IPL 2019: Kings XI Punjab trade Aussie all-rounder Marcus Stoinis

The 12th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is still a few months away, but the teams have already pulled their socks up to get their combinations in place. Earlier this month, the Mumbai Indians roped in Quinton de Kock from Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and released Bangladesh fast bowler Mustafizur Rahman and Sri Lankan off-break bowler Akila Dananjaya.

Talks of Indian opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan leaving Sunsrisers Hyderabad (SRH) has been doing the rounds for the last few days. In the meantime, it has been learned that Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) have traded Australian all-rounder Marcus Stoinis and brought Mandeep Singh, who played for the Virat Kohli-captained franchise, as per reports in Mumbai Mirror.

Punjab was captained by Ravichandran Ashwin and they made an impressive start to the event. However, a string of defeats in the second half of the round robin phase meant that they couldn’t qualify for the playoffs. They are among the few IPL teams to not have won the T20 tournament even once, their best performance coming in the 2014 edition.

Mandeep has experience for Punjab

Stoinis was brought by Punjab in 2016 for INR 55 lakhs and he went on to play 19 matches for them across three seasons in which he scored 262 runs and nipped out 13 wickets. Last season, Punjab used the Right To Match (RTM) card on the cricketer and bagged him for a whopping INR 6.20 crores. In the 2018 edition, the 29-year-old played only four encounters.

Mandeep, on the contrary, had a fairly decent season for the Challengers last time around. He mostly batted in the lower middle-order and racked up 188 runs in 11 matches at an average of 18.80 with one half-century to his credit. The 26-year-old has previously plied his trade for Punjab, which also happens to be his home team.

Get the latest Cricket News and updates, Match Predictions, Fantasy Cricket Tips and lots more on CricTracker.com.