Punjab Kings

Punjab Kings is one of the IPL founding teams that has been around every season since 2008. However, their performances over the years don’t put them among the best clubs in the league. But, that doesn’t mean that the team doesn’t have any quality. Here are their top strengths.

Apart from its positive features, Punjab Kings also has a few negative attributes. Below we’ll reveal the team’s main weaknesses entering the new season:

The Kings will go after the 2025 IPL title with several top players. Among them are Shreyas Iyer, Prabhsimran Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Glenn Maxwell, Shashank Singh, Arshdeep Singh, and Yuzvendra Chahal.

Historical Performance

Punjab Kings started out in 2008, a few months after the establishment of the IPL. During the auction, the franchise rights went to Ness Wadia, Preity Zinta, Mohit Burman, and Karan Paul. The team’s initial name was Kings IX Punjab, but they decided to use Punjab Kings in 2021.

They play their home events at Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium in Mullanpur, Mohali, Punjab. This arena can hold up to 38,000 fans. But, since 2010, Punjab also played matches at Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium (21,200 capacity) and Holkar Stadium (30,000 capacity).

Despite playing all 17 IPL seasons, the team is still waiting to get their first title. In fact, Punjab Kings have one of the worst records in the league. It managed to play only in 2 playoffs, once in 2008 and the other in 2014.

They even reached the IPL final the last time they qualified for the playoffs. However, they lost the match by 3 wickets against Kolkata Knight Riders.

Besides the somewhat poor team records, Punjab Kings also feature a few interesting player achievements. As such, the club’s all-time leading scorer is KL Rahul with 2,548 runs. On the other hand, PP Chawla is the best in terms of wickets as he has 84 wickets in 87 matches.

Punjab Kings in Recent Seasons

These past few seasons weren’t great for Punjab Kings as they failed to qualify for a single playoff phase. They sure hope this poor record doesn’t continue in the 2025 IPL season.

When we look back at 2020, we’ll see that the team achieved 12 points after winning 6 and losing 8 matches. Punjab Kings ended the group stage in 6th position.

They had the same number of points as Chennai and Rajasthan in 7th and 8th spots, respectively. However, they also needed only 2 more points and a slightly better net run rate to qualify for the quarter-finals.

In 2021, Punjab Kings once again finished in 6th place. The team had 12 points from 6 wins, lacking only 2 more to level with Kolkata in 4th position. Yet, the latter would still be in front due to a better net run rate.

The following season, the Kings increased their overall performances, but it wasn’t enough for a spot in the playoffs. They’ve accumulated 14 points from 7 wins, which put them in 6th position. Punjab was 2 points short of levelling with Royal Challengers in 6th position.

During the 2023 season, the club started off with a promising performance. But, a sudden drop in form forced them to end the group stage in 8th place with 12 points. This time they were 4 points away from 4th position.

Last year, Punjab Kings’ form was even worse than before. The team finished 9th with just 10 points. They even had a negative net run rate of -0.353.

Punjab Kings Players 2025

For the 2025 IPL season, the management and staff decided to use a total of 25 players. In fact, the club chose to retain just 2 cricketers and acquire a staggering 23 new individuals. Below we’ll reveal and briefly describe all Punjab Kings players 2025.

Batters

There are 6 players in the Punjab squad who can help the team with batting. All of them are new players who joined the club during the November 2024 auction. You’ll read about them below this segment.

• Shreyas Iyer – This is the team captain and leader who plays as a right-handed top-order batter. Last season he managed to win the IPL title with Kolkata as their skipper.
• Priyansh Arya – A 24-year-old left-handed opening batter who hasn’t played in the IPL before. But, he does play domestic cricket for Delhi where he scored 573 runs in 18 matches.
• Nehal Wadhera – A left-handed top-order batter who previously played for Mumbai Indians. He’s looking for more playing time as he only performed in 20 matches where he scored 350 runs.
• Musheer Khan – Punjab signed this 19-year-old right-handed batter to act as their backup player. He plays domestic cricket for Mumbai and this will be his first IPL season in his career.
• Pyla Avinash – Another backup player who’ll play as a right-handed batter. He’s also waiting to make his IPL debut as he’s only competed in domestic cricket before.
• Harnoor Singh – A left-handed batter who’ll start matches mostly from the bench. This player will look to appear in his first IPL match this season and show off his skills.

Wicket-Keepers

The team will enter the 2025 IPL season with 3 wicket-keepers. One of them participated in the club before, while the other 2 are new cricketers. You’ll notice that none of them play as left-handed batters. Here’s what you need to know about them:

• Prabhsimran Singh – A retained right-handed wicket-keeper who’s been at the club since 2019 and a starter since 2023. During his Punjab Kings career, he accumulated 756 runs in 34 matches.
• Josh Inglis – This is an Australian right-handed wicket-keeper who’s ready for his first IPL season. He was part of the national team that won the ICC Cricket World Cup, ICC T20 World Cup, and ICC World Test Championship.
• Vishnu Vinod – Another right-handed wicket-keeper who previously played for 4 other IPL teams. However, he was a backup at all of them as he only played 6 matches where he scored 56 runs.

