Former Indian cricket team batter Aakash Chopra was not pleased with how Punjab Kings approached the chase and even criticised how the team used their in-form batter Shashank Singh during their loss against Mumbai Indians in IPL 2024. Chasing 193, PBKS lost four wickets quite early and it was an explosive knock from Ashutosh Sharma that took them close before falling short by nine runs. Shashank Singh has been the most successful batter for the franchise in this year's IPL and Chopra believes that not playing him in the top order and just treating him as a finisher can be a big issue for the team.
"When your team is 14/4, it seems like the match can't be won because you are too far behind, and your four main players', whom you consider your main players, innings' have ended. Shashank comes in such a situation and Jitesh (Sharma) was there with him."
"I would want to say one thing about Shashank. The way he is batting, how did you decide that he is your finisher only, that even though he is batting well, you won't send him up the order? What is the point? Someone who is batting well and has the temperament is not a finisher only. He plays red-ball cricket and is an experienced player," he said on his YouTube channel.
Stand-in skipper San Curran praised Shashank and Ashutosh for their performances and pointed out that it can be sometimes disheartening to lose such close matches in the IPL.
"Another close one, I think this team likes a close one, but unfortunately another loss. Another incredible knock from the young guy (on Ashutosh), but another close loss. It's very tough, you want to lose close games rather than getting absolutely thumped, but we've lost a lot of wickets at the start, the way the younger guys have taken the team so close is heartening (on Shashank Singh and Ashutosh Sharma)."
"They have incredible confidence, you see a guy like Ashutosh having the confidence to play the sweeps and the big hits against pacers, it's so great to watch them in action. It's disheartening to lose close games, but there are a lot of positives in this team. We still have the belief in us, we believe we can turn this around, the sun will come up tomorrow and we will hopefully get on a winning run," Curran said.