PBKS bowling attack heading into IPL playoffs 'certainly worrying'

As the IPL 2025 playoffs draw near, Punjab Kings (PBKS) find themselves with a potential Achilles' heel - their bowling. Even as the power-packed batting line-up has consistently put up 200-plus scores, the bowlers have struggled to deliver under pressure, with PBKS relying heavily on Arshdeep Singh, Marco Jansen and Yuzvendra Chahal. On Saturday, PBKS failed to defend 206 against Delhi Capitals (DC), which dented their chances of finishing in the top two. Their former head coach Anil Kumble feels "it's certainly worrying".

"Yes [PBKS should be concerned about their bowling]," Kumble said on ESPNcricinfo's Time Out show. "We have seen that on display. Other than Arshdeep and without [Harpreet] Brar to an extent... we don't know what happened to Chahal [who missed the game]. It's certainly worrying. And with Marco Jansen not being there for the playoffs, this is a worry."

PBKS' spin-bowling coach Sunil Joshi clarified after the game that Chahal had been rested because of a niggle. While Brar stepped up in Chahal's absence as the lead spinner to return 2 for 41, it wasn't enough as PBKS failed to control the chase and DC scored 114 runs from the last 57 balls.

Arshdeep has been their best bowler with 16 wickets at an economy rate of 8.70 in 13 matches, while Chahal and Jansen - who will be unavailable for the playoffs owing to South Africa duties - have 14 wickets each. Left-arm spinner Brar has played only six games but has stood out, picking up nine wickets at an economy rate of 8.50. Allrounder Azmatullah Omarzai's recent performances - five wickets in five innings at an economy rate of 10.60 - hasn't been spectacular either, while Marcus Stoinis hasn't had an enormous amount to do.

After the six-wicket defeat to DC, PBKS captain Shreyas Iyer said that they "went a bit overboard" in trying bouncers and failed to execute plans.

"I felt that it was a fantastic score, to be honest, on this wicket because it was helping the seamer," Iyer said on the broadcast. "There was some odd bounce, variable bounce, and, yeah, the ball wasn't coming at the same pace, so I felt that that was overpowering.

"I think we weren't disciplined enough in terms of our execution. Once we read the wicket in the first innings, we had planned that we would be bowling hard lengths as much as possible. Right in the stumps. I think we went a bit overboard in terms of bowling bouncers and tried to take wickets. Couldn't execute that, but a great learning for the boys."

With just one game left in the league phase for PBKS, Kumble and Tom Moody warned that the loss could derail the team's momentum, and that they shouldn't start doubting themselves at the business end of the tournament.

"Yeah, momentum's a funny thing," Moody said, "because when you've got it, you feel like when you go into a contest without bowling a ball, you feel like you're ahead of the game already, even though the contest is starting on an even-playing field.

"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."

Iyer, however, sounded a positive note, and didn't want to "dwell too much" on the defeat.

"It [the IPL] is bigger than a [English] Premier League, I feel, because every team is equally poised in this tournament," he said. "You never know when anything can happen, but you've got to stay positive and stay calm as much as possible, because there's always a sunrise you've got to see tomorrow. You come in with a fresh mindset and also see to it that you're sticking to the present and not dwell too much about what has happened today.

"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."