18 incidents documented
Punjab Kings
26 May 2026
Arshdeep Singh deleted more than 200 Instagram posts within 24 hours following Punjab Kings' playoff exit and a season defined by accumulating controversies — wiping his feed of team content, personal posts, and a viral reel with Virat Kohli, leaving behind only brand endorsements.
Punjab Kings
7 May 2026
Yuzvendra Chahal was allegedly captured vaping aboard a Punjab Kings team charter flight en route to Hyderabad ahead of the franchise's IPL 2026 match against Sunrisers Hyderabad on 6 May 2026. The footage surfaced from a behind-the-scenes vlog uploaded to social media by Chahal's PBKS teammate Arshdeep Singh, in which a figure appearing to be Chahal is visible with what observers identified as an electronic cigarette. The clip went viral within hours. Neither Chahal nor Arshdeep issued a public statement; Punjab Kings and the BCCI both remained silent. The controversy arrived just days after the BCCI had formally penalised Rajasthan Royals batter Riyan Parag for vaping in the team dressing room — and before the board had yet issued its blanket vaping ban for IPL venues.
Punjab Kings vs Mumbai Indians
15 May 2026
Punjab Kings fast bowler Arshdeep Singh sparked a national controversy when a video from a pre-match interaction before PBKS's IPL 2026 encounter with Mumbai Indians went viral on 15 May 2026. In the clip, Arshdeep greeted Mumbai Indians batter Tilak Varma by calling him "Andhere" — Hindi slang meaning "dark one" or "darkness" — before asking whether he had applied sunscreen and then holding him next to teammate Naman Dhir, saying "This is the real glow of Punjab." The remarks, directed at Tilak's dark skin tone, were condemned by former India spinner Laxman Sivaramakrishnan as a racial slur and generated widespread public debate about the normalisation of colourism in Indian cricket. Mumbai Indians' social media response — a viral post showing Tilak emerging from darkness — was itself criticised for amplifying rather than defusing the controversy.
Mumbai Indians vs Punjab Kings
15 May 2026
Mumbai Indians batting coach Kieron Pollard was fined 15 per cent of his applicable match fee and given one demerit point after directing audible abusive language at the fourth umpire during MI's tense last-ball IPL 2026 victory over Punjab Kings at the Wankhede Stadium on 15 May 2026. The offence — a Level 1 breach of Article 2.3 of the IPL Code of Conduct — occurred during the 19th over of the second innings. Pollard admitted the offence and accepted the sanction imposed by match referee Pankaj Dharmani.
Punjab Kings
1 May 2026
A 38-second clip of Punjab Kings' Arshdeep Singh roasting teammate Shashank Singh in an airport lounge became one of IPL 2026's most-shared off-field moments. The premise was Shashank's run of dropped catches across the season — including the now-notorious drop of KL Rahul on 12, who went on to make 150-plus. Arshdeep, on camera, asks Shashank to demonstrate his catching technique using a coffee cup; the bit lands, both players laugh, and the clip is uploaded by a teammate before the squad has cleared security.
Gujarat Titans vs Punjab Kings
4 May 2026
Washington Sundar finished a tense GT chase of Punjab Kings on 4 May 2026 by scooping Marcus Stoinis for six over fine leg. The 40 not out off 23 balls, with Sai Sudharsan's earlier fifty as the platform, secured the win in the final over and added another late-overs partnership masterclass to GT's IPL 2026 tactical repertoire.
Gujarat Titans vs Punjab Kings
4 May 2026
Gujarat Titans' 4 May 2026 last-over win against Punjab Kings was constructed by two innings: Sai Sudharsan's anchoring fifty in the chase, and Washington Sundar's match-finishing 40 not out off 23 balls including the scoop-six off Marcus Stoinis. The two innings together formed one of the season's most complete last-over chases.
Rajasthan Royals vs Punjab Kings
28 April 2026
Rajasthan Royals captain Riyan Parag was caught on broadcast vaping in the team dressing room during RR's 28 April 2026 match against Punjab Kings — a Level 1 breach of the IPL Code of Conduct (Article 2.21, "conduct that brings the game into disrepute") that led to a 25 per cent match-fee fine and one demerit point. The incident reignited debate about senior-player behaviour and franchise discipline at the IPL's youngest captaincy.
