Sticking to basics, Arshdeep finally rediscovers form and rhythm in IPL 2026

Fresh from the high of winning the second consecutive T20 World Cup title, Arshdeep Singh was expected to continue his rhythm at the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026. However, his form witnessed a dip coming into the tournament, with the left-arm quick managing just two wickets in the first four matches, conceding at an economy of 10.64, and had gone 10 successive IPL games without a powerplay wicket.

On Thursday, the Punjab Kings pacer announced his return to form with a telling spell against Mumbai Indians, rediscovering rhythm and control to help his side secure a dominant seven-wicket win at the Wankhede Stadium.

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Coming into the IPL, Arshdeep’s struggles with control were evident too, with wides creeping into his game and execution not matching intent. Reflecting on that phase, Arshdeep admitted that both rhythm and mindset had been off, prompting a crucial conversation with head coach Ricky Ponting.

“It goes back to having a chat with Ricky (Ponting) in one of the training sessions,” he said at the post-match presentation on Thursday. “I told him I wasn’t feeling the way I should feel, the ball is not coming out of my hand really well, and (I) had a nice pep talk with him. (The conversation was about) just how I can keep myself fresh mentally, and how I was just expecting too much out of myself and not letting things to be simple and just going by the flow.

“He told me you’re coming off a high, winning a World Cup and it’s not easy to maintain that high all the time, so you’ve just got to stick to the basics and have fun. That’s the most important part of the game. Just enjoy it and stick to your basics.”

That reset was evident immediately. Arshdeep returned to his core strengths — swing and yorkers— finding a probing length early and troubling the top order. He beat Ryan Rickelton repeatedly in his opening over, building pressure through disciplined lines outside off stump.

The breakthrough soon followed, albeit through variation. A scrambled-seam delivery accounted for Rickelton, earning Arshdeep his first powerplay wicket of the season and marking his 100th IPL scalp.

“That (scrambled seam) is the ball I’ve been trying to work on. So (Mohammed) Siraj got a lot of wickets with the scramble seam. [It’s] still not there yet but still trying to learn it as much as I can as a variation. The seam was coming out really nice. I just wanted to change it a bit. It wasn’t the way I wanted to get him out but as a bowler in T20, you should take whatever comes your way and just enjoy it,” he said.

He followed it up with a classic dismissal of Suryakumar Yadav, inducing an edge with an outswinger, before finishing strongly at the death with a sequence of yorkers, including one that dismantled Sherfane Rutherford.

Behind the performance was deliberate preparation. On the eve of the match, Arshdeep spent time on spot bowling, using visual markers to sharpen his lengths and angles.

“Even yesterday I came for training and I had a nice spot-bowling session and that was the time when I felt like the ball is coming out really nicely out of my hand,” Arshdeep said. “And the result was in front of you guys today, the ball was seaming a bit, the ball was swinging, and the control was there.”

Ponting was quick to acknowledge the effort behind the turnaround.

“Well, I mean, what everyone needs to know about Arshdeep is that he loves his training. He trains very, very hard. Yesterday, he sent me a 20-minute bowl. It was more like a 30 or 40-minute bowl out here. Did some target bowling stuff. Just fine-tuning the way that he wanted to start his spell today,” Ponting said.

“And it just goes to show that when you put in the hard work, you get the rewards. We got the rewards tonight. So, it’s nice to see from a coaching group that when you give trust to your players and let them get themselves prepared in their own way,” he added.

The former Australia skipper also underlined the importance of team culture in helping players bounce back. “We’ll always back our players in regardless of how well they’re going or how well they’re not going. You know, in this Punjab team now, we’ve got a settled side,” he said.

“We’re backing them in, regardless if they have two or three bad games in a row. The environment that we’re creating is all about trust and making sure that we’re there for our mates when it matters. And Arshdeep has certainly done that for us this week,” he said.

For Arshdeep, a return to the Wankhede stirred memories of his four-wicket haul against Mumbai Indians three years ago, when he brought up his 50th IPL wicket. This time, as he reached the 100-wicket mark at the same venue, the moment carried a striking sense of symmetry.