Punjab Kings coach Bayliss backs Curran, Shahrukh and Livingstone to fire in IPL 2023

Mumbai, March 31 (PTI) Punjab Kings head coach Trevor Bayliss is confident that the likes of Sam Curran, Liam Livingstone and India’s Shahrukh Khan will fire in unison for his side in the Indian Premier League.

Punjab Kings will hope for a better show than last year under their new captain Shikhar Dhawan. However, the team will be without some key overseas players to begin with.

While Rabada is on national duty and Bairstow is ruled out for the entire season due to an injury, Livingstone will join the squad after a delay since he could not get a fitness clearance from the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).

“I think before I came on board, they recognised, after the last season, that they need someone to finish the innings off and our tactic at the auction was to get an all-rounder who could bat towards the end of a batting innings but is also able to bowl,” Bayliss told the media in Mohali on Friday.

“The idea was to get an international all-rounder and we are hoping that Sam Curran will be that player for us. He has done pretty well in international cricket and in the last (T20) World Cup. We are quite happy that we got him on board.
“Shahrukh looks in good form, he is hitting the ball well and hard. Livingstone is one of those players who is not with us here just at the moment but we are hoping to have him with us very shortly,” Bayliss added.

Bayliss, who coached England to 50-over World Cup win in 2019, hoped that the young players in the PBKS squad would be able to deliver in the absence of key players Rabada, Livingstone and Bairstow.

“We have got about three guys who are unavailable from the original squad at the moment who would be hard to replace and these are good international players. But it is an opportunity for other players to make a name for themselves,” Bayliss said.

The Australian coach said his side would wait and watch others on the new rule of impact player being implemented with this IPL. “We have had a few meetings about it. At the start we want to keep it simple, not try to complicate it. Yes, it is a new rule and I think we can make it as simple as possible,” he said.

“The main thing is that you want players to be concentrating on what they do. And that is not (with the) XI that is out there but the five reserves as well, concentrating on how they might play because we could call them at any time.

“We have just been trying to organise it or prepare an XI and (approach it) with a degree of flexibility with how the game is going.

“It will certainly be interesting to see how the other teams use it as well. I would like to think that if you have an impact player, he should be in the XI to begin with. It will be interesting to see how many teams with the toss and bat first. I think most of the teams winning the toss will bowl first.”

Talking about the new rule of players now being allowed to challenge some on-field calls such as wide balls, Bayliss said, “With DRS, the best way to use it is to remember why it was brought in for. It was brought in to do away with the bad decisions or shockers.

“In any DRS appeal the best idea is not to use it unless you think it is a bad one (decision). I think that is the way we will be going about it.”