Sunil Gavaskar slams Shreyas Iyer for his shot selection in PBKS vs RCB IPL 2025 Qualifier 1 match

Legendary Sunil Gavaskar criticized Punjab Kings captain Shreyas lyer for his shot selection in the first qualifier against Royal Challengers Bengaluru at New Chandigarh in the ongoing IPL 2025 on Thursday. lyer attempted an aggressive shot despite PBKS losing both their openers – Prabhsimran Singh and Priyansh Arya – getting dismissed cheaply.

The PBKS skipper attempted a big hoic against Josh Hazlewood but could only manage an outside edge. The right-hander was dismissed after scoring only two runs as his team were left reeling at 30-3.

“This is not a good shot. This is a nothing shot. One can understand if you are trying to play it over long off, but this is just a wild swing. Two wickets down, just the fourth over going,” Gavaskar said on commentary for the official broadcasters.

Meanwhile, this was the fourth time when Hazlewood dismissed Iyer in the Indian Premier League. The Australian had also dismissed Iyer in a rain-affected game earlier in the season. On that occasion too, Jitesh Sharma had taken Iyer’s catch behind the stumps.

Punjab Kings were dismissed for a paltry score of 101 runs as they kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Only three PBKS batters were able to get to double digits as they had a horrible outing with the bat. 

On the other hand, Josh Hazlewood and Suyash Sharma bagged three wickets apiece for RCB. Furthermore, Yash Dayal scalped two wickets whereas Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Romario Shepherd took one wicket each.

At the time of writing, RCB needed only 18 runs to win the first qualifier and book their place in the final with eight wickets in hand.