Former South African skipper Shaun Pollock slammed Punjab Kings’ fast bowler Lockie Ferguson for his mundane performance against Rajasthan Royals at New Chandigarh on Tuesday in the ongoing IPL 2026. PBKS suffered a six-wicket loss, their first of the season.

The fast bowler from New Zealand, Ferguson, conceded 57 runs in his quota of four overs and went wicketless. The right-arm pacer was taken for 17 runs in his first over and from there on, he could not hit the right areas.

Shaun Pollock said on Cricbuzz, “They were initially put under pressure by Suryavanshi. They had some game plans for him as he is the one who gets the opposition team meetings abuzz, where you discuss him longer than the other ones. They looked like they were trying things but going away from their strengths. They use Lockie as someone to banana the ball away from Suryavanshi. But he looked short of a gallop, and even his run-up was shorter.”

Pollock questioned Shreyas Iyer’s captaincy for not trying Marcus Stoinis when Ferguson and Arshdeep Singh were expensive.

“Why would you not try Stoinis for one over? When Lockie and Arshdeep disappear, you have to try something else. It seems strange when you have back-to-back outings of going for 260 and 220 that you stick to your status quo and only use the main bowlers without going out of the box in your thinking.”

Pollock said PBKS should not let their foot off the pedal after suffering their first loss of the season against RR.

“Had they won this, they would have almost certainly locked up a top two spot. But now it’s not so sure. And they’ll know that unless they produce, they are not going to be in the top two. Now it’s not such a sure thing. You think you’ve got it covered, and you lose one or two, it sends jitters,” said Pollock (via the aforementioned source).

Punjab Kings will next take on Gujarat Titans at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on Sunday.