All-Rounders

This club has a total of 7 all-rounders who can help the Punjab Kings squad 2025 with batting and bowling. One of them is a retained player while the rest are newly acquired cricketers. The featured all-rounders are the following:

• Marcus Stoinis – A well-known Australian all-rounder who acts as a right-handed batter and right-arm medium bowler. Stoinis played for Punjab Kings from 2016 to 2018 where he appeared in 19 matches, scored 262 runs, and took 13 wickets.
• Glenn Maxwell – Another Australian all-rounder who is ready for his third chapter with Punjab Kings. The team can use him as a right-handed batter and a right-arm off-break bowler.
• Aaron Hardie – One additional Australian all-rounder who uses a right-handed batting and right-arm medium-fast bowling style. This tall cricketer will look to debut in the IPL this season.
• Shashank Singh – Punjab Kings signed this all-rounder in 2023 and he’s now one of their main players. He can help the team as a right-handed batter and right-arm off-break bowler.
• Marco Jansen – This is a South African 2.06-meter-tall all-rounder who previously played for Mumbai Indians and Sunrisers Hyderabad. Jansen can perform as a right-handed batter and left-arm fast bowler.
• Azmatullah Omarzai – An Afghan all-rounder who follows a right-handed batting and right-arm medium-fast bowling style. Last season, he played 7 matches for Gujarat Titans where he scored 42 runs and took 4 wickets.
• Suryansh Shedge – A 22-year-old all-rounder who’s ready for his first IPL season in his career. Punjab Kings can use him as a right-handed batter and right-arm medium bowler.

Bowlers

In the bowling department, Punjab Kings has 9 players. Among them are 6 cricketers who prefer pace and 3 who specialise in spin attacking. Keep in mind that 8 of them joined the club this season. Here’s the full list of bowlers that will represent the team in the 2025 season:

• Arshdeep Singh – A left-arm medium-fast bowler who signed for Punjab Kings in 2019. Since then, he appeared in 65 matches and took 76 wickets. He was also part of India’s team that won the 2024 T20 World Cup.
• Lockie Ferguson – A right-arm fast bowler and past IPL winner with Gujarat Titans. This New Zealander has also played for 3 other IPL teams where he scored a total of 46 wickets in 45 matches.
• Kuldeep Sen – This is a right-arm fast-bowler who joined Punjab Kings from Rajasthan Royals. However, his previous club used him as a backup as he only played 12 matches in 3 seasons.
• Xavier Bartlett – A 26-year-old Australian right-arm medium-fast bowler who just signed for Punjab Kings. This is his first time in the IPL and he surely hopes to make his debut this year.
• Yash Thakur – Punjab acquired this right-arm medium-fast bowler from Lucknow in November 2024. At his previous club, he appeared in 19 matches where he took 24 wickets.
• Vijaykumar Vyshak – This is a right-arm medium-fast bowler who Punjab sees as one of their main backups. In the last 2 seasons, Vyshak played for Royal Challengers where he took 13 wickets.
• Yuzvendra Chahal – A right-arm leg-break bowler who won the IPL with Mumbai Indians in his first season. Since then, they played 160 matches for 3 different teams, scoring 205 wickets.
• Harpreet Brar – This slow left-arm orthodox bowler has played for the Punjab Kings since 2019. He appeared in 41 matches and scored a total of 25 wickets.
• Praveen Dubey – A leg-break googly bowler who acted as a backup at Royal Challengers and Delhi Capitals. His new team will surely use him the same way for the 2025 season.

Punjab Kings Captain

Additionally, Iyer is the first Indian player to score a century in his test match debut and a half-century in the second innings. This event occurred in November 2021 against New Zealand.

Punjab Kings Rivals

Most IPL teams don’t see Punjab Kings as their main rivals due to their average performances over the years. However, Punjab fans do look at a few clubs with some bitterness.

One of them is the Rajasthan Royals. Their match results have been super close in recent history which is the main reason for this progressive rivalry. Both teams met each other in 29 matches and Rajasthan ended up winning 16 of them. Punjab Kings were the better side in 12 events.

Next, we have Chennai Super Kings. This team beat Punjab Kings by 9 wickets in the 2008 IPL semi-finals, starting a dislikeness among fans since day one.

Many don’t see competitiveness between the clubs as Chennai has 5 titles while Punjab has none. However, when we look at their head-to-head stats, we’ll notice a super close win record. In fact, Chennai has 16 while Punjab features 14 wins.

Kolkata Knight Riders is another team that Punjab Kings’ fans see as a rival. It seems like everything started in 2014 when Kolkata beat Punjab in the quarter-finals and final. The teams played a total of 33 matches against each other. Punjab Kings were better in 12 while Kolkata won in 21 events.