Sachin Tendulkar Hits The Bull’s Eye On Why Ricky Ponting And Shreyas Iyer’s Punjab Kings Failed

At the end of IPL 2026, Royal Challengers Bengaluru towered over other teams yet again. For the second straight year, the Rajat Patidar-led side won the league. Gujarat Titans finished a close second, maintaining a terrific level of consistency that has continued since 2022. Rajasthan Royals, who went out in Qualifier 2, showed great promise, relying on the young shoulders of Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. The fourth-best team, Sunrisers Hyderabad, too had their moments, armed with a solid batting unit. But when IPL 2026 started, the first half of the league belonged to one team – Punjab Kings. The Shreyas Iyer-led side stayed unbeaten in seven straight games to reach 13 points. Then came the downfall. They lost the next six matches. Even though they won their last game, it was not enough for the Ricky Ponting-coached side.

Sachin Tendulkar has now analysed what went wrong for the side.

“Punjab Kings brought wonderful energy to the tournament. Their cricket was positive, brave and often game-changing. Momentum plays a crucial role in lengthy tournaments. Eventually, in such a fast-moving tournament, it boils down to process and not getting attached to results. Punjab focused more on process in the first half and more on results in the second,” he wrote in a Reddit post.

On the other hand, Tendulkar was all praise for GT. “What stands out about the Gujarat Titans is their ability to operate within a remarkably consistent performance band across an entire season. The IPL is inherently volatile, but GT rarely stray too far from their method, even when results fluctuate. They minimize both peaks and troughs, staying close to their brand of cricket more consistently than most teams. Over a long tournament, that ability to control uncertainty often proves more valuable than occasional bursts of brilliance or isolated match-winning performances,” he wrote.

“Looking back at IPL 2026, I was reminded that tournaments are rarely defined by how they begin. More than once this season, the table told a very different story at the halfway mark than it did at the end. Teams adjusted, players improved, and new solutions emerged as the competition progressed. The game demands constant evolution, and that is part of what makes it so fascinating to watch.”

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