Delhi Capitals vs Punjab Kings
25 April 2026
Delhi Capitals pacer Lungi Ngidi fell awkwardly while attempting to catch PBKS opener Priyansh Arya in DC's IPL 2026 match on 25 April 2026 and sustained a head injury. He was withdrawn from the match under the concussion protocol; Vipraj Nigam was named as the concussion substitute. Ngidi missed several subsequent matches before completing the mandatory concussion layoff.
Punjab Kings
April 2026
PBKS captain Shreyas Iyer was fined twice for slow over-rate offences in IPL 2026 — a 12-lakh fine after the GT match and a 24-lakh fine after the CSK match, totalling 36 lakh in personal fines. With the IPL's previous one-match suspension rule scrapped pre-season, neither fine carried a ban; PBKS's other players were each fined 6 lakh or 25 per cent of match fee per offence.
Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Punjab Kings
6 May 2026
Shashank Singh's IPL 2026 fielding curse continued at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on 6 May 2026 when he dropped Heinrich Klaasen off Yuzvendra Chahal's bowling — a slog sweep that flew straight to him at the boundary, sat in his hands for a fraction of a second, and slipped out. PBKS fans on social media were unforgiving.
Punjab Kings
6 May 2026
Punjab Kings' 16 dropped catches in 10 matches — joint most in IPL 2026 alongside Chennai Super Kings — has converted the franchise's fielding lapses into a season-long story arc. Shashank Singh, with three drops in a single LSG match alone, has been the public face of the trend; head coach Ricky Ponting has compared the catching slump to a 'virus.'
Punjab Kings
May 2026
PBKS head coach Ricky Ponting summarised his side's fielding crisis in IPL 2026 with two lines that became the season's most-shared coaching quotes: 'It's like a virus. We've put a lot of catches down so far this season,' and the affectionate-exasperated 'It just looks like the ball is following him around everywhere he goes' — directed specifically at Shashank Singh's run of drops.
Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Punjab Kings
6 May 2026
Three different Punjab Kings fielders dropped catches in a single match against Sunrisers Hyderabad on 6 May 2026 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium — Lockie Ferguson, Aaron Connolly and Shashank Singh — turning a difficult evening into the most public single-match collapse of the season's PBKS fielding crisis.
Punjab Kings
6 May 2026
PBKS captain Shreyas Iyer's understated post-match line — 'a bit too much dropped catches today' — after Punjab's 6 May 2026 SRH match became the season's most-shared captain quote. The understatement, in the context of three different PBKS fielders dropping catches in a single match, captured the franchise's exhausted resignation about its season-long catching crisis.
Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Punjab Kings
May 2026
Heinrich Klaasen's IPL 2026 record against Punjab Kings reads like the index page of a fielding-textbook chapter on dropped catches. He has been put down by PBKS fielders at least three times across two fixtures, with each lifeline converting into a meaningful score. Klaasen's series of low-30s innings extended to 60s and 70s by the time the catches were finally taken — when, indeed, they ever were.
Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Punjab Kings
6 May 2026
Ishan Kishan was lifelined by a PBKS dropped catch at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on 6 May 2026 and converted the reprieve into a sixty that helped SRH win comfortably. The drop joined the same match's catalogue of three different PBKS fielders putting down catches — the season's most public single-match collapse of the visiting franchise's fielding standards.
Mumbai Indians vs Punjab Kings
16 April 2026
Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya and senior bowler Jasprit Bumrah were involved in a visible on-field disagreement over field placements during MI's defeat to Punjab Kings at the Wankhede Stadium on 16 April 2026. The incident, broadcast live, came during PBKS's chase as Prabhsimran Singh — eventually 80 not out and player of the match — was building his innings. After Bumrah dropped a catch from Pandya's bowling, Pandya was filmed reacting angrily towards his senior bowler. The defeat was MI's fourth in a row.