England legspinner Adil Rashid will be joining the Punjab Kings for the second leg of the IPL 2021, to be held in the UAE from September 19, as the replacement for Australian quick Jhye Richardson. This will be his first stint in the IPL.
It is understood that Rashid will join the Kings on September 8 in Dubai and will be available for the entire second chunk of the tournament. The Kings will land in Dubai on August 29 and undergo the mandatory six-day hotel quarantine before starting their training.
Rashid, who had a base price of INR 1.5 crore (US$ 200,000 approx.), went unsold in the auction held earlier this year. A regular in the England's limited-overs set-up, he has picked up 65 wickets in 62 T20Is at an average of 24.29. In the series against Pakistan in July, Rashid picked up six wickets in two T20Is at a cost of 65 runs in his eight overs.
At the time of this update, Rashid is ranked fourth in the ICC table for T20I bowlers, behind South Africa's Tabraiz Shamsi, who recently signed with the Rajasthan Royals, Sri Lanka's Wanindu Hasaranga, now a Royal Challengers Bangalore player, and Rashid Khan, the Afghanistan stalwart who has been a star for the Sunrisers Hyderabad. That's one off Rashid's best T20I rank, of No. 3, which he achieved in June this year.
The Kings already have legspinners M Ashwin and Ravi Bishnoi and fingerspinning options in Jalaj Saxena, Saurabh Kumar and Harpreet Brar, but Rashid, apart from being much more experienced than the others, could be a smart pick in place of a quick because of the large grounds in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
The Kings had earlier announced the signing of Australian fast bowler Nathan Ellis, who replaced Riley Meredith. Ellis was recently in the spotlight for picking up a hat-trick on his T20I debut against Bangladesh earlier this month. He is also one of the reserve players in Australia's T20I World Cup squad.