So Close, So Far: Punjab Kings vs Gujarat Titans and the Weight of Unfinished Business
PBKS lost the 2025 final by six runs. GT haven't forgotten what it feels like to lift the trophy. Match 4 at Mullanpur is where both stories collide.
The Season Starts Here — For Both of Them
Three matches into IPL 2026, and neither of these teams has bowled a ball yet. That's the peculiar cruelty of scheduling — you sit in hotel rooms watching other franchises find their rhythm while your own dressing room simmers in anticipation. Punjab Kings and Gujarat Titans have been waiting since March 28, watching RCB defend their title opener, watching Mumbai and Kolkata renew old hostilities, watching Jadeja walk out in Rajasthan pink. Now it's their turn.
And what a turn it is. Match 4 at Mullanpur. PBKS's first home game of the season. The franchise that came within six runs of their maiden title in 2025, now standing in a brand-new season with the same question they've carried for 17 years: is this finally the year?
Gujarat Titans don't carry that kind of baggage. They won the title in their debut season in 2022, made the final the year after, and carry themselves with the quiet confidence of a franchise that has already proven it can win. Coach Ashish Nehra has been vocal in the pre-season — "We are not here to participate, we are here to compete and win" — and the squad he's assembled suggests those aren't empty words.
Mullanpur Under Lights — The Pitch and the Puzzle
The Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium is one of the newer jewels in the IPL calendar, and it plays like a ground that wants entertainment. The pitch offers genuine pace and carry — the ball comes onto the bat with a conviction that flatters good technique and punishes hesitant footwork. Boundaries are relatively short, which means anything in the slot disappears.
First-innings scores here have typically hovered around 170–185 in T20s, though the ground has seen its share of 200-plus totals when batting conditions align. The evening dew at Mullanpur is a genuine factor — spinners lose grip, the ball skids on, and chasing becomes noticeably easier once the surface gets wet. The toss won't decide the match, but it will certainly influence the first team meeting.
For pace bowlers, the powerplay is where the magic happens. There's enough in the surface early to reward good lengths and movement off the seam. By the middle overs, the pitch flattens out, and this becomes a contest between wrist spinners and batters who can manufacture angles. The death overs? With short boundaries and dew assistance, defending becomes an act of controlled desperation.
There is a particular kind of hunger that comes from losing a final. Not a group-stage exit, not an eliminator heartbreak — a final. Shreyas Iyer walked off the field after IPL 2025's title match knowing his team had been the better side for five months and had nothing to show for it. That feeling doesn't go away over the off-season. It ferments.
Iyer's captaincy will be under the microscope from ball one. He led KKR to the title in 2024, then moved to Punjab and immediately took them to the final. The man has a knack for turning good squads into teams that believe — and that's not a small thing when you're a franchise with zero titles in 17 seasons. How he manages the powerplay field placements, when he brings on Chahal, whether he trusts his young Indian quicks in the death — these decisions will define the evening.
With the bat, Iyer remains one of the most watchable middle-order players in T20 cricket. His ability to accelerate through the middle overs — the phase where most innings stall — could be the difference between a competitive total and a match-winning one.
At 26, Shubman Gill captains with the composed authority of someone who has already seen every version of an IPL season — the highs of 2022, the crushing near-miss of 2023, the rebuilding of 2024 and 2025. He doesn't panic. He doesn't chase the game. He lets the game come to him, and then he punishes it.
Gill's partnership with Sai Sudharsan at the top could be the most important batting relationship in the entire tournament. Two elegant stroke-makers, both capable of anchoring and accelerating, both with a point to prove after GT's inconsistent last two campaigns. If they get through the powerplay together, the platform they set tends to be the kind that wins matches.
As captain, Gill's biggest challenge will be managing his embarrassment of riches. Four overseas slots, and GT could credibly fill six. Rashid Khan, Jos Buttler, Kagiso Rabada — those three pick themselves. The fourth spot is where the selection headaches begin, and that's before we even discuss the Indian pace options with Siraj and Prasidh Krishna competing for attention.
Some players are match-winners. Rashid Khan is a match-controller. The distinction matters. A match-winner needs the right conditions, the right moment, the right opposition. Rashid doesn't need any of that — he simply walks in during overs 13 to 16 and dares the batting side to take him on. Most don't. Those who do usually regret it.
