Punjab Kings’ fast bowling coach James Hopes summed up the franchise’s campaign this season by calling it “frustrating”, as the Shreyas Iyer-led team lost their sixth match on the trot and now stand close to elimination from the IPL 2026 playoff race.
“Frustrating, to be honest. We are staring it in the face now. There’s still hope, but we need to turn it around. We need to tidy up some areas. I felt, with the ball, we didn’t create enough opportunities early,” Hopes said in the post-match press conference.
“We controlled the powerplay pretty well, but every time we’d get back the momentum, they’d be getting a big over and get back on top. And then in the chase, we sort of got going, but then, yeah, just petered out. We lost too many wickets early,” he added.
However, Hopes dismissed any suggestions that off-field controversies triggered their sudden slide after PBKS had a dream start to the season and were favourites to qualify for the playoffs.
“I don’t think any off-field stuff derailed our campaign. What derailed our campaign was our inability to take control of momentum in games. Every time it looked like we were about to do it, we’d do something to hurt ourselves or trip ourselves up,” he said.
Punjab’s lead pacer Arshdeep Singh had another listless outing against Royal Challengers Bengaluru on Sunday, where he returned figures of 1 for 43. But Hopes backed the struggling left-arm pacer.
“I think, to be honest, Arshdeep bowled well in the back half of the tournament, like, very well. He’s been aggressive. There’s been players and misses.
“There’s been catches dropping short of people, and some missed opportunities. He fronts up every training session, every game, ready to go. And today was no different. He’s a warrior,” he said.
Meanwhile, RCB pacer Josh Hazlewood said he enjoys sharing the new ball with Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and also feed off from his knowledge in Indian conditions.
“He (Bhuvneshwar) gets wickets every game. He keeps the runs down. I guess it’s just having that different base of knowledge of growing up in India and playing in these conditions, playing against these players a lot of the time.
“So I guess that’s probably the difference. He’s got a lot of knowledge on the people we’re coming up against, the grounds we’re playing at. Even though we’re different bowlers, it’s still very useful information for not just me, but the whole bowling attack.”
RCB became the first team to make it to the playoffs and Hazlewood was glad that the team would have enough break before Qualifier 1.
“Yeah, I guess it’s good to get a hit out on this field. We’re going to come up to similar conditions, maybe not against the same opposition, but it’s great to get a game here before Qualifier 1.
“So, yeah, just the things we learned tonight, we’ll take that forward. We’ve got some nice breaks. We’ve got a few days before the Hyderabad game and then a few days again before Q1. So, nice time to freshen up this time of the tournament and, yeah, come back here all guns blazing,” he added.
