Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 Punjab kings (PBKS) is under the leadership of Shreyas Iyer who hopes to achieve better results than last year where the team had finished as runners up. The vice captain of the ODI team of India who guided PBKS to only their second final and third appearances at the playoff said that he was taking up the challenges and expectations of the team.
Another issue that Iyer discussed was the difficult experience in his profession, telling how he lost seven kilograms because of a ruptured spleen he had during the October tour of India to Australia. He also came back to Mumbai after a period of over two months after his surgery in the Vijay Hazare Trophy prior to the January ODI series with the New Zealand national cricket team.
“Expectations are high, which is fun. I love the challenge. But the important thing is that whenever we step in, we have to win. My eye is on the trophy,” Shreyas said at the team’s official jersey launch event as quoted by Cricbuzz.
“It is always challenging to come back after an injury. I had lost around seven kilos and it took a lot of effort to gain that weight back. But I love challenges. I am glad I overcame that part of my life, and I am back here proudly representing the team,” he said.
Punjab Kings were beaten by Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) by six runs at the final stage of the IPL 2025 in Ahmedabad. Iyer made an amazing season scoring 604 runs off a strike rate of 175.07 and an average of 5033. One of the best moments of Qualifier 2 was his 87-match against Mumbai Indians (MI) that he won. The Gujarat Titans (GT) will be the inaugural team to play at PBKS on March 31 at New Chandigarh to start their IPL 2026.
Arshdeep Singh reiterated the message of his captain, that the home support of PBKS in Mullanpur is extremely important. In his reflection, the left-arm bowler credited the management of the team to have believed in him during his initial years of career, which played an important role in shaping him into a regular player of India.
“When you feel the pressure, it is a privilege. It is a lot of fun when you get so much support from the crowd. When people cheer for you, you feel that 30,000 people are running in with you at that time. We will try our best to win all our home matches this year,” Arshdeep said as quoted by Economic Times.
“The journey has been amazing. When I came here for the first time, they gave me full support and showed me my potential. They trusted me a lot when no other team did. I really appreciate that, and I want to stay here for a long time. I am looking forward to winning a lot of trophies for the team,” he added.
