Punjab Kings are one of the few teams who are yet to win an IPL title. They came very close in IPL 2025 but eventually became the runners up as they suffered a defeat in the final against Royal Challengers Bengaluru. They had gone into the IPL mini auction with some work to do regarding their balance of the squad. PBKS had released Glenn Maxwell and even let go of Josh Inglis. Punjab Kings have done a good job at the auction in trying to rebuild their squad having retained most of their core. So leading into the IPL 2026 they are a better balanced line up than they were in IPL 2025 as they have fixed the slight little gaps.
Going into the auction Punjab Kings had one of the lowest purse so they did not have many auctions but they have gone smart in picking up players without the big tag but those that can just do the job and fix the slight issues in a team. Cooper Connolly the Australian all-rounder has been a revelation in the BBL and they picked him up in the IPL auction.
Cooper Connolly can replace the Josh Inglis void at Number 3 while also bowling a few overs of left-arm spin while Prabhsimran Singh will take the keeping duties. Punjab Kings also have picked up Ben Dwarshius who will likely be the like-to-like replacement for Marco Jansen if he is injured. The other two players picked up by PBKS were leg-spinner Pravin Dube and Vishal Nishad. They have strengthened their spin department
PBKS coach Ricky Ponting has already worked with Pravin Dube when he was part of the Delhi Capitals squad and so he was naturally impressed with his all-round ability. Vishal Nishad has been playing in the domestic leagues and was scouted. Overall Punjab have a very balanced squad for this season and they might also play with just three overseas players in a few matches as they have picked up a very solid roster of Indian players.
PBKS squad: Prabhsimran Singh, Priyansh Arya, Shreyas Iyer, Shashank Singh, Nehal Wadhera, Marcus Stoinis, Azmatullah Omarzai, Marco Jansen, Harpreet Brar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Musheer Khan, Pyala Avinash, Harnoor Pannu, Suryansh Shedge, Mitchell Owen, Xavier Bartlett, Lockie Ferguson, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Yash Thakur, Vishnu Vinod.
