The English all-around star Liam Livingstone joined the Punjab Kings (PBKS) team on April 11. The Shikhar Dhawan-led team has won two of the first three games of the IPL 2023. They will play the current champions, the Gujarat Titans (GT), on Thursday, April 13, at the Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium in Mohali.
Livingstone didn’t play in the Punjab Kings‘ first three games because he was still getting over a knee injury that had kept him out of action since December 2022. Notably, he hasn’t played any competitive games since making his Test debut for England against Pakistan in Rawalpindi. When the handsome English player comes back, the Punjab Kings might get a big boost.
On April 12, PBKS posted a video to Twitter of Livingstone going to the nets before the game against GT. “Who’s coming back? Back again! Tell your friends that Liam is back!” PBKS wrote an emoji of a winking face as the post’s caption.
On Thursday, Punjab Kings will play GT in Mohali.
At the IPL 2022 mega-auction, PBKS paid a huge INR 11.50 crore to buy Livingstone. In the last season of the money-making league, the 29-year-old all-rounder scored 437 runs in 14 games at an incredible strike rate of 182.08, and he also had a good average of 36.42. He also got four half-centuries in his first season with PBKS. Livingstone was a great batter, but he was also a good spin bowler. He took six wickets with an economy of 8.78 last year.
In their first two games, Punjab Kings beat Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals. However, on April 9, in Hyderabad, they lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). With four points from three games, the Kings are currently sixth in the IPL 2023 points table. On Thursday, PBKS will try to get back on track when they play the Gujarat Titans. Notably, the team led by Hardik Pandya also lost to KKR in a nail-biting game on Sunday.
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