Can Rajasthan Royals stop the Punjab Kings juggernaut?

Their mighty batting line-up will face a stern test against Archer and Burger

Sreshth Shah

Published: Apr 27, 2026, 1:30 PM (1 hr ago)

8:31

Bishop: Parag must use Jadeja, Bishnoi better against PBKS

Big picture

How do you stop a Punjab Kings (PBKS) batting line-up that seems perfectly cast?

Priyansh Arya kicks the door down in the powerplay. Prabhsimran Singh keeps the plot moving at a high tempo. Newbie Cooper Connolly doesn't go away without leaving a mark. And Shreyas Iyer walks in like a man who already knows the ending. If anything is unfinished, Marcus Stoinis and Shashank Singh provide small, impactful cameos.

In IPL 2025, they scored the most runs for any IPL team in one season (3140). This year, they've taken that to another level in their six batting innings by scoring at 11.74 per over. No team has scored runs that quickly ever in the IPL. What's most dangerous is their batting average per wicket - 43.83 - also the highest for any team across all IPL seasons.

After Saturday's performance of completing the highest successful chase in T20 cricket history - with a cool seven balls to spare - they now have 13 points in seven games, a start never before seen in an IPL season.

Do Rajasthan Royals (RR) have the bowling to stop them in the first meeting between the two sides this season? Well, maybe.

Jofra Archer has been so good against top-order batters that his 13 wickets in IPL 2026 count as 17.3 impact wickets. His ability to produce wicket-taking balls in his opening over, three times on the first ball itself, in IPL 2026 could be the perfect early jolt to PBKS.

Nandre Burger has quietly also had the upper hand on most batters, even if the tally of eight wickets doesn't reflect it. Forty-six per cent of all shots attempted off his bowling this season have been false shots, the highest number for any bowler.

But bowling well alone won't do. Even if PBKS score 30 runs fewer than usual, RR will still need more than just Vaibhav Sooryavanshi's blitz and Yashasvi Jaiswal's solidity. Their Nos. 4 to 8 continue to be among the worst this season, with just one-half century, a strike rate of 126 and an average of 20.6. Till that side of their game sees a turnaround, forget the two points against PBKS, but RR will also risk sliding down the points table.

Form guide

Punjab Kings WWWWW (last five completed matches, most recent first)

Rajasthan Royals LWLLW

Big question

Shimron Hetmyer has scored 72 runs in six innings, averaging 14.40 and striking at 116.12. And it hasn't been for lack of opportunities to spend time in the middle. Having seen the freedom that young batters are operating with in the IPL, should RR throw in hard-hitting Lhuan-dre Pretorius again?

In the spotlight

PBKS spinner Yuzvendra Chahal has lost his effectiveness after a super start to the season. In his last four outings, he has just one wicket, while his economy in those games has been 11.1. One skill of Chahal's is his ability to eke out dots, but that has gone missing in this period too, averaging just one per over. He is struggling to create pressure and therefore not finding the wickets too. Has the IPL's highest wicket-taker in history lost his spark?

You ask anyone in the RR camp about Riyan Parag's form at press conferences, and the answer is the same: he is hitting it beautifully at the nets. However, with 88 runs in eight innings at a strike rate of 112.82, Parag's numbers are even worse than Hetmyer discussed above. As he is the captain, giving him a break from the XII is a more complex decision. When will Parag's fine touch in the nets convert to some substantial runs on the park?

Team news

There are no injury concerns in either team. RR's changes, if any, would be form-based or last-minute. There's no update yet on Connolly's availability to bowl.

Punjab Kings (probable) 1 Prabhsimran Singh (wk), 2 Priyansh Arya, 3 Cooper Connolly, 4 Shreyas Iyer (capt), 5 Nehal Wadhera, 6 Marcus Stoinis, 7 Shashank Singh, 8 Marco Jansen, 9 Xavier Bartlett, 10 Vijaykumar Vyshak, 11 Arshdeep Singh, 12 Yuzvendra Chahal

Rajasthan Royals (probable) 1 Yashasvi Jaiswal, 2 Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, 3 Dhruv Jurel (wk), 4 Riyan Parag (capt), 5 Donovan Ferreira, 6 Shimron Hetmyer/Lhuan-dre Pretorius, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Jofra Archer, 9 Tushar Deshpande, 10 Brijesh Sharma, 11 Nandre Burger, 12 Ravi Bishnoi

Pitch and conditions

Pitch no. 4 in New Chandigarh was the one where PBKS met Gujarat Titans, chasing down a target of 163 in a relatively tight finish. Dew is a factor in night games at this venue, and even though chasing looks advantageous at first glance, the numbers say otherwise - the team batting first has won two of the last three games on this strip after posting 205 and 228. The toss decision will be a head-scratcher.

Stats and trivia

Prabhsimran does not slow down if Priyansh is out early. Since IPL 2025, he has struck at 167 with Priyansh at the other end but it jumps to 181 after his dismissal.

Right-hand batters have struggled to score fluently against Archer in IPL 2026, scoring at only 6.7 per over.

Chahal's googlies to left-hand batters aren't working. In IPL 2024 and 2025, only 2% and 4% of all his deliveries to left-hand batters were googlies. This season, it has jumped to 52% and he has leaked runs at 11.3 per over when delivering them.

Priyansh (249.01) and Sooryavanshi (234.86) sit at the top two positions for the highest batting strike rate in IPL 2026 (min. 20 balls faced).

Sreshth Shah is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo. @sreshthx

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