SWOT analysis of Punjab Kings for IPL 2025

Punjab Kings (PBKS) are still searching for their maiden India Premier League (IPL) trophy after they played the finals in 2014, losing the penultimate encounter at the hands of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). In a very shocking fact, Punjab Kings have failed to qualify for a single playoffs since that 2014 final. During the IPL 2024 season, Punjab Kings finished at the ninth position with as many as five victories and a total of nine losses. However, a lot has changed for the Punjab franchise in the IPL 2025 season as they have a brand new captain in Shreyas Iyer and a vastly experienced head coach in Ricky Ponting. 

Strength: Massive firepower in the middle-order

After doing some hardwork in the IPL 2025 auction, the Punjab Kings have included a lot of firepower in their middle-order. They have picked the likes of skipper Shreyas Iyer, Marcus Stoinis, Glenn Maxwell and youngsters like Shashank Singh, Nehal Wadhera. Iyer is coming into this IPL 2025 season in a really impressive form having contributed with a few match-winning performances that helped India win the ICC Champions Trophy 2025. The Aussie duo of Stoinis and Maxwell will also be expected to contribute with their explosive batting alongside some sort of consistency which has been a big issue with the previous Punjab players as well. On the other hand, Shashank showed his brilliant capabilities with the bat in the middle-order for the Punjab Kings during IPL 2024 while Wadhera has also played some crucial knocks for the Mumbai Indians (MI) in the last couple of years. 

Weakness: Lack of specialist openers

Even after the IPL 2025 mega auction, Punjab Kings are left with a single specialist opener in Prabhsimran Singh who was retained by them for INR 4 Crore. Although, they have the Australian duo of Josh Inglis and Marcus Stoinis who have filled in as openers on numerous occasions, but it will be interesting to see who will be finalised as Prabhsimran's opening partner. The Punjab Kings have also picked young Delhi opening batter Priyansh Arya for INR 3.80 Crore as he played really well in the opening edition of the Delhi Premier League (DPL). On the other hand, Inglis is also in a very good form for Australia in the recent while across the three formats of the game that includes a match-winning hundred against England during the recently concluded ICC Champions Trophy 2025. However, not having a settled opening combination can prove to be a huge miss for the Punjab Kings. 

Opportunity: Shreyas Iyer has the chance to help Punjab Kings become IPL 2025 champions

Punjab Kings have definitely loaded the in-form Shreyas Iyer with a lot of responsibilities and this is huge opportunity for him to justify his huge price tag of INR 26.75 Crore. After leading the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to their third IPL title last year, Iyer once again has a chance to showcase his captaincy acumen and perhaps, help Punjab Kings win their maiden IPL trophy this season. Also, under his captaincy, Delhi Capitals played their only IPL finals in 2020. Things have not turned out in an ideal manner for the previous few captains who have led the Punjab Kings including the likes of Shikhar Dhawan, Sam Curran and KL Rahul. While talking about Shreyas Iyer IPL stats so far, the right-hander has scored a total of 3127 runs from 115 matches at a strike-rate of 127.48. He will once again be expected to start off with the anchor role in the middle-order and then changing gears towards the end. 

Threat: Inexperienced pace bowling attack

Punjab Kings spent a huge amount of money to buy the left-arm pace duo of Arshdeep Singh and Marco Jansen for INR 18 and 7 Crore respectively. However, apart from these two pacers, they have picked the likes of Vijaykumar Vyshak, Yash Thakur, Kuldeep Sen and Xavier Bartlett who do not have a lot experience playing the shorter format of the game. After performing really well during the last two years both for India and Punjab Kings, Arshdeep will once again lead the pace attack in IPL 2025 alongside Jansen while Yash Thakur or Vijaykumar ca fill in as the third pacer.