Punjab Kings is the most under-performing franchise in the Indian Premier League. They made their debut with the league in 2008. Since then, it’s been all flat for them in this league. PBKS has played well in patches, but overall, in any season, they have struggled more often. The only time that they qualified for the finals was in 2014, when they lost to KKR.
PBKS has played in playoffs other that 2014 in 2008 only. But apart from that, they haven’t qualified for the playoff stage for 13 seasons out of 15, which tells the whole story. Despite such poor performances, Punjab holds some interesting records in the Indian Premier League. This article will cover those records.
1. Highest an Indian batter in IPL
PBKS holds the record for the highest individual score by an Indian batter. It is registered under the name of former PBKS skipper KL Rahul, who smashed an unbeaten 132 runs against Royal Challengers Bangalore in the 2020 season. Batting first, PBKS made 206/3 in the first inning. Rahul scored 132* off 69 balls, with 14 fours and seven sixes. RCB got dismissed for 109 runs and lost the game by 97 runs.
2. Highest Individual score in IPL Playoff
PBKS also holds the record for the highest individual score by a batter in an IPL playoff. It was scored by Virender Sehwag in the Qualifier 2 against Chennai Super Kings at the Wankhede Stadium in 2014 season. Batting first, PBKS made a massive score of 226/6 in their first inning. Sehwag smashed a 50-ball century and made 122 off 58 balls, with 12 fours and 8 sixes, which is still the highest score in an IPL playoff. In reply. CSK made 202/7 and lost the game by 24 runs.
3. Batter with fastest 1000 IPL runs
Scoring quick runs is the demand of T20 cricket. But the batters who score it quick and consistently are among the top. In the history of the Indian Premier League, the batter who scored the fastest 1,000 IPL runs was from the Punjab team. It was veteran opener Shaun Marsh who scored 1000 IPL runs in just 21 innings, which is the fastest. Overall, Marsh played 71 games and scored 2477 runs at 39.95.
4. Only Player with two hat-tricks in one season
Former Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings) skipper Yuvraj Singh is the only player in the history of IPL to record two hat-tricks in a single season. It came in the 2009 season, when he was leading Punjab. His first hat-trick came against RCB when he dismissed Robin Uthappa, Debabrata Das and David Hussey. Then, he repeated the same feat against Delhi Capitals, dismissing Herschelle Gibbs, Andrew Symonds and Venugopal Rao.
5. Most expensive IPL player
Spending big money in the IPL auction is one of the traits of the Mohali-based franchise. They haven’t had a good performance overall, but their record in the IPL auction is total dominance. If they pick a player, they will go all out for him. That’s what happened in the IPL 2023 auction, when the franchise spent a record-breaking INR 18.5 crore on English all-rounder Sam Curran, making him the costliest player in the league’s history.