Former Indian left-arm orthodox spinner Murali Kartik criticized Punjab Kings’ batting approach after their eight-wicket loss against Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the first qualifier at New Chandigarh in the ongoing IPL 2025 on Thursday.

Kartik questioned Shreyas Iyer’s team for playing with an ultra-aggressive approach and not playing according to the match situation. Only three PBKS batters could get to double digits and none of them could even go past the 30-run mark.

PBKS were bundled out for 101 runs in 14.1 overs after they were put into bat by RCB captain Rajat Patidar. The home team kept losing wickets at regular intervals and could not get any impetus in their innings.

“It was one of those days where, it was a procession, it was a march past. For me, what was surprising was that nobody tried to arrest this slide. It was as if they wanted to play one way, which was to hit your way out of it. Some of the shots that they played against Suyash, or even for that matter, when you know that there is a bit of bounce from the surface,” Kartik said on Star Sports.

Karthik slammed the PBKS batters for not playing according to the match situation despite losing wickets at regular intervals.

“If you have picked 11 batters, somebody will say, ‘I am going to get you to a decent enough score’. You have picked such a long batting line up, many of them are all-rounders, but that is game sense. Imagine if this was the final or if this was only one game, would you bat the same way? It is confounding, actually,” he added.

Punjab Kings will face the winners of Gujarat Titans and Mumbai Indians’ eliminator contest in the second qualifier on Sunday.