There’s a certain kind of quiet that surrounds teams that are on the cusp of something big. Not the silence of absence, but the silence of waiting. Punjab Kings are entering the new season of IPL with exactly that.Last year, after topping the Punjab League stage, Royal Challengers lost a gut-wrenching final to Bengaluru by just six runs. The captain Shreyas Iyer Batting led by 604 runs. Arsdeep Singh Led the bowling with 21 wickets. It was arguably the Punjab Kings’ most complete season in franchise history. And yet, at the end of it all, the trophy still wasn’t theirs.Go beyond limits with our YouTube channel. Subscribe now!Runner-up, the record books would say. But closer observers will remember something else. A side that had begun to overextend itself. And now, as the new season begins, they return not as hopefuls but as a team.At its center stands Shreyas Iyer. In the IPL they are trusted, even assured. Outside of that, especially in India’s T20 conversation, he remains a peripheral figure. It’s a strange duality: a leader of men in one field, a question mark in another. This difference often makes cricketers angry. With Iyer, he has added layers.
Last season, his captaincy was not high. This rarely happens. But it was intentional. A fielding tweak here, a bowling change there, the ability to hold one’s nerve when the game is tilted. What Punjab found in him was not just a batsman who could anchor but a mind that could absorb chaos.Iyer, one of the most decorated active franchise captains in the IPL, has something to prove this season. Not necessarily to the Indian Cricket Board (BCCI), but to himself, and perhaps to the franchise he promises to deliver its first title.This is a fixed squad, built over two careful years. Punjab’s identity is no longer just a matter of temperament. It’s about balance. And much of that depends on his Indian core, a group of players who in many ways mirror Iyer’s own narrative: talented, sometimes overlooked, often decisive.Take their top order. It is expected of both intention and responsibility. Prabhasmaran Singh was the team’s second highest run-scorer in IPL2025, scoring 549 runs in 17 innings at a strike rate of 160.53. The powerplay partnership he formed with Priyansh Arya was the bedrock of PBKS’ dream of reaching the finals.Prabhasmaran is one of those batsmen who was made for T20 cricket – a big-shouldered, right-handed hitter who doesn’t waste the first six overs. He is no longer a possibility. Last season confirmed him as an actor.And then there is Priyansh Arya, the left-hander who burst into the IPL stage in 2025. Arya scored 475 runs in 17 innings at a strike rate of 179.24, setting the record for the most runs by an uncapped debutant. His debut season was sensational. But IPL is a tournament where bowlers adapt quickly. Whether Arya can rise to the challenges thrown at him by the better-prepared bowlers will be one of the most intriguing subplots of this year’s tournament.In the middle order, there is intrigue. Nihal Vadhira and Shashank Singh are probably the most underrated middle order pair in the IPL. Vadhira scored 369 runs at a strike rate of 145.84 in 16 matches in IPL 2025. Shashank, meanwhile, scored 350 runs throughout the season, including an unbeaten 61 off 30 balls in the final against RCB. That knock by Shashank in the final – because of the loss, knowing the title was slipping away, yet hanging on – told you everything about the character of this Punjab team.Where Punjab have quietly marched on some rivals is in the all-rounders department. The trio of Marcus Stoins, Marco Johnson and Azmatullah Umarzai provided them with sevens bowling muscle and long batting, while Harpreet Brar and Suryanesh Shidge added Indian options who could contribute with both bat and ball.Among the bowlers Yuzvinder Chahal Punjab will be the strike spinner. Retained at Rs 18 crore, the 35-year-old Chahal is the highest paid player in the squad along with Arsdeep Singh.As the Punjab Kings prepare to begin their 2026 campaign against the Gujarat Titans on March 31, the narrative around them has fundamentally changed. They are no longer the perennial underdogs of the IPL. They are the defending runners-up, a heavyweight contender with a score to settle.
