‘Find a way to get out of the rut’: Brad Haddin implores Punjab Kings to get their act together after 5th loss in a row

Punjab Kings will now have to win their remaining two games to feel good about their play-off chances.

Updated on: May 15, 2026, 12:37:18 IST

Written by Prateek Srivastava

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Punjab Kings assistant coach Brad Haddin is not giving out excuses after his team's fifth successive defeat in the 2026 Indian Premier League on Thursday night at Dharamsala, against Mumbai Indians, a team already out of play-offs contention.

PBKS were a few runs short after being put into bat. They could only score 200. A Shardul Thakur spell broke their back in the middle overs after which they barely recovered. The fifth defeat in 12 games meant PBKS need to win their remaining two games to feel good about their play-off chances.

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Anyway, Haddin, two-time World Cup winner with Australia, didn't beat around the bush and said in plain terms that his team had not been able to handle pressure in their last few matches.

“I think the whole tournament is pressure. And this stage where we're at, this is what IPL cricket's about. You've got to be able to handle the big moments. You've got to be able to handle pressure,” the Aussie said after the match in the much cooler climes.

"It's important to respond well. There's good signs out of tonight's match. The result's hurting in the change room. We've got to take what we did well out of tonight. And take that over into our preparation. And have a look at what things we can improve on. We've got to find a way to get out of the rut we're in at the moment."

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PBKS now host one of the league's favourites Royal Challengers Bengaluru on Sunday. Haddin has urged his bunch to up the ante before it's too late.

"You want to be playing at this end of the tournament. You want to be playing your best cricket now and we have to find a way. We have to find a way now to play our best cricket in the next couple of games to hopefully get the opportunity to play in the finals, but what we've got to do is find a way to play our best cricket in a couple of days' time," he said.

After a five-day rest, PBKS will play their last game against Lucknow Super Kings on May 23 at the Ekana Stadium. It will be advisable for them not to leave it too late. LSG, also out of the play-offs, and other lesser teams can spoil the party for bigger teams at this stage of the league. The defeat against RCB might prove to be the end of the road for them. They have to be mindful of that.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Prateek Srivastava
Prateek Srivastava is a senior sports journalist having been in the profession for two decades now. He started his print career with the India Today Group and later also worked for the Asian Age. In 2009, sensing the wind of change, he switched to the digital media and joined Mobile ESPN. There, he covered the 2011 Cricket World Cup and 2010 Hockey World Cup as a venue reporter. He did plenty of voice-over work too, over there. After leaving Mobile ESPN, Prateek went on to work for Cricketnext, Gocricket and Cricbuzz. At Gocricket (Times Internet Limited), he covered the 2014 T20 World from Bangladesh. There he also received a team leadership award, given at the end of the month. Prateek has also covered the 2016 T20 World Cup in India, this time working for Sportz Interactive. He also worked for Chinese giants Alibaba over two years and led their ""Short News"" content team at UC Browser. While cricket is Prateek’s expertise, he has also done a lot of golf. In fact, he has covered India’s first two European Tour events back in the late noughties. He has also done extensive writing on football having been associated with the Indian Super League for three seasons. Finally, Prateek is a literature aficionado and swears by Philip Roth and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and when he doesn’t joke, he is usually quiet and at work.Read More

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