Star player set to make his debut for Punjab today

Punjab have been fairly decent so far in the Indian T20 league 2022. In their first two games, they managed to win and lose one game apiece. While they won a high-scoring thriller against Bangalore, they lost to Kolkata in a rather one-sided manner.

However, in what comes as good news for the franchise, Jonny Bairstow is set to make his debut for Punjab on Sunday. According to a report by Sports Tiger, the keeper-batter is set to feature in Punjab's third game of the edition, which is against Chennai. He had arrived a few days ago and is done with the mandatory quarantine. There are a lot of hopes from Bairstow as Punjab spent a huge amount to acquire his services.

The Punjab-based franchise purchased him for INR 6.5 crore during the mega auction. Besides, Bairstow has a breathtaking record in the Indian T20 league and has scored runs for fun. He was with Hyderabad for three editions and went on to become one of their main players. So far, he has scored 1038 runs in 28 games of this cash-rich league.

His batting average and strike rate are 41.52 and 142.19 respectively. This includes seven fifties and a hundred. Thus, his availability comes as a major boost for the Mayank Agarwal-led side. It will be exciting to see who he ends up replacing in the XI.

While Bhanuka Rajapaksa was expected to temporarily be in the XI until the arrival of Bairstow, the Sri Lankan has been really impactful for Punjab in both the games. He scored 43 from just 22 balls against Bangalore and struck two fours and four sixes. During Punjab's second match against Kolkata, he played a handy cameo as he scored 31 in just nine deliveries.

Thus, it's really hard to drop Rajapaksa from the playing XI. Another option Punjab's management have is replacing Liam Livingstone with Bairstow. Despite being purchased for a hefty price, the English all-rounder hasn't lived up to the hype. He failed in both the games, and was unimpressive, to say the least.