Punjab Kings’ batting has grabbed most of the attention this season, but the numbers say their bowling is carrying just as much weight. Five matches, five wins; chasing 200-plus feels routine, and when they finally chose to bat first – against Lucknow Super Giants on Sunday – the result was an imposing 54-run victory. Yet the bowlers, operating on some of the flattest tracks we have seen in years, have quietly stitched together a body of work that deserves a closer look.
Across those five outings they have held Gujarat Titans to 162 all out, and limited Chennai, Hyderabad and Mumbai to 209, 219 and 195 respectively – totals that may look hefty at first glance, but sit comfortably below the tournament’s soaring par. Their combined economy rate sits at 9.64; in the same games opponents have gone at 11.22. That spread, more than the raw figures, hints at control.
“You have to look at what they have in their team. It’s not a team that is lacking offensive skill sets. [And] their skill sets can go defensive,” said Faf du Plessis on ESPNcricinfo’s TimeOut show. “But you look at the names in that bowling attack, it’s all frontline attacking bowlers – Marco Jansen, [Xavier] Bartlett, Arshdeep [Singh]. It is all genuine wicket-takers with the new ball there, with the skill set of swinging the ball; tall bowlers getting bounce; Arshdeep is a good yorker bowler with the new ball. So it’s not by chance that they are one of the better bowling units.”
If you scan the wickets table you will not find a Punjab name in the top bracket – they are eighth for total wickets and ninth for strike rate. The story shifts once you filter for economy. Jansen and Arshdeep both shade under nine; Yuzvendra Chahal is at 9.58; Vijaykumar Vyshak leaks more at 10.05 but tends to bowl the tougher overs. Those figures would have been ordinary five years ago; in an IPL where 240 is within reach every night, they are gold.
“They can switch to defensive, but also, as a batter, if you are fronting up against them, you feel like they can get you out at any stage as well,” du Plessis added. “Guys like [Vijaykumar] Vyshak can then come in and do their thing. [Yuzvendra] Chahal is an attacking spinner. Yes, he can be defensive, but his method is he gets wickets.”
Variety is the recurring theme. Jansen, all 6ft 8in of him, extracts bounce and swing from a full length. Bartlett, the Australian recruit, is flatter but brisk, skidding on and forcing miscues square of the wicket. Arshdeep handles both ends, nipping it early and nailing yorkers at the close. Chahal supplies the guile, changing flight and speed rather than chasing mystery. Vyshak, the least heralded of the lot, relies on hard lengths and the occasional slower ball that holds in the surface.
As a collective they have adopted what might be called a ‘contained-attack’ plan: strike if a chance presents itself, otherwise trim the boundary count and trust the long fence. The bowling coach, privately, calls it “winning the big overs” – if one six-ball set goes for three and another for twelve, the net still favours Punjab so long as the collapse arrives at the right moment.
The approach does carry a risk. Fewer wickets up front can leave a death bowler short of cover if the slog lands. Against Chennai, for instance, 39 came off the final three overs. The saving grace was the earlier squeeze, which had forced MS Dhoni to rebuild for a spell rather than attack. Balance, again.
None of this is headline stuff in a league that lives on six-hitting reels, and perhaps that suits the Kings. A bowler likes anonymity; the ball talks louder anyway. Should their batting stumble – it will, inevitably – the defence already looks equipped to protect 170, even 160, on a night when the ball grips. That is a comfort few sides currently enjoy.
For now, the outside world can debate whether Punjab possess the ‘best’ attack. Inside the dressing-room the language is simpler. Different guns, as du Plessis framed it, and a captain who knows when to pull the trigger. The season still has a long run, but five games in, the evidence is hard to ignore.
