IPL 2026 | Behind Arshdeep Singh’s struggles: Punjab Kings discover ‘restrictions’ in pacer’s body

DHARAMSHALA: Arshdeep Singh didn’t appear like his typical self throughout follow right here on Saturday afternoon. On the eve of an almost make-or-break match towards table-toppers Royal Challengers Bengaluru, he eschewed the customary banter with teammates for intense conversations with Punjab Kings head coach Ricky Ponting. For a person who has constructed his repute on lighting up a dressing room and a warrior-like temperament on the sphere within the hardest of conditions, India’s premier left-arm seamer has been visibly subdued within the IPL.

Arshdeep scaled the zenith of success with back-to-back triumphant World Cup campaigns within the first week of March. In two months’ time, he finds himself at all-time low within the foothills of the daunting Dhauladhar vary right here. Arshdeep’s unusually off-season is a significant motive why Punjab Kings have inexplicably plunged from the height they attained midway by means of the event.

Be it the controversies erupting from his social media presence or bowling on flattest of pitches, one has been wandering what should be ailing Arshdeep. Effectively, the Punjab Kings administration understandably additionally went trying to find solutions. And it has emerged that he was not at his optimum greatest bodily through the event.

“We’ve been working collectively somewhat bit and taking a look at his physique if there’s any restrictions in his physique that is likely to be a motive for a few of his performances being up and down. We expect we’ve hit on a little bit of a winner there. He’s been feeling loads higher within the final couple of weeks, bodily,” Andrew Leipus, Punjab Kings’ head of sports activities science, responded to a question from TOI right here.

Leipus’ revelation sort of solutions why Arshdeep’s deliveries appeared to lack in zip. He has struggled to nail the yorkers or the bouncers in crunch conditions like he used to over the past couple of years. At the same time as he was quietly grappling together with his bodily points, the off-field controversies appear to be weighing him down.

Leipus didn’t dismiss the chatter going round but in addition insisted that Arshdeep is holding his personal effectively within the dressing room. “I do know there’s been a little bit of chatter behind the scenes of varied issues happening — vlogging and what not. When it comes to his behaviour and angle, Arsh is just about a flat line. He isn’t up or down. He offers his greatest on the market. He’s a really loud individual within the dressing room. That hasn’t modified. He’s very calm,” Leipus claimed.

“Among the finest issues the ICC ever did was take telephones away. If you’re in that workforce setting, it is not a difficulty. It’s exterior that when it turns into a difficulty. I’ve heard rumours. I feel doubtlessly it’s one thing that must be addressed,” he added.

If in any respect the solutions of getting distracted off the sphere are true, Arshdeep doesn’t should look past the opposition dugout on Sunday afternoon to remotivate himself. There are two 37-year-olds in Virat Kohli and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, with a bagful of laurels towards their names over careers which have run into the second decade, nonetheless reinventing their sport and evolving with the madding tempo of latest cricket.

Leipus asserted that captain Shreyas Iyer and Arshdeep have proven exemplary calmness as leaders of this unit throughout this tough part. It’s for them to show it round on the sphere on Sunday.

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