Shreyas Iyer picked the perfect evening to score his maiden Indian Premier League (IPL) ton as he powered Punjab Kings to a comfortable seven-wicket win over the Lucknow Super Giants.

“He’s a tremendous leader of many. He reads the game well,” said PBKS assistant coach Brad Haddin after the game.

“There are two main things that I think I enjoy most about him. One is his care for his players, and the other is his appetite for the big moment. He’s seen that tonight. He wanted to be the one to make the difference, and that’s what you want from your leaders, whether it’s for the IPL or for your country,” added the 48-year-old.

Haddin emphasised that the team’s overall execution in high-pressure situations has been a major focus behind the scenes.

“I think as any coaching staff, you have to identify moments where you need to get better, and that’s what we’ve done. A lot of the games we lost went to the last over and a couple to the last ball where we were close, but we probably weren’t identifying those big moments,” he said.

While one captain delivered when it mattered, his counterpart, Rishabh Pant, had little to show for his efforts — either on Saturday (May 23, 2026) or across a grueling season.

LSG’s Global Director of Cricket, Tom Moody, felt his captaincy and batting are correlated. “From a captaincy point of view, he’s found it challenging, obviously, and the results reflect that. And you have to wonder whether that is a pressure that is reflected with his performance with the bat,” he said.

“And certainly when it comes to the leadership of the franchise, it’s something that we’ll be giving some very serious consideration to what it looks like in the future,” he added.

Rajasthan Royals assistant coach Trevor Penney on Saturday (May 23, 2026) dismissed concerns over Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s fielding abilities, insisting that the teenage batting sensation has been used as an Impact Substitute purely to keep him fresh for batting duties.

The 15-year-old, who recently earned a call-up to the India A squad for the tour of Sri Lanka, has largely featured as a batting-only option in the ongoing Indian Premier League season. That usage pattern had prompted questions around his fielding standards and athleticism.

Penney, however, made it clear that Sooryavanshi’s exclusion from the field had nothing to do with his abilities.

“He is a very good fielder. He has got great hands. He moves well. He dives. He anticipates. He has got all that,” Penney said on the eve of Rajasthan’s crucial league fixture.

According to the former India fielding coach, the Royals management has merely tried to optimise the teenager’s workload through the tournament.

“Sometimes with him opening the batting, him going in in the second innings being fresh, it’s worked for us,” Penney explained. “There is no specific reason why he is a bad fielder or we are not playing him in the field. It’s nothing to do with that.”

Penney added that match situations and combinations had occasionally forced the team to prefer more experienced fielders on the park.

“But generally it’s been to keep him fresh for his batting,” he said.

The Royals think-tank also appeared impressed by Sooryavanshi’s maturity despite his age, particularly highlighting his game awareness during a recent chase.

“You saw in the last game he had 10 off 11 balls and he was so determined to win that game. That’s why he didn’t go in and just try and hit from ball one,” Penney said. “He has really got a good brain for a young guy as well.”

Assistant coach Parthiv Patel said Gujarat Titans would look to maximise the impact of its pace attack against Rajasthan Royals by striking early in Saturday’s (May 9, 2026) Indian Premier League (IPL) clash at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium.

“If we get wickets at the start, then we have quite an upper hand in the game. Our plans are quite set, and we are quite comfortable with the way we are playing right now. With the kind of bowling attack we have, we would want to restrict them to the minimum score possible,” he said on Friday.

Parthiv reserved special praise for the new-ball pair of Mohammed Siraj and Kagiso Rabada, highlighting the pressure they have created in recent matches.

“Both are highly performing players at the international level. You know the pedigree both of them bring, especially with the new ball. Rabada bowling 150 kph consistently and the way Siraj has been putting pressure — it’s great to see.”

He also hailed the influence of Jason Holder, calling him “that proper all-rounder” capable of anchoring an innings or finishing aggressively, while also bringing tactical awareness with the ball.

Parthiv also praised Rajasthan youngsters Ashok Sharma and Manav Suthar, calling the former “a very good prospect” with “a very bright future for India” while highlighting the latter’s maturity and consistency in domestic cricket.