IPL 2026 – PBKS vs DC – Abhinav Mukund puts forward Yuzvendra Chahal gamble that PBKS might have missed

For only the fourth time in 185 matches, Yuzvendra Chahal did not bowl a single ball in an IPL game. In fact, all 39 overs in the clash between Delhi Capitals and Punjab Kings were bowled by fast bowlers, which is quite rare.

PBKS came away with a surprise loss, having had DC at 33 for 3 inside the powerplay chasing 211, and so there were a few ifs and buts to think about. Among those was the fact Shreyas Iyer had the highest wicket-taker in IPL history and did not go to him at all. This was primarily because there was a lot of help for the seam bowlers in Dharamsala on Monday. But a secondary reason, former India opener Abhinav Mukund suggested, could have been because David Miller and Axar Patel were batting through the middle overs of the chase.

“You’ve got to bowl him in [overs] 7 to 15,” Abhinav said on ESPNcricinfo’s Time Out Show. “And in conditions like this, when you’ve got Miller and Axar going, it’s very difficult for a captain to hand him the ball. If he had to do that, he had to do it in the seventh over when Axar and [Tristan] Stubbs were there. But then again, I would’ve personally got out at least an over of Chahal to just see what was happening. To just see because when you had the scoreboard pressure and you had the luxury of giving away even 18 or 20 [runs], if need be, at that point, but try and take the gamble to pick up a wicket. So I would’ve done that between overs 7 to 10 and if it didn’t work, you had Stoinis as insurance.”

PBKS preferred to go with allrounder Marcus Stoinis and uncapped seamer playing his first game of the season, Yash Thakur, to bowl the 18th and the 19th overs when the opposition needed 38 runs to win. DC smashed both of them.

“It’s an interesting call,” Abhinav said, “because [PBKS] don’t use him in the powerplay. Rajasthan [Royals], we’ve seen Yuzi bowl in the death but now the league’s become very difficult for a spinner to bowl in the death unless you’re Krunal Pandya [who uses pace-on bouncers and low-arm slingers].”

Miller played a key role in DC’s victory, scoring his first half-century of this IPL after sitting out a few games. Former Mumbai Indians and New Zealand fast bowler Mitchell McClenaghan suggested Chahal could have been used to target him early on. “Quite early in his innings often he would be a little circumspect against spin. Particularly doesn’t pick wristspin exceptionally well, early in his innings. So there was an opportunity to, even if he bowled one over when David Miller comes to the crease, and see if he can turn one back [to hit the stumps] because he usually plays for the googly early.”

Shreyas touched on the subject in the post-match presentation. “There was absolutely a thought [of bowling Chahal] but the way the ball was seaming and helping seamers, I think if we could have executed our lines and lengths precisely, we could have extracted wickets. But unfortunately we didn’t.”

PBKS, having gone seven games unbeaten from the start of IPL 2026, have now lost four on the bounce. They do still remain in playoff contention with three games to play and two of them are against MI and Lucknow Super Giants who are rooted to the bottom of the table.

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