One of Punjab Kings’ (PBKS) possible weaknesses as the IPL 2025 playoffs approach is their bowling. With PBKS mostly depending on Arshdeep Singh, Marco Jansen, and Yuzvendra Chahal, the bowlers have failed to perform under duress, despite the fact that the potent batting lineup has routinely scored 200 runs or more. PBKS’s prospects of placing in the top two were harmed on Saturday when they were unable to defend 206 against the Delhi Capitals (DC). According to Anil Kumble, their previous head coach, “it’s certainly worrying”
“Yes [PBKS should be concerned about their bowling],” Kumble stated on the Time Out program on ESPNcricinfo. “We’ve witnessed that in action. We don’t know what happened to Chahal [who missed the game], aside from Arshdeep and, to a certain extent, without [Harpreet] Brar. It’s undoubtedly concerning. This is concerning because Marco Jansen won’t be participating in the playoffs.
After the match, Sunil Joshi, the spin-bowling coach for PBKS, explained that Chahal had been rested because to a niggle. Brar returned 2 for 41 as the lead spinner in Chahal’s absence, but it wasn’t enough because DC scored 114 runs from the final 57 balls and PBKS was unable to control the chase.
With 16 wickets at an economy rate of 8.70 in 13 games, Arshdeep has been their best bowler. Chahal and Jansen, who will miss the playoffs due to South Africa’s commitments, have each taken 14 wickets. Despite playing just six games, Brar, a left-arm spinner, has made an impression by taking nine wickets at an economy rate of 8.50. Marcus Stoinis hasn’t had a lot of work to do, while all-rounder Azmatullah Omarzai hasn’t been very impressive either, taking five wickets in five innings at an economy rate of 10.60.
PBKS captain Shreyas Iyer claimed that they “went a bit overboard” in trying bouncers and failed to carry out their intentions following their six-wicket loss to DC.
On the broadcast, Iyer stated, “I thought it was a great score, to be honest, on this wicket because it was helping the seamer.” I thought that was overwhelming because of the strange bounce, the inconsistent bounce, and the fact that the ball wasn’t moving at the same speed.
“I believe that our execution lacked sufficient discipline. We intended to bowl as many hard lengths as we could after reading the wicket in the first innings. directly in the stumps. I believe we attempted to take wickets and bowled bouncers a little too aggressively. I couldn’t do that, but the lads learnt a lot.”
Kumble and Tom Moody cautioned that the team’s momentum may be derailed by the defeat, and that they shouldn’t begin to doubt themselves at the end of the competition, since PBKS has just one game left in the league phase.
When you have momentum, you feel as though you’re ahead of the game even though the contest is starting on an even playing field. “Yeah, momentum’s a funny thing,” Moody replied.
“But when you don’t have momentum, you feel like you’re behind the game and you’re having to catch up to get even to start the game.”
However, Iyer came off as upbeat and didn’t want to “dwell too much” on the loss.
“It [the IPL] is bigger than a [English] Premier League, I feel, because every team is equally poised in this tournament,” he stated. “You never know when something will happen, but you must maintain your composure and optimism as much as you can since tomorrow will always bring a sunrise. You enter the room with a new perspective and make sure to stay focused on the here and now rather than dwelling too much on the events of the day.
“We’ve got to go back to the drawing board and see where we went wrong and definitely come in with a strong set of plans so that we’ll be able to execute pretty well in the next game.”
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