Kings XI Punjab's Big Names and Bigger Flops: Top-Five Possible Reasons for Early IPL 8 Exit

Kings XI Punjab created an army of critics due to their unimpressive performance in first six Indian Premier League seasons. All that changed in 2014 when the franchise stormed into the final, only to go down against Kolkata Knight Riders. The silenced critics may have found their scathing voice back once again with the George Bailey-led team ending the season mopping up the bottom of IPL  table.

What makes the team's tale woefully morbid is the fact that a long list of star cast failed to deliver a blockbuster. In fact, they combined to deliver the biggest flop of the season with just three wins from 11 matches. Where did those sixes disappear? What happened to broken timber and glistening catches? Was 2014 just a fluke or will 2015 just be a minor glitch in an otherwise highly-skilled unit?

Here are the top-five possible reasons why - for all their prowess on paper, Kings XI Punjab could only muster a pathetically paltry six points this season.

1) Dilapidated  bowling disintegrates into nothingness

Bowling was always Punjab's weak spot. The team conceded 190-plus on five occasions in 2014 but managed to avoid disaster on several occasions due to big hitting. With big guns falling silent this year, the bowling was left brutally exposed with not an inch of killer intent to drape their cricketing modesty with.

When a team's best bowler is Anureet Singh - an inexperienced 27-year-old rookie - it showcases the likes of Mitchell Johnson in extremely poor light. Anureet claimed 15 wickets while Johnson was the fourth best in the team with nine successes. Even Sandeep Sharma - last year's hero of sorts - could do little other than complete his quota of four-overs-per-game. At seven-an-over, Sandeep was also the most economical of Punjab's 'top' bowlers this year - Axar Patel (8.40), Anureet (9) and Johnson (9.37) being the others in this category.

2) Absence of a credible and skillful spinner

There may just be two spinners in the top seven wicket-takers till before the playoffs but the contribution of the slower bowlers in the larger scheme of things - containing runs and quickening the bowling rate among others - was sorely missed by Punjab.

Axar's left arm orthodox was their main weapon along with Karanveer Singh's leg-breaks. The inexperience was written all over their faces each time they were whacked out of the park. The whacks were indeed thunderous - ones that saw the two bowlers going into a shell. Where a seasoned campaigner would have seen aggression as an invitation to a mistake, Punjab's slower bowler saw it as intimidation - laying down their arms abjectly.

3) Boom Boom bats fall silent

Glenn Maxwell, Virender Sehwag and David Miller together scored 1453 runs last season. The trio scored a total of 601 runs - that's just 49 more than Maxwell's individual contribution of 552 last year. By any stretch of cricketing statistics, this highlights a complete breakdown of the batting machinery.

Not one of the several batting superstars could deliver this year - painting a picture in complete contrast to the one so brazenly coloured last year. Murali Vijay and Wriddhiman Saha were of some solace but the two could hardly do much in a game meant to be played by 11.

4) Faulty decisions stemming from pressure

Coach Sanjay Bangar was lauded immensely for galvanizing his men last year. This year, he was found floundering to pin point why the fledgling team was mercilessly stomped on.

"The line between success and failure is very very slim," he has said in one of the press conferences towards the end of the league stages. "There have been occasions wherein the decision-making under pressure has been found wanting, probably that could be one of the reasons."

From decisions ranging from brining in Beuran Eric Hendricks late into the tournaments to dropping Shaun Marsh after a duck and benching Sehwag after a few matches, it was quite a clueless Punjab unit on the field, and off it as well.

5) Unimaginative shopping in IPL 2015 auctions

Kings XI Punjab franchise may have been guilty of basking in the glory of 2014. The team bought just three players. More shockingly, they let go off Mandeep Singh to Bangalore.

Where other franchises were strategizing, the management of Punjab may well have been snoozing. Overconfidence then, may have brought about the downfall. It is interesting to point out here though that buying Vijay turned out to be a small consolation but other than the opener, the auctions may have only been a casual day out for the franchise.