Punjab Kings wrapped up yet another disappointing Indian Premier League (IPL) campaign with a four-wicket defeat against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad on Sunday, to finish on the penultimate 9th position after the conclusion of the league stage.

Reflecting on their performance in IPL 2024, where the Kings managed five wins in 14 matches, Sanjay Banger, the head of cricket development, praised opener Prabhsimran Singh along with Shashank Singh and Ashutosh Sharma for making a name for themselves and described them as the positive aspects emerging from the season.

“Prabhsimran has been given a specific role to be positive upfront and that’s the way you want to capitalize the powerplay. If you look at his strike rate throughout, he was above 150 and that is the role for a player in that position. But you have to embrace that when you take those risks, some days, those risks are going to come off and days they are not,” Bangar said.

“But if you look at the performances of the domestic batsmen – Prabhsimran or Shashank, as well as Ashutosh – the way he adapted to the finishers’ role, I think those are the real positives for us, as far as our season goes, in the batting department,” the former India allrounder added.

On being asked about the factors that did not work for his side during the season, Bangar felt that the side’s inability to adapt to their home conditions at the new PCA Stadium in Mullanpur went against them.

“We could not adapt to the home conditions. We played seven away matches and out of those seven matches, we won four. And out of the seven home matches we managed to win just one match. So, if a team has to progress further in the tournament, certainly that is a worrying aspect,” he said.

“Those four home games that we lost back-to-back through the mid-season cost us. Some of them were very close. We lost by two runs against SRH and we were also in a great position against Mumbai. Some of the matches went right down to the wire. We could not win the crucial moments of those games. And because of that, we just found ourselves in the position that we are in. And if you leave a lot to be done towards the later half of the season, then it’s always a challenge,” he added.

Before the final game of the league stage, Sam Curran, who had been the captain for the side since mid-April due to Shikhar Dhawan’s injury, had to return home for international duties, along with the explosive Jonny Bairstow. Liam Livingstone and Chris Woakes were also ruled out of the tournament, along with speedster Kagiso Rabada.

Bangar spoke of the absence of international players throughout the season but felt that it wasn’t the sole reason for their dismal performance.

“When we went into the auction, the ECB (England Cricket Board) had made it clear that all the players will be available. But the tournament was slightly extended, because of multiple reasons. Everybody was in a similar position and lost English players,” Bangar said.

“Even for us, we lost Livingston with a niggle around his knee and the ECB pulled him out. We would have ideally loved to play Nathan Ellis in this match (against Sunrisers Hyderabad) as the wicket would have suited him perfectly, but he got a strain on his groin. Even Kagiso Rabada had an infection because of which he had to go back. So those things coupled together meant that when we came into the last two games, we were certainly short of players of international pedigree and experience. So that hurt us, but that’s not the sole reason why our season was below par,” he further stated.

Meanwhile, wicketkeeper-batter Jitesh Sharma, who was the stand-in captain on Sunday in place of Curran, praised the side for fighting hard in their final game of the season.

“It was fun out there. The boys fought hard and we enjoyed ourselves a lot. It was a nice game without the overseas players. The discussion will not help till you imply on the ground. We have to play according to the wicket and plan accordingly,” he said.

The Punjab Kings are among the three IPL franchises, along with Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Delhi Capitals, operating from the inaugural IPL season in 2008 but yet to win the IPL title. While the IPL 2024 has been no different for PBKS and DC, the RCB, meanwhile, made a sterling comeback winning six games in a row to force their way into the playoffs.