Bit-part Stoinis ready for bigger role in PBKS' blockbuster season

The story of Punjab Kings' (PBKS) success in IPL 2025 revolves around how their Indian batters have stood up. Before Saturday, five of them had over 250 runs at strike rates above 150. No other team in any IPL season has had such a record. What has made it even more impressive is that four of them are uncapped in international cricket.

Their boom, and the composition of the side, has resulted in Marcus Stoinis batting largely at No. 7. This is a completely different role to the one he played for Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) last season, when he scored 258 runs in seven innings at a strike rate of 154.49 from No. 3. While Stoinis has played the finisher's role for Australia, he has mostly batted at No. 5 there too. In fact, before this IPL season, he had batted at No. 7 or lower only ten times across 316 T20s.

That said, Stoinis has lapped up his new role. Against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), he blitzed 34 not out off just 11 balls. Against LSG, he applied the finishing touches with 15 not out off five. Both times striking at 300 or more.

On Saturday, playing against Delhi Capitals (DC) in Jaipur, he was at it again. He came out to bat in the 16th over with PBKS 144 for 5. They needed another impactful knock and Stoinis did not disappoint. Off the first four legal deliveries he faced, he crunched two sixes and a four and dented Mukesh Kumar's figures. Having conceded only 24 in his first three overs, the seamer finished with 1 for 49.

Stoinis was on 18 when Mohit Sharma dropped him at deep square-leg off Kuldeep Yadav. When Mohit came to bowl the 19th over, Stoinis rubbed it in by tonking two sixes and two fours. In all, he scored 44 not out off 16 balls and powered PBKS to 206 for 8.

This was Stoinis' first game after returning from Australia. During the break between innings, he was asked if he had nets sessions when the tournament was suspended for a week.

"I actually didn't," he replied. "Unfortunately, I had a bout of Covid when I got back - it was a nice welcome home. So I rested up and came back here."

What has worked for Stoinis in this new role is his ability to take down fast bowlers. Since the start of 2023, he has a strike rate of 151.95 against pace. Against spin, it drops to 128.30. When he comes out at No. 7, typically, the fast bowlers are in operation.

"It is always a bit different when you go out in the end and you go in that one mode," he said. "But I think it was really good for me out there. I was surprised they didn't bowl more slower balls when I was setting up... because I felt they were holding [in the pitch]."

In a way, it was a familiar situation for Stoinis, who had played a similar innings for DC against PBKS (then Kings XI Punjab) in Dubai in 2020. Batting at No. 6, he had scored 53 off 21. Then bowling the final over of the chase, with Punjab needing 13 from six balls and then one from the last three, Stoinis pushed the match into the Super Over, where DC won.

On Saturday, too, he was tasked to bowl the 20th over. But DC took only three balls to score the required eight runs. Stoinis finished with 1.3-0-21-0. With Azmatullah Omarzai also going for 46 from his four wicketless overs, PBKS could not defend what their captain Shreyas Iyer later called an above-par score.

But this is the bargain PBKS have made. By playing both Stoinis and Omarzai, they get Marco Jansen batting at No. 9 and Harpreet Brar at No. 10. While this weakens their bowling somewhat, it allows them to go as hard with the bat as they do, even when they are losing wickets. That's how they have posted seven 200-plus totals in nine innings when batting first.

Another factor in their loss against DC was Yuzvendra Chahal's absence. According to head coach Sunil Joshi, Chahal was "rested" because of a "small niggle". His replacement, Praveen Dubey, bowled only two overs, in which he went for 20. Had Chahal been fit, Omarzai and Stoinis might not have had to bowl six overs.

So far this season, Stoinis has played nine games, faced 65 balls and bowled only 13.1 overs. But from here on, he may have to play a bigger role. Jansen will not be available anymore as he gets ready for the World Test Championship (WTC) final. If Josh Inglis also leaves - he is Australia's reserve wicketkeeper for that final - Stoinis will have to shoulder more responsibility. The good news for PBKS is he seems to be primed for that challenge.