Former Indian cricketer Murali Karthik blamed Punjab Kings (PBKS) captain Shreyas Iyer after the defeat against Rajasthan Royals (RR) in IPL 2026. Karthik blamed Iyer as the main culprit and said that his slow strike rate caused Punjab Kings to lose the match at the Maharaja Yadvendra Singh International Cricket Stadium despite a strong start.
Rajasthan Royals (RR) chased down the target of 223 runs as Punjab Kings suffered their first defeat of the season on Tuesday, April 28. Despite late fireworks from Marcus Stoinis, a slow innings from Iyer prevented Punjab Kings from fully exploiting their excellent powerplay base against a strong RR bowling attack.
Shreyas Iyerthe slow knock hurts punjab kings Despite a strong start
Shreyas Iyer came in after the Punjab Kings openers had set a strong platform. However, the right-handed batsman struggled against the Rajasthan Royals spinners in the middle overs, mostly rotating the strike rather than hitting boundaries.
Earlier, Iyer scored 30 runs in 27 balls, which included a four and a six. Nandre Burger He was dismissed. He was the only Punjab Kings batsman to have a strike rate below 130 and scored 111.11.
When Iyer came, Punjab Kings scored runs at the rate of 11.70 runs per over. By the time Berger dismissed him, the rate had dropped to 10.05, preventing Punjab Kings from posting a big score against Rajasthan Royals’ strong batting lineup. PBKS scored a total of 222 runs for four wickets in 20 overs.
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What do you expect from Shreyas Iyer? -Murali Karthik
Murali Karthik said that Shreyas Iyer’s slow innings proved costly. punjab kings Against Rajasthan Royals. He said that Iyer scored 111-115 runs leaving behind 15-20 runs in the middle overs.
Murali Karthik on Cricbuzz said, “In such matches, you look at where the match was lost. In my opinion, the way Shreyas Iyer could not play today is what matters in the end. What do you expect from Shreyas Iyer? When the spinners come in, he blows them away with the form he is in. But he could not do that today. His strike rate of 111-115 ultimately matters a lot.”
“If you look at PBKS’s batting, some players have scored at strike rates of 260, 280 and even 180, but then there were two players stuck in the middle where 15-20 extra runs could have been scored,” he said.
I thought 224 was a great score on the board – Shreyas Iyer
During the post-match presentation, Shreyas Iyer Defended the batting unit and said the pitch played slow. He blamed his poor bowling performance rather than his batting for the defeat against Rajasthan Royals.
“I thought 224 on the board was a great score. Congratulations to the batsmen, the way they came and the way they performed against the bowlers. I think it was an exceptional performance, especially on this wicket, which was a bit difficult and slow. And I think we fell a bit short in our bowling, in terms of execution. We had planned to bowl a lot of slower balls, pace offs, yorkers. I think we fell a bit short there,” Iyer said.
Shreyas is the second-highest run-scorer for Punjab Kings, scoring 309 runs in eight matches at an average of 62 and a strike rate of 174.57. Punjab Kings is still on top ipl points table. Iyer will aim to make a comeback during the match against Gujarat Titans (GT) at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on May 3.
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