"Sit on the bench or either give away the captaincy" - Fans slam Shikhar Dhawan after PBKS' 2-run loss to SRH in IPL 2024

The Shikhar Dhawan-led Punjab Kings (PBKS) suffered their third loss of the ongoing IPL 2024, a two-run defeat to SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) in Mullanpur on Tuesday, April 9.

Chasing a 183-run target, PBKS finished at 180/6 in 20 overs. Shashank Singh and Ashutosh Sharma remained unbeaten on 46 and 33, respectively. However, their heroics went in vain despite accumulating 26 runs in the final over.

Dhawan failed to fire in the run chase, scoring 14 runs off 16 deliveries before being stumped by Heinrich Klaasen off Bhuvneshwar Kumar's bowling. The southpaw's captaincy also came under the scanner following the loss, with several fans slamming him on social media for his decision-making.

Here are some of the top reactions:

A fan pointed out how Dhawan erred tactically by not bringing in his strike bowler, Arshdeep Singh, to counter Nitish Reddy's onslaught. Some PBKS supporters also suggested that it was time to drop the seasoned campaigner from the team.

"The difference today was in captaincy. Shikhar Dhawan didn’t bowl the in-form Arshdeep when Niteesh was going berserk. He saved Arshdeep for the death overs. While Cummins came in to bowl in the 13th over and gave away only 7 when RRR was 12.5." a fan opined

"Definitely a bold call but Shikhar Dhawan should now as a legend sit on the bench or either give away the captaincy and Bairstow now should sit on bench and chance should be given to russow." wrote a fan.

"Dear Shikhar Dhawan it's quite evident that you aren't having a very good IPL this time. You also look tired, just take rest and hand over the captaincy to jitesh. That man should bat in higher order. Shashank is looking like a million dollars this season." said another

Certain fans suggested that PBKS suffered a lot because of Dhawan's captaincy blunders and that he should hand over the reins to Jitesh Sharma.

"I've been a Shikhar Dhawan fan in the past, but he should just hand over captaincy to Jitesh Sharma now. Mullanpur stadium DJ playing such lively numbers for walking wickets like Dhawan and Bairstow is unfair on him." commented a fan

"One thing is sure, Shikhar Dhawan ko captaincy nhi aati. Kya kar rha hai yeh yaar. Gya Aaj ka match." one fan posted

"Kings XI Punjab lost the match due to last 3 overs and Poor Captaincy from Shikhar Dhawan, you let the new comers toy with other bowlers when your main bowlers could have finished the job." another fan chimed in

It is worth mentioning that this wasn't the first time that Shikhar Dhawan received flak for his leadership in IPL 2024. Many PBKS supporters had also expressed their displeasure over the 38-year-old's tactics in the team's previous matches as well.

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"Batting let us down" - Shikhar Dhawan on PBKS' narrow loss to SRH

At the post-match presentation, Shikhar Dhawan spoke about how Harshal Patel dropping a catch on the last ball of the SRH innings proved costly, as it went for a six.

While he lauded Shashank Singh and Ashutosh Sharma for their effort, he suggested that Punjab's batting unit should have done a better job.

"I feel that Shashank and Ashutosh played a great knock, we restricted them to a good total, but we couldn't cash in on the first 6 overs, lost 3 wickets and that's where we fell behind and it cost us in the end. When the wicket wasn't offering a lot of bounce, every individual will have to look back and change their approach. We dropped a catch off the last ball, we could have kept them down by 10-15 runs, but batting let us down," Dhawan said.

"It's great to see youngsters chipping in with such consistency. There was always hope that they could finish the game, but we got so close and that'll give us confidence going into the future games, but we'll have to do better going ahead," he concluded

Punjab will now take on Rajasthan Royals (RR) at Mullanpur on Saturday, April 13.