Difficulty in batting first hurting Punjab Kings, says skipper Iyer after losing to the Royal Challengers at home.
Difficulty in adapting to the wicket while batting first is leading to under-par totals, says Shreyas Iyer.
With conditions throwing a lot of questions at its batters, Iyer believes Punjab Kings are having a difficult time in the 2025 Indian Premier League, particularly at home in New Chandigarh, where they have played their penultimate match.
PBKS only managed 157 in their 20 overs on Sunday; Josh Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar Kumar bowled a fantastic display of death bowling, producing just 38 in the final five overs. Shashank Singh, a fearsome finisher, failed to find his striking rhythm and failed to knock a single boundary in the final five overs.
They wouldn’t remember their innings with much nostalgia, but it wasn’t as difficult as it was in their last game here, as they successfully protected 110 against the Kolkata Knight Riders.
“If you see, a majority of our batters like to go from ball one,” Iyer said after PBKS went down by seven wickets to RCB. “We’re finding it difficult to assess the wicket if we’re batting first. That has been the scenario from match one.
“Otherwise, we’ve not been able to capitalise on the starts we’ve been getting. It’s just that the wickets have been getting slower and slower, [this] being an afternoon game, we weren’t able to set a total we could defend. Even in the middle phase when we thought we could take on the bowlers, we couldn’t capitalise.”
One of their advantages, according to Iyer, was a “great start” with the bat. Before their dismissals seeking to hit boundaries caused that middle confusion, where they continued to lose wickets despite some superb bowling from Suyash Sharma and Krunal Pandya, Priyansh Arya and Prabhsimran Singh put on just 42 in 4.2 overs.
Arya has set the record in each of the four innings after his century against CSK—22, 16, 22, 36—but hasn’t been able to get going. Prabhsimran, whose scores are 33, 13, 30, and 42, has a similar story.
“We keep talking about adapting to the wicket, but once the ball tends to get old it doesn’t skid off the wicket that well, ” Iyer said. “Both of them are great stroke players, it leads to difficulty to stop their instincts. Once you say they’ve got to play according to situations, it kind of becomes hard for them to comprehend as well.
“If you see other games, they’ve been giving us absolutely brilliant starts. A few of the middle order batters, we need to step up and decide to take bull by the horns and see to it we get the team and bowler.”