Sehwag and Tiwary turn on Iyer's bowling calls as PBKS slip to a second straight loss
Shreyas Iyer's bowling calls in Ahmedabad have become the loudest talking point in the IPL 2026 noise pile, and the most pointed lines have come from former India opener Virender Sehwag and ex-KKR batsman Manoj Tiwary. Punjab Kings still sit on top of the table with 13 points from nine games, but two straight defeats, to Rajasthan Royals and now Gujarat Titans, have softened the air around a side that began the season unbeaten through seven.
The flashpoint was the final over at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Sunday. Gujarat needed 11 to chase down 164, and Iyer handed the ball to Marcus Stoinis. Arshad Khan flicked a near-yorker for four; Washington Sundar then scooped a full toss over the leg side for a penultimate-ball six, sealing a four-wicket win with one ball to spare.
Sehwag: wrong man at the death
Sehwag's verdict was direct. "Shreyas Iyer's calculations were a bit wrong, because he had to give the last over to Stoinis," he said, arguing that Arshdeep Singh, Xavier Bartlett or Marco Jansen would have been the safer choice with 11 to defend. Punjab had used Stoinis as a fifth-bowler option through the middle, but the death overs are usually closed out by the lead pacers, and on the night, the call to step away from that pattern stands out as the moment Gujarat closed the deal.
Holder had already done the heavy lifting at the other end. The West Indian's IPL career-best 4 for 24, alongside Mohammed Siraj and Kagiso Rabada, reduced Punjab to 47 for 5 early in their innings, before Suryansh Shedge dragged the innings back with 57 off 29 balls, his maiden IPL fifty. Stoinis chipped in with 40 off 31, and 163 for 9 looked roughly par on a used surface.
Tiwary: where was Chahal?
Tiwary's argument went further back into the innings. Yuzvendra Chahal, Punjab's most experienced wrist-spinner, did not bowl until the 14th over and was given just one over for the night. Tiwary pointed to a wider trend of T20 captains shying away from leg-spinners against left-handers, and noted that with Sai Sudharsan, Washington Sundar and Stoinis himself at the crease for stretches, Punjab had a clear pocket of overs in which Chahal could have been used.
Both former internationals stopped short of pinning the loss on Iyer alone. The captain's broader season has gone well: Punjab still lead the table, and Iyer has personally been one of PBKS' top scorers. But T20 captaincy is judged a few balls at a time, and back-to-back defeats in the last week have brought the over-by-over decisions back into focus before the run-in.
What the run-in looks like
Punjab travel to Hyderabad next, where SRH have their own playoff pressure. With nine games gone PBKS sit on 13 points, but the cushion is thin. Royal Challengers Bengaluru are level on games and a single point behind, with Sunrisers Hyderabad just behind on net run rate. The bowling cracks Holder, Sudharsan and the GT lower order exposed in Ahmedabad will be sharper to read against the Hyderabad top three. The death-overs question, in particular, has not gone away.
For Iyer, the answer might be simpler than the noise suggests: trust the lead pacers in the 20th, give Chahal his full quota in the middle, and the rest of the table will look after itself.
Related Tags:
Cricket Updates
