‘Sometimes the batting was clicking, sometimes the bowling’ - Shikhar Dhawan analyses Punjab Kings' IPL 2023 season

After a four-wicket defeat at the hands of Rajasthan Royals in their final league game of the ongoing IPL 2023, Punjab Kings bowed out of the tournament as they failed to qualify for the playoffs and finished the season in a disappointing manner.

Analysing their performance in the 16th edition of the tournament, skipper Shikhar Dhawan mentioned that they did well in patches as sometimes, the batters did well while sometimes the bowlers were the ones stepping up. He also added that since it’s a young group, everyone got to learn a lot this season, and stated that the team could have done well in certain areas, including fielding, which was very poor throughout the course of the season.

“The bowling was good (in patches), but the fielding wasn’t great, the dropped catches cost us the game. We could have done better in all the areas I think. Sometimes the batting was clicking, and sometimes the bowling was clicking, we couldn’t put up those performances together. It’s a young group, so we have learned a lot of things this season,” Dhawan said in the post-match presentation.

Dhawan analyses their defeat against Rajasthan Royals

Batting first, the home side suffered a few early blows but the 64-run partnership between Sam Curran and Jitesh Sharma brought PBKS back to the game. The England international eventually smashed 49* runs off 31 deliveries while the stumper-batter hit 44 runs off 28 deliveries. Towards the fag end of the innings, Shahrukh Khan wreaked havoc, scoring 41* runs off 23 deliveries as PBKS posted 187 runs in the first innings. Talking about that, Dhawan lauded the players and also stated that the team could have scored 200 on this wicket.

“We lost too many wickets in the powerplay and that put us on the back foot, but (Sam) Curran, Jitesh (Sharma), and Shahrukh (Khan) got us back in the game. I feel 200 should have been a good total on this pitch," Dhawan added after the match.