Punjab Kings skipper Shreyas Iyer admitted they need to work on their batting after suffering an ignominious eight-wicket loss against Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the first qualifier at New Chandigarh in the ongoing IPL 2025 on Thursday.

The home team was skittled out for a paltry score of 101 runs as they kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Rajat Patidar decided to bowl first but PBKS were put on the back foot from the get-go. Only three PBKS batters could get to double digits and none of them could even go past the 30-run mark.

RCB bowlers were right on the money but there is no denying the fact that PBKS batters played reckless shots, which led to their downfall.

Shreyas Iyer said after the loss, “We got to work on our batting especially on this wicket. In all the games we have played here there has been some variable bounce. We can’t give such reasons because we are professionals at the end of the day and we have to bat according to the situation and we have to live up to it. We have lost the battle, but not the war.”

Iyer added they must go back to the drawing board and discuss what went wrong with the bat for them.

Iyer concluded, “Not a day to forget, but got to go back to the drawing board. We lost a lot of wickets (in the first innings.) There’s a lot to go back and study on. I am not doubting on my decisions to be honest. Whatever we did in terms of planning, outside of the ground whatever (planning) we did, I think it was on point. Just that we couldn’t execute it on the field. Can’t even blame the bowlers, as it was a low total to defend.”

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