Indore: Former India batsman Virender Sehwag has said he would allow Kings XI Punjab players to play aggressive cricket during season 10 of the Indian Premier League.

Sehwag is the director (cricket operations) for the Kings XI Punjab.

“We are not worried about victory or defeat. I will allow my players to play aggressive cricket (in the IPL),” he told reporters here after unveiling the team’s jersey. “The players of Kings XI Punjab would play fearlessly like I have played,” quipped the right-handed batsman. Sehwag also confirmed that pacer Ishant Sharma, who was not picked by any of the franchises in the IPL auction, is now associated with his team. “It’s a pleasure to inform that Ishant (Sharma) is now picked up by Kings XI. I have an old rapport with him as we played together in Indian team,” he said. To a question, Sehwag said “IPL was known as the game of batsmen but half of the matches in IPL were won due to bowlers, who stopped the batsmen from scoring. So, we have picked Ishant Sharma in place of Murli Vijay to sharpen our bowling attack.” Expressing hope that performance of the team would be better, Sehwag said some players are in good form unlike the last session. “We have good batsmen like Martin Guptill, Glenn Maxwell, Eoin Morgan, Darren Sammy and David Miller. If any two of these batsman perform then we can easily win the match,” he added. Kings XI Punjab was at the bottom of the table last season having eight points in 14 matches. Asked about it, Sehwag said “Now we can’t go down anymore. Now, we can go up. If our players would perform, our team would reach in the play off.” In this IPL, Holkar Stadium is also the home ground for Kings XI Punjab as three matches will be played in the city. Sehwag said the matches at the Holkar stadium would be high scoring ones as it was a small stadium. He said his team would love to play the matches with five bowlers. – PTI