Punjab Kings in the IPL

Kings XI Punjab

Kings XI Punjab began with Yuvraj Singh as their icon player and reached the semi-finals in 2008, then did not reach the knockouts again until 2014. Brett Lee and Irfan Pathan were among their first expensive buys; Lee played four matches in 2008.

The 2014 final

Punjab's best early season came from the 2014 mega auction, where they bought Glenn Maxwell for ₹6 crore and got 552 runs, alongside David Miller and George Bailey. They topped the league table and reached the final, losing to Kolkata.

The biggest spenders

No franchise has spent more at auction. Punjab were the top spenders in 2018, 2019 and 2022, and have often gone into mega auctions keeping almost nobody: one player in 2018, two in 2022 and two uncapped players in 2025. Some purchases paid off, KL Rahul's 659 runs in 2018 among them; others, such as Glenn Maxwell's return in 2020 and Jhye Richardson in 2021, became symbols of the franchise's reputation for overpaying. Captains changed almost as often as squads. The team was renamed Punjab Kings in 2021. Through all of it the actor Preity Zinta, one of the co-owners, has been the franchise's most visible face.

2025 and a second final

At the 2025 mega auction Punjab spent more than any franchise ever has at a single auction, including ₹26.75 crore for Shreyas Iyer, who had just led Kolkata to the title. Iyer captained them to the final, where they lost to Royal Challengers Bengaluru. Punjab and Delhi remain the two franchises to have played every season without winning the title.

Punjab in CricArcade

In IPL Dynasty you can take Punjab into any auction and see whether a different plan would have won the title their spending never has.

A long list of captains

Few franchises have changed captain as often as Punjab. Yuvraj Singh, Kumar Sangakkara, Adam Gilchrist, George Bailey, Glenn Maxwell, Ravichandran Ashwin, KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Shikhar Dhawan and Shreyas Iyer have all led the side, and the coaching staff has turned over almost as fast. The contrast with Chennai and Mumbai, whose captains stayed for a decade each, is one of the clearest in the league.

The instability shows in the auction record. Punjab have gone into mega auctions keeping fewer players than almost anyone, so each new captain has inherited a squad largely rebuilt around him, and the squad has rarely had time to settle.

Punjab by the numbers

Punjab were the biggest spenders at four auctions, 2018, 2019, 2022 and 2025, as many as any franchise, and their average price per player bought is the highest of the long-standing franchises. Most of that money went on players who did play: nine of their ten most expensive buys played at least ten matches in the season they were bought.

What the numbers do not show is a squad kept together. Punjab have spent a larger share of their money at mega auctions than most franchises, because they have so often started again. Their home matches have moved between Mohali, Dharamsala and, from 2024, a new stadium at Mullanpur.

The players they found

Punjab's record is not only one of expensive misses. Shaun Marsh was the leading run-scorer in the first season. KL Rahul, bought for ₹11 crore in 2018, scored at least 590 runs in each of his four seasons for them and was the leading run-scorer in 2020. Arshdeep Singh was bought uncapped for ₹20 lakh in 2019, developed into India's leading left-arm T20 bowler, was kept before the 2022 mega auction, and was won back with a Right to Match card for ₹18 crore in 2025.

The difficulty has been keeping such players. Rahul left before the 2022 mega auction and became Lucknow's captain; several of Punjab's best buys have had their best seasons after moving on.

A record and a revival

At the 2023 auctionPunjab paid ₹18.5 crore for Sam Curran, then the highest price ever, weeks after he had been player of the tournament at the T20 World Cup. He scored 276 runs and took ten wickets, and captained the side for part of 2024 when Shikhar Dhawan was injured. Like many of Punjab's expensive purchases, he was useful without transforming the team.

The transformation came with Iyer and a nearly new squad in 2025, when Punjab reached the final for only the second time. Whether that squad is kept together, rather than rebuilt again, is the question the franchise's history makes most interesting.

Reading Punjab's tables

The spend chart below has some of the tallest bars of any franchise, and the retention lists are the shortest of the franchises that have played every season. That combination, heavy spending and little continuity, is the franchise's auction history in brief, and the reason the 2025 final felt like such a break with the past for Punjab's supporters.