On a Mullanpur surface that flattens out in the middle overs, Rashid's role becomes absolutely pivotal. He is the dam between a manageable run rate and chaos. His economy rate in IPL T20s is the stuff of legend, and his googlies on a pitch with even the slightest turn will trouble a PBKS middle order that doesn't have a natural player of quality spin after Iyer. Expect Nehra to use him tactically — possibly even in the powerplay if the matchup demands it.
And then there's his batting. Don't forget the batting. Rashid at number 7 or 8, with license to swing, is a scenario that gives bowling coaches nightmares.
The Numbers That Tell the Story
| Total IPL Meetings | 6 |
| Punjab Kings Wins | 3 |
| Gujarat Titans Wins | 3 |
| Last Meeting (IPL 2025) | PBKS posted 243 — GT fell 11 runs short in a thriller |
| PBKS at Mullanpur (T20s) | Batting-friendly — avg first-innings score ~175 |
Dead level. Three wins each in six meetings. The last encounter produced 243 runs in a single innings and still went to the wire. This rivalry doesn't believe in quiet evenings.
The XI Puzzle — Who Might Walk Out
Team selection is the great guessing game of the IPL's opening week, and both sides have genuine dilemmas to resolve.
Punjab Kings will likely build around their settled Indian core — Shreyas Iyer, Priyansh Arya, Shashank Singh, Musheer Khan providing the batting backbone, with Arshdeep Singh and Yuzvendra Chahal anchoring the bowling. The overseas combination is where it gets interesting. Marcus Stoinis and Marco Jansen are near-certainties — Stoinis for his middle-order muscle and Jansen for his left-arm pace and lower-order hitting. The remaining two overseas slots could go to Xavier Bartlett for additional pace firepower or Azmatullah Omarzai for his all-round utility. With Lockie Ferguson unavailable due to paternity leave, PBKS may lean towards Mitchell Owen for his explosive batting at the top. These are decisions Ponting and Iyer will be making right until the toss.
Gujarat Titans have a slightly clearer path but no fewer headaches. Gill, Sudharsan, Tewatia, Washington Sundar, and Siraj form the Indian spine. Jos Buttler, Rashid Khan, and Kagiso Rabada are likely the first three overseas names on the sheet. The fourth slot is the conversation — Glenn Phillips offers explosive middle-order batting and handy off-spin, while Jason Holder provides death-bowling insurance and tail-end runs. Nehra might also consider Luke Wood for left-arm variety if the conditions suggest it. It wouldn't be a surprise to see Phillips get the nod for a batting-friendly surface, but Holder's experience could tip the scales the other way.
You cannot write about Punjab Kings in 2026 without writing about what happened in May 2025. The IPL final. PBKS, the perennial underachievers, had done everything right for five months. Nine wins in the league stage. A dominant qualifier. And then, in the final, they fell short by six runs.
Six runs. Not sixty. Not a collapse. Not an embarrassment. Six runs — the cruellest possible margin, because it says you were good enough to be there but not quite good enough to finish. That loss will be in the Mullanpur air on March 31. It's in the way the crowd will cheer a little louder, hold their breath a little longer, invest a little more in every boundary and every wicket. Punjab Kings don't just want to win this match. They want to prove that last season's final was the beginning of something, not the peak.
Two Squads, One Question: Who Handles Pressure Better?
Strip it all back and this match comes down to temperament. PBKS have the emotional weight of a home opener, a point to prove, and a crowd that hasn't stopped thinking about last May. GT have the calm detachment of a franchise that has won this tournament before and knows exactly what it takes.
On paper, Gujarat Titans have the more balanced squad — their pace attack of Rabada and Siraj is arguably the most threatening new-ball combination in the tournament, and Rashid Khan in the middle overs gives them a control mechanism that PBKS lack. Punjab's bowling, without Ferguson, relies heavily on Arshdeep and Jansen to do the heavy lifting with the new ball and at the death.
But home advantage is real. The Mullanpur crowd will be electric. Shreyas Iyer thrives on occasions like this. And if Priyansh Arya gets going in the powerplay — as he so spectacularly did throughout IPL 2025 — the best bowling attack in the world looks ordinary.
This one feels too close to call with any confidence, which is exactly how the best IPL matches should feel. Both sides have the quality to win. The margin will be in the details — a dropped catch, a toss decision, a single over where someone loses their nerve. Expect it to go deep. Expect it to be brilliant.
Narratives are wonderful. Numbers are better.
Our Match Analyzer has the full win probability model for PBKS vs GT — factoring in squad composition, venue history, powerplay matchups, and dew projections. The data behind the drama, because every good story deserves a second opinion from an algorithm.