Punjab Kings (PBKS) may have won the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction battle but are losing the social media games. Just two days before the event in Jeddah, a former player of theirs, Krishnappa Gowtham, stated that he wouldn’t want to join PBKS once again. Gowtham went as far as saying he wouldn’t give his 100% to the franchise if they bought him at the IPL 2025 mega auction.
Punjab Kings under fire
This scathing criticism regarding the franchise made headlines. Many, including Glenn Maxwell, who was PBKS’ captain in the past, have spoken against the culture of the team. Gowtham had claimed that they didn’t treat him well and that it wasn’t even related to cricket, i.e., his or the team’s performance.
Former Royal Challengers Bengaluru Director of Cricket Mike Hesson agrees with Gowtham. The Kiwi, who’s remembered for his stint with RCB, had worked as PBKS’ head coach in 2019. While the two didn’t work together as Gowtham joined the franchise later, Hesson agreed with whatever the off-spinner said.
Hesson had left PBKS after just one season, and it’s clear that the reason behind it wasn’t related to cricket. Much like what Gowtham had stated. Hesson seemingly liked an Instagram reel shared by cricket.com, where Gowtham was claiming that PBKS would be the franchise he wouldn’t like to play for again.
Punjab Kings squad for IPL 2025
Shashank Singh, Prabhsimran Singh, Arshdeep Singh, Shreyas Iyer, Yuzvendra Chahal, Marcus Stoinis, Glenn Maxwell, Nehal Wadhera, Harpreet Brar, Vishnu Vinod, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Yash Thakur, Marco Jansen, Josh Inglis, Lockie Ferguson, Azmatullah Omarzai, Harnoor Pannu, Kuldeep Sen, Priyansh Arya, Aaron Hardie, Musheer Khan, Suryansh Shedge, Xavier Bartlett, Pyla Avinash, Praveen Dubey
