Shreyas Iyer’s switch from the Kolkata Knight Riders to the Punjab Kings has earned him a big fan base from Punjab fans. Iyer had almost given PBKS their first-ever IPL title had his team not fallen short at the final hurdle to Royal Challengers Bengaluru in IPL 2025.
However, his stellar form and leadership have earned him the nickname of ‘Sarpanch’. Shreyas was in insane form last year. He scored 604 runs in 17 innings in IPL 2025 with some stellar knocks, including a marvellous 87* against the Mumbai Indians in Qualifier 2.ย
Shreyas needs to turn his poor form in New Chandigarh
With the new IPL season upon them, the Sarpanch looks to land a punch as he aims to make a similar impact that he created last year. However, he will have to turn the tide in his form in New Chandigarh, the venue for PBKS’ opener against Gujarat Titans in IPL 2026.
The PBKS skipper has played five games at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium in New Chandigarh but has not enjoyed batting at the Mullanpur venue. In those five games, he has scored just 27 runs at a strike rate of 100. His highest score at the venue was 10, while all of his other four knocks have been single-digit scores.
PBKS ‘stronger’ than last year, no gaps: Ricky Pontingย
Meanwhile, PBKS head coach Ricky Ponting feels that his team is even stronger than last year and doesn’t have gaps left. “I don’t think there are too many gaps now,” Ponting said ahead of PBKS’ season opener. “I saw it last year. I think I saw it was really well-balanced last year. I think, once again, if you look at our entire squad make-up, we’ve got the players that we want in certain roles, but we’ve also got a back-up player for most of those players right the way down to our 25th player. So I just think overall, we should be stronger.
“Our level of cricket last year was good enough for us to finish on top of the table, but that doesn’t mean anything going into a new season. I talked a lot last year about this team that we put together as being different and a really daring style and brand of cricket, and we’ve got to start that all over again.