backed Vijay to do well as the Kings XI captain and gave instances of his previous captaincy stints. Bangar, also said that the burden of leading the side was adversely affecting Miller’s batting form.
“We felt that the responsibility of captaincy was in a way affecting David’s batting. So the decision was just to free him up from the additional responsibilities and we are looking forward to his contributions with the bat. David remains an integral part of the team and we look forward to his vital contributions to the team’s cause,” said Bangar.
Backing Vijay to do well, Bangar said, “This is not the first instance when there has been a change in captaincy. There have been instances in the past as well. It is basically that we are looking to turn things around and it is a step in that direction.” “I think he was very keen to take up that role. He did it well and did it very successfully for Tamil Nadu, I think, in the 2009-10 season,” Bangar said. “Under his captaincy, the team won a couple of championships, the T20, and One-Day championships. So, he has the experience of captaincy and what we felt was that he has settled into the team very nicely which wasn’t the case last year.”
Bangar was generous in praising bowlers of his side despite a poor run so far. “Not just about the overseas players, we would like our Indian players to perform well also. Our Indian bowlers have been really good – Mohit Sharma, Sandeep Sharma. They have bowled well for us. “So it’s the matter of a batsman or a bowler putting his hand up and converting the 30s and 40s into something substantial where you want to have one batsman batting up to the 15th or 16th over so that you can give the stroke players the freedom of playing their strokes. That is something the players are trying really hard. And we are expecting that the turnaround is round the corner.”