And just like that Shreyas Iyer and Punjab Kings’ world has come crashing down in the Indian Premier League.
When it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. That’s how PBKS have played in the last few games. Now it turns out they didn’t see it the right way. Something was broken and at present it has got worse, yes, it looks shattered.
Punjab Kings are a victim of early success. Six wins and a washout in their first 7 games. Iyer, the Sarpanch, was being praised unequivocally. The ‘Hukam’ track by Karan Aujla was being used copiously in reels, especially when they beat Mumbai Indians the last time around.
Arshdeep Singh and Harpreet Brar singing along with glee in many reels. Even head coach Ricky Ponting was caught in the whole thing. There is a line in the Punjabi song that roughly translates to “We will shake things up as far as Bombay.”
No further commentary needed on that front. Readers can guess the rest.
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But after Thursday night’s defeat, it’s all gloom for Iyer’s men. They now have tasted five defeats in a row. With one match having been a washout against Kolkata Knight Riders earlier, now they are racing against time to qualify for the play-offs.
The Dharamsala pitch has made it worse for them. In their two matches here so far, they have lost to two weak teams in IPL 2026. Delhi Capitals got the better of them rather convincingly earlier this week as they chased down 211. The hosts were a few runs short that day, and on Thursday that story repeated itself. As a result Mumbai Indians didn’t break much sweat and chased down 201 in the last over.
Dharamsala has exposed a few things!
This IPL, the Dharamsala pitch has been hands-down the most lively. It’s colder out there in the hills and pacers are getting a lot of help all through. In the matches before, Punjab Kings’ blueprint was simple: just whack the ball right from the outset. They even chased down 265 against Delhi Capitals. Not that they totally deserved it but sometimes luck does strange things and misleads you. Karun Nair dropped two sitters off the bat of Iyer to make it a nightmarish outing for his team.
PBKS have not won since.
They failed to adapt to the new conditions. Prabhsimran Singh, Cooper Connolly and Iyer — three in-form batsmen before the Dharamsala leg — they have struggled here. Although, they have got runs, they haven’t come thick and fast like they did previously.
Iyer got a fifty against DC, and Prabhsimran got a fifty against MI last night, but their strike rate significantly went down. They also forgot that on swinging and seaming wickets, every bowler was to be taken seriously. Against DC, they didn’t take Madhav Tiwari seriously and on Thursday they didn’t take Shardul Thakur seriously. And the medium pacers turned the matches on their heads with two and four wickets respectively against the run of play.
PBKS really need to pull their socks up. They play one more match at Dharamsala on Sunday against one of the favourites at present, Royal Challengers Bengaluru where Virat Kohli looks menacing. Then they travel to Lucknow Super Giants after five days’ rest, on May 23 in what is their last league-stage game. They have to beat RCB at all costs. They can’t leave it late till the LSG game. It’s largely the batting that has let them down in their defeats. They know what to fix now.