Former Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has made a bold claim in favor of Punjab Kings after watching their form in this season of the competition. He claimed that Kings would have won IPL 2025 instead of RCB had Priyansh Arya not been out early with a brilliant catch by Phil Salt.
Royal Challengers Bangalore won their first IPL title in 2025 by defeating Punjab Kings, who reached the final for the second time in the history of the competition. The Shreyas Iyer-led side fell just 6 runs short of their maiden IPL win.
Punjab Kings have started from where they left off last season. After playing at various venues in India, the Shreyas Iyer-led side has once again dominated with the bat and are undefeated after the first seven matches in the current season of the competition.
Ravichandran Ashwin backs PBKS openers for dominance in IPL
Former Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has chosen cricket analytics as a major career as he has turned his YouTube channel, ‘Aish Ki Baat’ into a brilliant platform which he has used to highlight the raw facts about the game and the players associated with it.
On most occasions, he has pointed out talents that have been overlooked by the team management or other analysts and have not been given due credit. Two such players are Prabhsimran Singh and Priyansh Arya, who are the two opening batsmen of PBKS.
Ravichandran Ashwin said that although Vaibhav Suryavanshi and Ayush Mhatre have been talked about to a great extent, Shreyas Iyer too, because he is an international cricketer in terms of runs; Priyansh and Prabhasimran also deserve similar appreciation, but have not been discussed recently.
“If he had not been out, RCB would have lost the IPL 2025 final” – Ravichandran Ashwin’s bold claim
Ravichandran Ashwin continued to praise Priyansh Arya, claiming that he is a very special cricketer and he has proved it time and again while playing some of the most important roles for the Kings. Arya’s top-order starts often help Punjab chase big targets with ease.
Talking about the final against RCB in the last season of IPL, Ashwin claimed that if it was not for the brilliant catch by Phil Salt that dismissed Priyansh Arya, RCB would not have won their maiden title.
Ravichandran Ashwin said, “If he (Phil Salt) had not taken that catch to dismiss Priyansh Arya, RCB would not have won the IPL last season.”
Arya, who had just started scoring and was batting on 24 off just 18 balls, was out to Josh Hazlewood, putting RCB in the game immediately.
Priyansh Arya and Prabhsimran Singh dominate IPL 2026
Whenever Punjab Kings need their two opening batsmen, they come forward for the Kings. Not only in yesterday’s game, where the openers scored 116 runs in the first six overs while chasing a mammoth target of 265, which ultimately helped PBKS win the match, but they have done the same on many previous occasions.
While individually these two batsmen have scored many runs themselves, their partnership in the powerplay has created a huge amount of consistency and the energy needed to take an innings ultimately to a huge total.
Arya and Singh have been unbeaten this season, and the bowlers have had no answers to dismiss them early so far in this edition of the competition, making Punjab Kings an undefeated team at the top of that points table.
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