Punjab Kings were officially eliminated from the playoff race of Tata IPL 2024 on Thursday. This is the 10th consecutive season when Punjab Kings have failed to qualify for the playoffs.
Since the start of the tournament in 2008, Punjab Kings have missed the playoff berth from 2015 onwards. In the 2008 season, they were semi-finalists. From 2009 to 2013, their playoff drought continued. In 2014, they were the runners up. But from 2015, Punjab Kings have repeatedly missed the playoff race. This year, the team’s regular captain – Shikhar Dhawan – remained out of the play due to an injury. Sam Curran was appointed as the stand-in captain.
There were some glimpses of excellence and players such as Shashank Singh and Ashutosh Sharma made headlines. Punjab Kings also scripted a history when they successfully chased down the target of 262 against Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens. However, the inconsistency plagued them.
On Thursday, in the first knockout match of the season, Punjab Kings’ batting collapsed as they were unable to chase down the target of 242 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru in Dharamshala. RCB won the match by 60 runs and PBKS were knocked out of the tournament.
After the match, Sam Curran, the stand-in skipper said that though there were a lot of positive developments, they were ‘not enough to get over the line.’ Punjab Kings are now the second team to be eliminated from IPL 2024. On Wednesday, Mumbai Indians became the first team to be knocked out of the tournament.