Punjab Kings looked unstoppable after seven straight wins but three defeats on the bounce have flipped the mood. A strong start now feels dangerously unstable.
Key Points
- Fielding lapses and dropped catches cost crucial runs.
- Bowling inconsistency at key stages of innings.
- Over-reliance on top order leaving batting fragile when they fail.
- Middle order failing to rebuild or finish chases.
For Punjab Kings fans, it's a familiar kind of frustration -- not the heavy defeats but the matches that slip away.
In IPL 2026, that pattern has resurfaced again. A few missed chances, dropped catches and sudden loss of control have been enough to turn winnable games into defeats.
For a month, this felt different. Seven matches unbeaten on the trot. Top of the table.
Shreyas Iyer looking calm, commanding leader this franchise had always craved. Openers Priyansh Arya and Prabhsimran Singh terrorising bowling attacks.
The dressing room was a happy place. Iyer called it a 'fairytale start' and for once, no one thought he was exaggerating.
Then came the Rajasthan Royals loss. Fine, could happen to anyone.
Then Gujarat Titans. Okay, they were due a wobble.
Then, on Wednesday evening at the Rajiv Gandhi international stadium in Hyderabad -- a ground where Punjab haven't won since 2015, eleven long years of hurt at a single venue -- came Sunrisers Hyderabad. And with them, a 33 run defeat.
Three defeats in a row. Lost to RR. Lost to GT. Lost to SRH. Just weeks ago, Punjab were being talked about as potential champions. Now they can't string together a single win.
And here is the question that every Punjab fan is whispering and nobody in that dressing room wants to answer out loud -- did Punjab Kings peak too early?
The Momentum Question
Momentum in T20 cricket is not a cliche. Teams that ride it long enough start believing they are unbeatable and that belief makes them play better. Punjab had all of that through their seven-game winning streak.
But momentum is also the most fragile thing in sport. One loss becomes two and suddenly the decisions that felt natural start feeling forced. The batter who was middling everything starts chasing wide ones. And the fielder who was taking blinders starts putting down sitters.
That is what has happened to Punjab Kings in the space of three matches. A team that looked like it knew how to win a cricket match now looks like it has forgotten.
Shreyas Iyer, who has been one of the sharpest cricketing minds this season, has to find a way to stop the rot and fast with the knockout stage looming.
How Dropped Catches Shattered PBKS’s Campaign
Punjab Kings' fielding just didn't hold up. Simple chances were put down and even routine stops started to look shaky.
On Wednesday against SRH, Ishan Kishan was dropped on 9. Heinrich Klaasen was dropped on 9. Then Kishan was dropped again on 18. Three lives handed to two of T20 cricket's most destructive batters and they made Punjab pay every single run. Klaasen strode to 69. Kishan hammered 55. SRH posted 235/4.
Now consider this: If those catches had been taken, SRH could realistically have been bowled out under 200. Punjab lost by 33 runs chasing 236. The arithmetic is devastating and there is no tactical genius or batting masterclass that compensates for that level of self-destruction in the field.
But here's what makes dropped catches particularly poisonous in T20 cricket as spilling a catch destroys a bowler's rhythm. It shifts momentum to the opposition in one instant.
A bowler who has beaten the batter, induced the edge, done everything right -- watches the catch go down and has to reset completely, knowing the batter now has a second life and a point to prove.
In high-scoring chases, these errors are the difference between winning and losing. And Punjab are proving that truth game after game.
Irfan Pathan, rarely one to mince words, was absolutely done with it from the commentary box. He said he had never seen such poor fielding and so many dropped catches from a single team across one tournament. He wasn't wrong.
Punjab have now spilled 18 catches this season. Shashank Singh in particular has become a liability in the field, with the ball finding him at every turn and him consistently failing to hold on.
What makes it worse, as Pathan noted, is that it isn't just the specialist fielders -- the better fielders are putting down absolute dollies too.
Ricky Ponting was blunt: 'Not good enough. Too many dropped catches. It's frustrating when chances come and you don't take them.' No silver lining, no coach-speak. Just barely contained exasperation.
Shreyas Iyer didn't hide either. 'We could have easily delayed their score by 30 to 40 runs,' he said quietly after the match. Thirty to forty runs. On a night they lost by 33. The cruelty of that arithmetic doesn't need elaborating.
A Bowling Attack Running on Empty
Punjab's bowling attack was never their strongest suit -- everyone knew this going in. But in the first seven games, discipline and intent masked the limitations. Now, neither is showing up reliably. They aren't hitting their lengths. They're offering width. They're not executing their plans.
The combination of poor fielding and an untidy bowling attack is proving lethal. Teams aren't just beating Punjab now -- they are beating them comfortably.
When SRH dismantled Punjab's top order on Wednesday and never really looked back, Ravi Shastri in the commentary box summed it up simply: SRH were always ahead in the game. That is the most damning verdict of all -- not that Punjab fought and lost, but that they never truly felt like they were in it.
The Middle Order Problem Nobody Wants to Talk About
Here's the uncomfortable truth that the Punjab Kings management has been quietly hoping the openers would paper over: Remove Priyansh Arya and Shreyas Iyer from this batting lineup, and what you have left is a collection of capable power-hitters who lack the temperament to build an innings under pressure.
PBKS Assistant Coach Brad Haddin acknowledged as much before the game, not quite meaning to. He spoke glowingly about the openers' 'no-fear approach' -- which is a wonderful quality but also a polite way of saying the entire team's batting identity flows from two people.
When the openers click, the middle order looks effortless. When they don't, the chase becomes a scramble. Cooper Connolly's breathtaking 107* saved some face against SRH, but it was a lone hand. No other batter built something meaningful around him.
This is Punjab's deepest structural problem. They have long been a team that wins on top-order brilliance but lacks the depth to dig out of trouble when Plan A fails. The business end of a tournament is precisely where Plan B matters most and right now, Punjab don't look like they have one.
2014, 2018, and Now
Punjab fans will recognise the ghost that has started hovering over this season. The 2014 Kings XI Punjab side was arguably the most talented they ever assembled -- Glenn Maxwell, David Miller, Mitchell Johnson, a young Axar Patel, guided by the canny George Bailey. They were the talk of that tournament, made the final and still lost to KKR as the opposition chased down 200 in 19.3 overs. That 2014 team never recovered its momentum once it was gone.
The 2018 side started brightly and then faded precisely as the competition intensified and opponents figured them out.
The comparisons to 2026 aren't flattering but they aren't unfair either -- a strong start, an inability to sustain it and structural weaknesses that better opposition eventually exposes.
The difference -- and this is important -- is that Punjab still control their destiny. One more win from their remaining matches will almost certainly lock up a playoff spot. And on their day, this team is still capable of brilliance -- Connolly is a generational talent, the opening pair are among the most explosive in the tournament, and Chahal remains a serious weapon.
The table at the top now has SRH sitting where Punjab were.
Punjab Kings have had a strong first half of their 2026 season. Now everything depends on what comes next -- whether they finish it well and turn it into success, or let it slip away again.
© 2026