Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar questioned the approach of Punjab Kings (PBKS) batters during Qualifier 1 of IPL 2025 against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) on Thursday. In the battle of the top two teams from the league phase, RCB sparked a PBKS batting collapse at Mullanpur. Josh Hazlewood (3/21) and Suyash Sharma (3/17) shared six wickets between them as RCB rolled over PBKS for 101. Marcus Stoinis top-scored for PBKS 17-ball 26 while Azmatullah Omarzai (18) and Prabhsimran Singh were the other batters to register double-figure scores.
After one of the dismissals, Gavaskar blasted PBKS batters on-air for their shot selection, labelling their approach as suicidal. “That’s like committing suicide,” Gavaskar was heard as saying.
Gavaskar also blasted PBKS captain Shreyas Iyer after he was dismissed for a three-ball two in the 4th over. Shreyas went for a wild slog off Hazlewood on his third ball of the innings but was caught behind.
“This is not a good shot. This is a nothing shot. One can understand if you are trying to play it over long off, but this is just a wild swing. Two wickets down, just the fourth over going,” he said
Stoinis was clean bowled by Suyash on the third ball of the 11th over. It was a tossed up delivery on off and Stoinis tried to hack it with the turn over midwicket. However, the ball spun sharply and beat Stoinis’ inside edge, going on to rattle the stumps.
On a surface where hitting through the line proved to be tricky, the all-out attack strategy of the Punjab Kings contributed to their downfall after they were put in to bat. Their innings lasted just 14.1 overs.
Musheer Khan, making an unexpected IPL debut as an impact player with wickets falling in heap, too fell to a sweep off Suyash, who got his googly to turn sharply.
(With PTI Inputs)
